Qualification

The Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at the Imola circuit has been included in the Formula 1 calendar thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Enzo and Dino Ferrari Circuit may be considered one of the most beloved among pilots, but it has not hosted the royal races for a long time, since 2006.

There are enough decent tracks in Italy, and this season, three of them were lucky to host the Grand Prix.

True, the Formula 1 leadership failed to perfect the calendar and take into account all the nuances.

The teams had less than a week to come to Imola after the Portuguese Grand Prix and reassemble the cars.

Because of this, it was decided in advance that there would be no free races on Friday, and it would be possible to work with the settings only for an hour and a half before Saturday's qualification.

In fact, the teams have already tried this format of competition recently in Germany, when the first two training sessions were canceled due to rain.

The track, familiar to all active pilots, except for Kimi Raikkonen, only in theory, turned out to be difficult for many.

During free races, few people escaped cutting off the turns, for which the lap time was canceled, and some even flew to the sidelines.

Mercedes pilots felt the best in such conditions - Lewis Hamilton headed the training protocol, Valtteri Bottas showed the third time.

At the same time, Red Bull clients completely outplayed the owners of the track from Ferrari.

Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly completed the first four, ahead of Charles Leclair, and Daniil Kvyat finished eighth, beating Alexander Albon.

Sebastian Vettel showed only 12th time.

Before qualifying, the conditions for passing the route were relaxed, but this did not help everyone.

In the first session, the best attempts of Albon and Bottas had to be canceled.

Due to heavy traffic on a narrow track, this could turn into dire consequences, but in the end, both pilots calmly continued to fight.

The second session almost turned into a disaster for Red Bull - Verstappen had problems with the power plant, and Albona deployed.

But the Dutchman's problems were quickly eliminated, and the Thai pilot got so turned on that he showed the fourth time and knocked out Racing Point driver Sergio Perez from the top ten.

The fight was finished ahead of schedule by his team-mate Lance Stroll and Vettel.

Daniil Kvyat took one of the places vacated by the favorites - for the first time this season he made his way to the qualifying final.

As a result, the Russian pilot in his AlphaTauri was faster than two McLaren and took eighth place.

His team-mate Pierre Gasly showed the fourth time, located immediately behind Verstappen.

The first row of the starting grid was usually occupied by the Mercedes pilots, only this time Bottas became the best, who won the 15th pole position in his career.

Race

Since it is almost impossible to overtake on the narrow track in Imola, much on it can depend on a successful start.

On Sunday, Verstappen was the lucky one with this.

He immediately overtook Hamilton to break into second place.

Gasli and Albon also lost their positions, and the latter, together with Leclair, almost even bypassed Kvyat.

The worst was for Kevin Magnussen of Haas, who, due to a collision with Vettel, ended up at the end of the peloton.

When the situation in the leadership group stabilized, Gasly suddenly left it.

The pilot, for whom the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix was developing very promising, was called to the pits due to serious engine problems.

He did not go on the track again.

Soon other pilots also visited the mechanics, wanting to change tires and improve their position with tactics.

Only Kvyat made a serious attempt to overtake in the first third of the race, but his attack by Albona ended only with a light touch of the Thai's wing.

LAP 9/63



🎧 "Pierre, we have to box, we have to box - we have a terminal situation on the car"



After such a promising weekend, horrible luck for Gasly and his race is over on Lap 9 🙁 # ImolaGP 🇮🇹 # F1pic.twitter.com / canq6zTfiD

- Formula 1 (@ F1) November 1, 2020

From the top three, Bottas and Verstappen went to pit stops, while Hamilton was in no hurry to change tires.

On rough tires, he rapidly closed the gap between the two leaders and showed the best laps in the race.

But once it was necessary to change tires, and fate presented the leader of the championship with a gift.

Esteban Ocon of Renault stopped the car on the side of the road due to clutch problems, the virtual safety car mode was announced, and Hamilton immediately turned into the pits, returning to the track as the leader, and with a margin of four seconds from Bottas.

The Finnish pilot was driving slower than he should have, and the mechanics informed him that the bottom was damaged on the second lap.

Although he continued to lose more and more to Hamilton with each lap, he managed to restrain Verstappen's attacks.

This continued until the Mercedes driver made a mistake, which the Red Bull driver immediately took advantage of.

All this time, Kvyat continued to actively fight with Albon.

After Raikkonen's late pit stop, the former teammates were still unable to share the seventh place.

At the moment when the Russian reduced the gap to a second, Verstappen suddenly had a breakdown.

The Dutchman had to get out of the race and let Daniel Riccardo drive a Renault to the intermediate podium, and a safety car drove onto the track.

LAP 51/63 - SAFETY CAR



Max Verstappen is OUT of the race from P2 - tire trouble brings his race to a dramatic end!

😬 # ImolaGP 🇮🇹 # F1pic.twitter.com / an7USVqyyi

- Formula 1 (@ F1) November 1, 2020

Although in this mode the likelihood of accidents should have been minimized, George Russell of Williams managed to crash his car, and Lance Stroll hit a mechanic in the pit stop.

The safety car ended up staying on the track for a long time and only left it six laps before the finish line.

After the restart, Kvyat and Leclair immediately passed Peres, and Albon made a gross mistake that led to a U-turn.

But the fifth place did not satisfy the Russian, and soon in a sharp struggle he bypassed the Ferrari car.

The pilot AlphaTauri even managed to catch up with Riccardo, the gap between them at some moments was less than a second.

But the lack of distance and too narrow a track did not allow in the end to make the last step on the podium.

LAP 59/63



Disaster for Alex Albon after the restart - he collides with Carlos Sainz and drops back to P15 💥 # ImolaGP 🇮🇹 # F1pic.twitter.com / sAiFjVy8z1

- Formula 1 (@ F1) November 1, 2020

Kvyat finished in fourth place, which was his best result in the current season.

Riccardo retained his place on the podium, and Hamilton, without experiencing resistance from Bottas, won the 93rd career victory.

The Mercedes drivers earned the Constructors' Cup ahead of schedule, winning the trophy for the seventh time in a row.