Max Verstappen bounces back to top Imola final practice

Max Verstappen in actie op het circuit van Imola. — Photo: © LAT Images

Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Verstappen bounces back to top Imola final practice

Red Bull shows its pace ahead of Imola qualifying

Sam Hall

Saturday 17 April 2021 12:10 Updated: 12:22

Max Verstappen bounced back from a difficult Friday at Imola to set the fastest time in final practice for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Verstappen suffered a driveshaft failure in the second of the two Friday sessions but set a blistering pace on Saturday morning with an effort 0.456secs faster than second-placed Lando Norris.

After topping both practice sessions on Friday, Valtteri Bottas was only eighth fastest for Mercedes with team-mate Lewis Hamilton third, 0.557s behind Verstappen in a session that saw a sharp focus placed on track limits.

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Following a discussion in the drivers meeting, FIA race director Michael Masi issued a revised ruling on how track limits would be policed for the remainder of the weekend.

The changes included the removal of policing at the apex of turn 13 and an extension of the limits on the exit of turn 15 to include the red, white and green kerbing.

Limits, however, had not been extended at turn nine and it was this corner that provided a constant challenge to drivers with 22 lap times being deleted, 19 of which were for violations at this corner.

Three-quarters of the field saw at least one time deleted, including both Mercedes and Red Bull drivers, with Kimi Raikkonen and Nikita Mazepin the worst offenders with three times deleted.

Sergio Perez backed up the strong pace of Verstappen by setting the fourth-fastest time whilst the Ferrari pairing of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz performing well in fifth and seventh respectively.

Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were ninth and tenth for a recovering Alpine team with Yuki Tsunoda 11th, five places behind his AlphaTauri team-mate Pierre Gasly.

It was another difficult session for Aston Martin with Lance Stroll 12th and Sebastian Vettel only 14th.

Nicholas Latifi struggled for Williams and, despite setting the 17th fastest time, blotted his copybook by causing red flags to fly by crashing at the Villeneuve chicane halfway through the session.