Piastri pips Verstappen, takes pole at Imola

Championship leader Oscar Piastri calmly delivered a near-flawless lap under acute pressure on Saturday to claim pole position for McLaren ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

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The 24-year-old Australian clocked a best lap in one minute and 14.670 seconds shrugging aside a cluster of slower drivers at the final corner, to beat the four-time world champion by 0.34 seconds.

In a delayed and incident-hit qualifying session of two red-flag interruptions, it was his third pole position this year and his career.

Team-mate Lando Norris, who is 16 points behind him in the drivers’ title race, was fourth behind Mercedes’ George Russell, ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin in fifth place.

Carlos Sainz of Williams was sixth ahead of team-mate Alex Albon, Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin, Racing Bulls’ rookie Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly of Alpine.

The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton failed to make the cut to Q3 and qualified 11th and 12th ahead of local hero Kimi Antonelli in the second Mercedes.