by VALERIO BARRETTA
Imola, Verstappen’s fiefdom
There is a great feeling between Max Verstappen and the Imola circuit. In the only editions of Imola in which the Dutchman had the title car and always hit the big target. After the failure of a tire that knocked him out in 2020, 2021 (the scene of the first skirmish of the year with Lewis Hamilton) and 2022 (both in the Sprint and in the Grand Prix), the three-time world champion imposed his law on the Santerno, managing to lead 124 of the 126 laps carried out in the last two grands prix.
Furthermore, with a pole position, Verstappen would equal Alain’s record Prost, who in 1993 got seven early in the season. Super Max is at six and this would be yet another record for him: competing against him will be the McLarens (very competitive in Miami) and the Ferraris, whose updates give the home fans hope.
Verstappen’s words
The world champion framed the Imola event like this: “It’s always an iconic track to race on and we’re excited to return after last year’s cancellation. Here we achieved excellent team results and it is always interesting to race on a old school layout like this one, because it is very technical, with complex combinations of corners and braking zones. The team at Milton Keynes and the track have worked hard and I returned to the factory this week to work on the simulator. It’s great to be back racing in Europe, we can’t wait to see what the weekend has in store for us“.
Perez’s words
“It’s nice to be back in Europe and in particular in Imola, after missing this race last season“, added teammate Sergio Perez. “This track can offer difficult conditions when it comes to weather, which always makes things difficult, it can limit our track time during practice and heavily impact qualifying. We hope to have a dry weekend, the forecast at the moment looks promising for Friday and Saturday: being solid these days should put us in a great position for Sunday. This week I was at the factory to understand how to maximize the setup and improve the performance of Miami. It’s about making the right decisions over the weekend as a team and we are working together to get back on the podium in Italy. This weekend, as the starting grid, we will honor Ayrton Senna and it was important for me to participate in this event wearing the Forever Senna balaclava in his iconic yellow. He was an inspiration to all of us growing up and was the reason many of us got into a kart and ended up here today.
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