2021 F1 Round 2, Emilia Romagna Grand Prix FP3: Verstappen fastest, alone in the 1m14s

Saturday’s third practice session for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, round two of the 2021 F1 season, took place at Imola in the early evening of 17 April (China Standard Time, UTC+8). Red Bull’s Max Verstappen set the fastest time by a commanding margin ahead of qualifying.

After losing FP2 to a driveshaft problem yesterday, Verstappen had his first timed lap of this session deleted for exceeding track limits. His second attempt also had to be abandoned after the floor took a heavy hit on the sausage kerb at Turn 13. He eventually set the session’s fastest times in sectors two and three on his second set of soft tyres, becoming the only driver in the 20-car field to lap in the 1m14s (1m14.958s).

McLaren’s Lando Norris was second, 0.456 seconds behind; Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) was third, 0.557 seconds back. Valtteri Bottas, who had topped both sessions on the opening day, finished eighth.

Saturday, the second day of the Grand Prix weekend, was again sunny at Imola. This dress rehearsal for qualifying began in dry conditions, with an air temperature of 11°C and a track temperature of 20°C.

Race director Michael Masi revised the track-limits rules following discussions at Friday’s drivers’ briefing: Turn 13 would no longer be monitored, while drivers were explicitly allowed to use the yellow kerbs at Turns 14 and 15.

Sergio Perez, driving the same RB16B as Verstappen, steadily built his pace throughout the weekend and posted a promising fourth-fastest time, 0.593 seconds behind his team-mate. How close he could get to his team-mate in qualifying was attracting plenty of attention.

Charles Leclerc was back in action following repairs after his late FP2 crash, taking fifth place around 0.15 seconds ahead of his friend Pierre Gasly at AlphaTauri. Carlos Sainz, at the wheel of Ferrari’s SF21, was right on Gasly’s heels in seventh, just 0.018 seconds behind.

AlphaTauri took advantage of the allowance in the rules following Gasly’s retirement at the previous round to fit his car with a new gearbox. Haas’s Nikita Mazepin also had his gearbox replaced before FP3.

Gasly’s rookie team-mate Yuki Tsunoda had a troublesome session: the experienced Perez, running slowly ahead of him, failed to check his mirrors, prompting a furious protest over the radio. “It’s like a traffic-jam paradise!” Tsunoda also complained, venting his frustration at the congestion on track. He ultimately failed to put a complete lap together and ended the session 11th, but a top-10 time would have been well within reach had he strung together his best sectors.

Imola is a typical old-school circuit: its narrow track makes traffic management particularly difficult, and putting together a perfect lap harder still.

In addition, the stewards announced after the session a €300 fine (around 40,000 yen) for Tsunoda’s team after he exceeded the pit-lane speed limit by 2.4 km/h. It was the first infringement on his F1 record.

Alpine’s aerodynamic upgrades had made the team more competitive. Fernando Alonso, returning to Imola after 15 years, was ninth and Esteban Ocon tenth, showing promising pace for a push into Q3.

Another team to have changed its name this season, Aston Martin—the one threatening legal action to demand further changes to the aerodynamic rules—produced lacklustre results, with Lance Stroll 12th and Sebastian Vettel 14th.

A red flag appeared again before the session reached the 30-minute mark: Williams FW43B driver Nicholas Latifi, who had claimed “Q3 isn’t out of reach”, lost control at the Villeneuve hairpin, ran through the gravel and hit the tyre barrier with the front-left of his car. Fortunately, he was able to drive back to the pits under his own power and returned to the track in the closing stages, ending the session 17th, 0.1 seconds behind 15th-placed George Russell.

Qualifying took place at the same circuit on the evening of 17 April (China Standard Time, UTC+8).