McLaren s Oscar Piastri takes pole position for Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

IMOLA – Formula One leader Oscar Piastri put his McLaren on pole position for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on May 17, with Red Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen joining the Australian on the front row at Imola.

George Russell qualified third for Mercedes, with McLaren’s Lando Norris fourth in a session that was twice red-flagged after Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto crashed in the first phase.

“It was a very tough session with all the delays, the red flags. And then also the tyres, they’ve been very tricky today,” said Piastri.

“The team did a great job, got the car into a nice window. We’ve been trying a few different things this weekend and we got it into a nice place for qualifying.

“The lap was good. I had about four cars in the last corner, which didn’t help, but it was enough. So, very happy with the job I’ve done and excited for tomorrow now.”

The major incident of qualifying came when Tsunoda crashed heavily and was taken to the Imola circuit medical centre for checks.

The session was halted for repairs to the tyre barriers.

The Japanese careered off the track and smashed backwards into the tyre wall at Turn 5, his car lifting into the air with the impact.

It then flipped before landing upside down on the roll hoop and righting itself again. He was able to climb out of the wreckage and appeared to be unhurt.

“Oh my god! I just saw the video. Is he OK?” exclaimed Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, who lost the Red Bull seat to Tsunoda earlier this season, over the team radio after images were shown on the big screens.

The session resumed after a 15-minute break but red flags were waved again when Colapinto, the