Leclerc led Imola, home of the first qualifying sprint of the year

The Monegasque charles leclerc (Ferrari), and in Australia achievements, two weeks ago, his second victory in the first three races of the season, came Leader of the Formula One World Championship in Europe; Where in Imola (Italy) the Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna: the first exam this year which decides the qualification through a sprint race. A model that was released last year and this time shares a bigger booty.

Leclerc won the melbourne -where, after the round, his Spanish teammate withdrew in the third lap Carlos Sainz– leading Mexican Sergio Perez (Red Bull) and English George Russell (Mercedes). Monegasque won a race he abandoned -for the second time so far in the competition- the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), last world champion; and now leads the World Cup with 71 points, over 34 Russell and with 38 of his colleagues from Madrid, whose renewal in ‘rank‘can be announced at any time. So whatever happens to Imolathe principal pilot of Blue Coast will come into the next race as leader, on the second Sunday of May, in the rookie Miami (USA).

The qualifying format via a sprint race began last season, which Verstappen won Silverstone (England), seat of British Grand Prix; at finn Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), which is still in Mercedes, the other two: in Monza (Italy) at interlagos (Brazil) -where he ended up being disqualified, so the ‘pole’ entered Sao Paulo It will be covered by ‘Mad Max’.

Sprint race on Saturday

This course will again have three sprint tests (each, approximately one-third of the distance from the main one), which will command grids of three. Great prizes; next to this weekend, there is also red bull ring from Spielbergheadquarters of Austrian Grand Prix; and again on Jose Carlos Pace Autodrome in Sao Paulosa Brazil.

But in addition to designing the starting grid for the main races, the new thing this season is, instead of giving extra points to the first three (which last year were three, two and one, respectively), the first eight are the recipient. added points: the winner will add eight points; the second, seven; the third, six; and so on until the eighth, to sign up one.

With the Grand Prix taking place in this format, starting this weekend, the first free practice will be held on Friday, but the afternoon session will be a ‘pre-qualification’. In the style of standard qualifications. In three qualifying rounds (Q1, Q2 and Q3), which will configure the starting line of the sprint test, which will take place on Saturday, hours after the second free practice. And that will design, in turn, the grid for Sunday’s race.

And even the historic Ferrari fiefdom is Monzacommon venue for the Italian Grand Prix, Leclerc and Sainz to race this weekend ‘at home’kept by thousands’tifosi‘who’s going Enzo Racetrack at dino ferrari. A mythical track, with 4,909 meters and 19 curves — nine of them on the right—, is set to give 63 laps on Sunday, to complete the 309 -kilometer route.

Starting this Friday, in the dry, tires from the intermediate range of compounds will be used: C2 (hard, identifiable by white stripes), C3 (medium, yellow stripes) and C4 (soft, red). In a historic circuit, which hosted 26 occasions -between 1981 and 2006- the San Marino Grand Prix and where he had a fatal accident, on May 1, 1994, the Brazilian Ayrton sennatriple world champion and one of the great myths of F1.

Michael Schumacher holds the record

In Imola no one has won as many times (seven) as the German Michael Schumacher. Whose record of seven world titles is the equivalent of two years ago in English Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) -fifth in the World Cup, with 28 points: two less than ‘Czech‘. Yung nag dethrono last year Verstappen: won the Saudi Arabiathe only race he finished, and he was sixth, with 25 units, in the championship.

In the Kaiser – whose reign is coming to an end – the Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Alpine) starred in spectacular battles at Imola. The double Asturian world champion got one of her 32 victories in the queen category – the 32 that Spain has in its entire history – in Imola. In 2005, the year of his first title; which will reaffirm next, again with Renault.

That course is the latter Imola hosted an F1 race until it was ‘repeated’ to configure, in 2020, the calendar of world of the covid-19 pandemic, which as the Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna.

hamilton the first winner of that Grand Prix, having scored last year Verstappen.

Sainz, to recover

Sainz, second in Bahrain and third in Arabia, will try to make up for his abandonment of Australia in Imola, where Ferrari will also enter as leader of the Constructors ’World Championship, with 104 points, 39 more than a Mercedes. less potential than the one that led it to dominate the team’s past eight championships; and has a 49 advantage over Red Bull, which should also be fixed if it doesn’t want to lose too much space.

Alonso had no luck in the first three races, especially in the last two. Where, despite the good running of his Alpine, he had to leave because of a mechanical problem, in Jeddah; and he could only be seventeenth – with an entry contrary to his interests in a safety vehicle and the excessive damage, eventually, of his tires – in Melbourne. Therefore, after ninth in Bahrain, the great Asturian driver has only two points so far and occupies the fourteenth place in the tournament.