2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - Imola, Apr 16 - 18

[Zynerji]

Perez is on soft vs Hamilton on medium. I don't see there being any kind of direct undercut potential there since Perez will have to pit earlier and likely come out into traffic, whereas Hamilton can go longer in cleaner air. If anything Max holds the most undercut potential.

Unless there are safety cars or other irregularities I can't see Perez winning tomorrow. As you said, he's on the softs which don't last that long.

If he wants to one stop, he has to baby them, and then switch to hards and baby them as well.

If he two stops, he'll have a lot of overtaking to do on a track that doesn't make it easy.

Sainz did 20 on softs... if taken care of, a soft/ medium, one stopper is possible on this tarmac. He just can't be more than 1s/lap slower at the end to hold off Hamilton/ Verstappen.

[PlatinumZealot]

It is dominant. Max and Perez both made mistakes that would have put both on Pole. Also both had very limited practice. I still expdct redbull to be much faster in the race.

No, you're making my point for me!

If the car was as dominant as so many here claimed just a few weeks ago, they would have beaten Lewis regardless of the mistakes.

Helmet himself said Max's mistake cost him 0.2. so he would have been on pole by a little over a tenth without the mistake. That is hardly the sign of a dominant car.

He made a huge mistake in sector 3 as well, messing up on the exit of the final corner which cost him another .2 he should have had .4 on Hamilton with no mistakes. Still, he has to deliver when it counts or potential is meaningless. We'll see what happens in the race, I have a feeling it'll be hard for Hamilton to keep his position. If Perez undercuts him, he'll come out behind him when he pits, if he covers off Perez he loses track position to Verstappen. Also RBR has an excellent pit crew, Mercedes may lose some time on the pit stop. So Hamilton will have to be mm perfect as well as the team, all race long if he's going to hang on to the lead.

The replay of the fastest laps show that's were Lewis clawed by his time to win!

[PlatinumZealot]

If not the pace difference on new tires will let him pass. From there unless Hamilton pits he will get undercut by Perez. Or Perez can pressure Hamilton while Verstappen hangs back and saves his tires.

Did you watch the race last year? It only had a handful overtakes even with the safety car that put people on tires of different compounds and ages. Unless you are a good second a lap faster than the person in front, you aren't getting past even with drs.

DRS zones lengthened for this year so hope that helps with overtaking.

[koenigzig]

Outside of Checo, its clear the new drivers are not at 100%. Nowhere close IMO.

Might be another 2-3 races before they’re dialed in. Really crazy how different these cars must be from one another.

Puts into perspective Hulk's performances last season

[dans79]

DRS zones lengthened for this year so hope that helps with overtaking.

I'd be surprised if that even makes up for the downforce lost to the floor changes.

[e30ernest]

Amazing qualifying! A real surprise that Perez outqualified Max this early in the season. I agree with one of the posters here that Checo will only get better as he gets more comfortable with the car.

Norris was another stand-out. Shame he went out of bounds and had to lose that lap but what a qualifying effort. Danny would definitely be worried about that. Also, kudos to Ocon for outqualifying Alonso. I never expected that to happen.

Lastly, amazing lap by Lewis there. Also, he looks very stoic after qualifying. Normally he's pretty pumped with adrenaline after a qualifying lap, but this time he looks very calm, and very confident. I feel like he is really in the zone at the moment.

Whatever happened to Bottas.... There'd better be something wrong with that Merc, since that qualifying performance was just way off.

The Lewis/Bono post/q radio messages speak of anything BUT confidence...

Exactly. Mercedes did not expect to be on pole, or even on the front row, judging by the radio chatter between Lewis and Bono. Neither Red Bull had a perfect lap, but that's down to the drivers, not the car. Lewis had as good a lap as he would have hoped for and seemed genuinely surprised to take pole. His demeanour afterwards appeared to be one of "what the heck just happened there?".

Sorry I wasn't clear, I did not mean Mercedes was confident, neither was Lewis confident over their car (or any pace advantage). I meant he looked supremely confident in himself, and his own driving. To me at least, his demeanor was that of someone who knew what he just accomplished (finishing first on a slower car).

