FP2 LIVE | Mercedes' impressive pace, Russell leads

Liveblog FP2 Emilia Romagna GP

During the first day of racing, it already became apparent that it will once again be between Red Bull Racing and Ferrari in Italy. Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen remained close during qualifying, while Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez disappointed.

In qualifying, no less than five red flags were seen due to heavy rain, causing the sessions to be stopped frequently. In the end, it was Verstappen who managed to emerge from the battle as the fastest, securing pole position. Leclerc followed close behind, while Lando Norris was in third position.

To be fully prepared for the sprint race, the teams will first have an hour long second free practice session on Saturday afternoon. They will need this after the heavy rain and damage that several racing teams sustained after Friday. A few hours later, they should be ready for the sprint race.

Sprint race in Italy this weekend

This weekend will be the first GP weekend with a sprint race of 2022. This means that one free practice session will take place on the Friday and qualifying will be held the same afternoon. On Saturday there will be a second practice session, after which the first sprint race of the season is on the program. The race is held on Sunday.

Last season the format was already experimented with. The sprint races were not so popular that this season will be extended. This year there will only be three weekends with a sprint race. However, some changes have been made to the 'sprint weekend'. The pole position of the driver who wins the sprint race on Saturday will not be placed behind the driver who wins the sprint race. Also, considerably more points can be scored. The top eight score points; the winner takes eight, the number two takes seven, etc.

Verstappen in balance

Verstappen will have to fight hard this weekend for a victory, though he is on pole position for the sprint race. The Dutchman knows that the Ferrari car is very fast and that Charles Leclerc is a strong rival. Despite his big gap to Leclerc, nothing is lost yet and if there is any bad luck on the side of the Monegasque it can turn around completely.

What needs to be looked at this session is whether Verstappen has the balance in his RB18. Indeed, the Dutchman complains every race this year about the balance being hard to find. Especially during qualifying, Verstappen has trouble driving fast laps because of this imbalance.