After an exciting qualifying in Imola, all is yet to be decided at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen will start from pole position but will be battling it out alone against McLaren and Ferrari in what promises to be a thrilling race.
With only a few hours left until the green light for the Emilia Romagna GP race, we at PlanetF1 would like to make a top 10 prediction based on what we have seen on track so far this weekend and the data analyzed in this article. Ta.
Please note that when making these assumptions, external factors such as the possibility of rain during the race or the appearance of the safety car are not taken into account.
Readers are encouraged to leave their predictions and possible race scenarios in the comments section.
10. Daniel Ricardo
Will Sunday be the day Daniel Ricciardo scores his first points of the season? With RB getting both cars into Q3 and the Australian beating Sergio Perez’s Red Bull by 15,000ths of a second, we think it’s time for Daniel to come into his own.
Attacking from the back with Nico Hulkenberg’s top speed and Lewis Hamilton and his teammates attacking from the front will not be an easy task. However, if we can run a clean and solid race, we should be able to fight for points.
9. Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton was very passive this weekend. He finished with a lead of nearly three tenths over his teammate on Saturday, and struggled with the W15 during practice sessions. It’s a trend that will be repeated this season.
The upgraded Mercedes looks well placed to perform well in the midfield or higher, but Lewis has yet to find the harmony with the car to do so.
Therefore, it is expected to be a difficult race as he will continue to battle away from his teammates who are in an advantageous position.
8. Yuki Tsunoda
The Japanese driver should be able to finish a very productive weekend ahead of Mercedes. No one doubts that Hamilton must have the better pace, but while the seven-time world champion lacks it, RB has surprised him all weekend, so he is better than Hamilton in the race. Isn’t it okay to finish in front?
A double points finish for the Faenza team is a great present for team officials who are enjoying their home GP. It’s a good pace to dream that this is possible.
7. Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez had some cars in front of him that were difficult to overtake and he lacked confidence in his RB20 this weekend.
His place in the final race will depend on how much he can risk and whether Red Bull really has much better race pace compared to Haas, RB and Mercedes. Masu. Otherwise, the best he can hope for after a poor qualifying is 7th or 8th.
He will no doubt start with a different strategy to the drivers ahead of him in order to make the most of his chances to get a better result than this time.
6. George Russell
George Russell is happy with the W15 update. For Hamilton, the opposite is true. The long-run pace shown in FP2 was very encouraging and now it’s time for the Silver Arrows to pick up some good points to pull away from Aston Martin in the Constructors’ Championship.
The Briton should be able to keep the rest of the running backs at bay and, even if Perez is unable to catch up, he should keep his cool and finish behind the current grid leader to secure sixth place.
5. Carlos Sainz
The Spaniard has been following his teammate and McLaren all weekend. Furthermore, he could have finished further back in qualifying.
Still, in Sunday’s race he will have to pay more attention to Oscar Piastri’s attack at the start than to battling Charles Leclerc. Because it would be a huge mistake for Ferrari to lose time to him in one of the Italian team’s home races.
4. Oscar Piastri
A penalty for Kevin Magnussen’s interference dropped Oscar Piastri to fifth place at the start of the race. After a great qualifying session and with just a thousandth of a second left from pole position, the Australian must fight for a podium spot.
One of Oscar’s strongest performers, there’s good reason to believe he’ll finish in the top three this weekend, but he’ll be tough to overtake at Imola, and given that McLaren and Ferrari are on par in terms of pace… It’s hard to imagine that he could overtake not just one, but two great drivers.
3. Charles Leclerc
The Ferrari driver has been one step ahead of his teammate all weekend and is very familiar with the SF24 EVO. The Italians have prepared their cars with a race-focused setup to aim for a podium, but beyond that, no one knows.
In this respect, Monaco has better control of his tires than Piastri, who has to pick up positions to reach the podium. Leclerc is therefore already in a very good position to secure at least a top-three finish.
2. Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen showed in Saturday’s qualifying that he shouldn’t be left for dead. Even though Max didn’t have the fastest car he was used to, he worked his magic and used his slipstream to take pole position.
But we don’t think he can stop McLaren in the race. Despite being a difficult circuit to overtake and find gaps, McLaren’s pace is more than just a threat and could turn into a real force on Sunday.
1. Lando Norris
Yes, I predict Lando Norris to be the winner. It’s always a bold bet to bet on Verstappen and Red Bull, but there’s every reason to believe McLaren can beat the world champion and outrun him on track this weekend.
The Woking-based team’s race pace in FP2 was very promising on both hard and medium tyres, with them just a tenth of a second off Ferrari’s pace over six laps longer. It was the fastest car all weekend.
It’s true that the Dutchman always has the extra power, but the data supports that Norris should take his second successive F1 win on Sunday.
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