[JordanMugen]

Some of the Red Bull fans here are trying so hard to make it look like Red Bull still had massive advantage when its completely obvious that they didn't (at least against Hamilton).

I concur! It kind of makes it look like they don't have faith in Max's ability!

Isn't the whole point that it is unusual for Perez to be faster than Verstappen, so RBR fans assume there was probably a faster laptime available in the RBR if Verstappen had hooked it up?

[e30ernest]

Some of the Red Bull fans here are trying so hard to make it look like Red Bull still had massive advantage when its completely obvious that they didn't (at least against Hamilton).

I concur! It kind of makes it look like they don't have faith in Max's ability!

Isn't the whole point that it is unusual for Perez to be faster than Verstappen, so RBR fans assume there was probably a faster laptime available in the RBR if Verstappen had hooked it up?

I think there was a faster lap time for the top 3 had all of them hooked their final laps in.

[zibby43]

I concur! It kind of makes it look like they don't have faith in Max's ability!

Isn't the whole point that it is unusual for Perez to be faster than Verstappen, so RBR fans assume there was probably a faster laptime available in the RBR if Verstappen had hooked it up?

I think there was a faster lap time for the top 3 had all of them hooked their final laps in.

Bingo.

Ideal combined sectors for each driver, via The Race:

1. Verstappen 1m14.312s
2. Hamilton 1m14.328s
3. Perez 1m14.357s

Also sounds like Merc is still not fully deploying the battery, as reported by Russell. They need to get that sorted. It’s free pace.

On a side note, it was Perez’ second qualifying session. If people think that’s the last time he’s going to out-qualify Max, they’d be mistaken.

The young drivers are no longer in that second seat.

[godlameroso]

Won't be the last but it's not going to be a regular occurrence.

[PlatinumZealot]

Well it's one out two so far. Max can have all the speed in the world but he needs to perform under pressure not just against other teams but also his teammate if he is to win this thing.

Perez knows this chance is not going to come again so he rightly will be going all out to sneak this one past Max.

I was a bit intrigued of Perez' demeanour after qualifying. beating Max so not worth any celebration for him. Good. He has more in the tank.

[dans79]

On a side note, it was Perez’ second qualifying session. If people think that’s the last time he’s going to out-qualify Max, they’d be mistaken.

It will be interesting to see how he handles a teammate that's a decent qualifier. The last time he had that he was more prone to frustration and error.

[dans79]

Won't be the last but it's not going to be a regular occurrence.

You hope, because you have no way of really knowing!

[langedweil]

if the season goes like this, max would very well settle down and stop saying, "anybody on the grid can win in those merc cars". because right now, despite having faster car, he isn't doing the job. he would now understand the pressure of expectations that can bog a driver down. being in a situation of fighting for title can induce a lot of mistakes. like marko said, what lewis has over max, is loads of experience and consistency of getting the job done at the front. not many on the grid can claim to have that. hope max can show he is a great talent and can get the job done.

Dude, slow down with the beef and keep things straight ..
The Merc that was referred to was the one that would easily be 1s ahead over 1 lap; guess GR's drive only proved that point (too lame they took his win though).

[ringo]

If anything, I think today shows that the Red Bull isn't the dominant car some people were claiming it was at the beginning of the season.

It is dominant. Max and Perez both made mistakes that would have put both on Pole. Also both had very limited practice. I still expdct redbull to be much faster in the race.

No, you're making my point for me!

If the car was as dominant as so many here claimed just a few weeks ago, they would have beaten Lewis regardless of the mistakes.

Helmet himself said Max's mistake cost him 0.2. so he would have been on pole by a little over a tenth without the mistake. That is hardly the sign of a dominant car.

depends on the spread of the field in terms of track time and track layout. Some tracks and conditions a tenth is considerable. Also judgeing where Bottas is, Hamilton is putting the car where its extremely dificult to be placed.