San Francisco Frontiers - Cool Piastri holds off Verstappen to seize flawless pole at Imola

The undemonstrative 24-year-old Australian, who leads his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris by 16 points in the drivers' title race after the opening six races of the season, ended four-time champion Max Verstappen's hopes of a hat-trick of poles with typical cool elan in Q3.

Piastri clocked a best lap of one minute and 14.670 seconds, despite shrugging aside a cluster of slower drivers at the final corner, to beat Verstappen by 0.34 seconds.

"I wasn't thrilled to be the first car on track," said Piastri. "You lose slipstream going first, but you don't have dirty air.

"I think that definitely helped me out a bit, but that's what we chose to do. We have enough pace to do that and stick to our guns and that's what we did – the team did a great job of executing that one."

Verstappen was satisfied despite missing out on his third consecutive pole, insisting: "It was a good day for us."

Mercedes' George Russell was third ahead of Norris and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin who took fifth after switching from soft to medium tyres.

Norris was disappointed and downcast after the session, finding it difficult to explain his loss of form and pace since opening the season with pole position and victory at the Australian Grand Prix.

"It is what it is," he said. "If I had an answer, I'd be using it. I guess I just wasn't quick enough. None of my performances in Q3 have been strong enough this year, so it's the same thing."

Piastri's calm demeanour has hidden a steely determination that has emerged this year to drive his championship bid with a run of consistent clean and measured performances.

In a delayed and incident-hit qualifying session of two red-flag interruptions, it was his third pole position this year and his career.

- Ferrari slump -

The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton failed to make the cut to Q3 and qualified 11th and 12th ahead of local hero Kimi Antonelli in the second Mercedes.

"It's a tough one," said Hamilton. "Ultimately, I feel super gutted and I'm devastated that we weren't able to get through."

"It's devastating to see everyone working so hard in the garage and to be in Italy for the first Italian race, and for me at Ferrari, and not making it – it’s definitely bitter-sweet."

The session began in spectacular fashion in glorious spring sunshine when Japan's Yuki Tsunoda walked away from an alarming high-speed crash.

The action resumed after a 12-minute interval to repair the circuit before another red flag in the final seconds of Q1 when returning rookie Franco Colapinto, replacing Jack Doohan for Alpine, crashed on the exit of Tamburello.

His car was badly damaged as he spun into the barriers nose-first, but he was unhurt and walked clear of the wreckage.

Verstappen topped the Q1 times ahead of Piastri and Alonso with Liam Lawson, of Racing Bulls, Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and the two Haas cars of Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman eliminated along with Tsunoda.

Bearman's late cancelled time was declared to be 'under review' as Q2 was delayed, a decision that suggested he might be reinstated to replace Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto.

Both sat in their cars waiting before the Brazilian drove alone to pit lane in anticipation. Two minutes later, Bearman conceded his place in Q2 and climbed out.

The first run saw McLaren back on top, two-tenths clear of Verstappen, before in a dramatic second Sainz went top and Aston Martin's duo secured top-ten spots by eliminating both Ferraris.

The final shootout began with Piastri on top before Verstappen beat him by 0.049 on the first runs with Norris in P3 ahead of Russell and the impressive rookie Hadjar – but Piastri came back to take pole on his second flying lap.

D.Parker--SFF