Marko Hanželic
At the racetrack Autodromo Enzo and Dino Ferrari v Imoli, the third Italian station of this season, the only training session started in beautiful, sunny weather. The racetrack is located in the heart Emilia-Romagna, Imola last hosted the race in April 2006. Of the current racers, only Kimi Räikönen, which is with McLaren-Mercedes eventually won fifth place. Even more interesting is the fact that in 2003, when the Finn won second place in Imola, his youngest competitor today and successor at McLaren, Lando Norris, counted only three and a half years.
Pierre Gasly, which extended the contract with AlphaTauri, remembered his idol before training, Ayrton Senna, which in 1994 was right in Imoli fatally injured. As far as unoccupied seats for 2021 are concerned, the latest news on the driver market means that one seat is still officially unoccupied at Red Bullu, one at AlphaTauri and two at Haas. Leaders in the championship, Lewis Hamilton, will most likely stay with Mercedes, while the formality is also the signing of a contract between Lance Stroll in Racing Point.
As for the tires, it is Pirelli made available to the teams medium three mixtures. As they do not expect rain and the weather will be warmer, it will be interesting to see who can get the most out of a single workout and tire strategies submits to the race best prepared.
The first fastest time to return Imole v Formula 1 goes to Mercedes: the championship leader and probably the future champion Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in the only workout for Emilia-Pilgrimage Grand Prix with a time of 1: 14.726 minutes. Team driver Red Bull, Max Verstappen, followed him with just under three tenths of a second behind, and third was Hamilton’s team-mate Bottas.
For the fastest three, he was almost a second behind Pierre Gasly in AlphaTauri, pred Charles Leclerc in Ferrari and Renault twins - Daniel Ricciardo in Esteban Ocon.
During the training itself there were no major incidents, just a few minor trips to the sand that had no consequences for racers and racers. It is worth mentioning that the leadership of the race erased the times of many lapsbecause the drivers kept taking some bends too wide over and over again.
