The second day of the Grand Prix weekend at the
Imola circuit is about to begin and will provide more clarity on the current balance of power between Red Bull and Mercedes. We kick off with the third and final free practice session at the Italian circuit.
FP3 Liveblog
The battle for pole
From this year on, all practice sessions will last only one hour, instead of the usual 90 minutes.
Valtteri Bottas was the fastest in the two sessions on Friday, with a small lead over teammate
Lewis Hamilton after the second session.
The second practice session at Imola was less successful for
Max Verstappen. A technical issue forced the Dutchman to retire the RB16B, costing the team valuable time on track.
Saturday will clarify, during both the final free practice and qualifying sessions, which team has made the most of the last three weeks without a Grand Prix. Will Mercedes be able to make up the pace difference on Red Bull, or will the team of
Christian Horner and
Helmut Marko have another dominant weekend and take
Max Verstappen to pole position?
Midfield battle
Behind Mercedes and
Red Bull Racing, a battle for third place is developing well. The two front-runners in Bahrain were
McLaren and
Ferrari, though it's expected that AlphaTauri might be able to challenge those two teams more.
McLaren and Ferrari had many battles at Imola when this race was known as the San Marino Grand Prix. Will
Lando Norris and
Daniel Ricciardo be renewing the rivalry this season with
Charles Leclerc and
Carlos Sainz? Everything will become clearer this weekend!
So far this weekend, Ferrari seem to have the upper hand over McLaren, with AlphaTauri also in the mix.