Key events
1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Lando Norris (McLaren)
3 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
4 Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
5 Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
6 George Russell (Mercedes)
7 Yuki Tsunoda (RB Honda)
8 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
9 Daniel Ricciardo (RB Honda)
10 Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
11 Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
12 Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
13 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
14 Alexander Albon (Williams)
15 Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
16 Valtteri Bottas (Sauber)
17 Zhou Guanyu (Sauber)
18 Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
19 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
20 Logan Sargeant (Williams)
What do you think? Can Norris do it again? Email me.
Lando Norris has a chat on his prospects for today: “We’ve continued the good run of good form, the good pace … today we need to prove we’ve still got good race pace. We had a fairly good indication of that on Friday.
“Things are looking good, we’re in a good position, I think we can bring the fight to Max.”
Will he aim to get ahead of Verstappen into turn one? “It’s my plan, but executing plans is always a tricky thing. We’ve got to make the most of the start.”
The Sky reporter spots Verstappen walking alongside them and tells the champion that Lando is planning to overtake him at the start.
“Yeah, he can do that,” Verstappen says, smiling. “It’s not going to change my life. It’s exciting.”
Back to Norris, on Verstappen: “We get on well. We’re good mates. I’m sure he hates it when I beat him. I hate it when he beats me all the time, especially so easily. I hope that’s not the case today.”
We’ve already had plenty of Ayrton Senna tributes on the Sky coverage. Sebastian Vettel pointed out that that horrible weekend, when Roland Ratzenberger died in qualifying before Senna in the race, was a catalyst for significant improvements in driver safety.
Now they are running some Lando Norris VT, including the team’s celebrations back at base. The universally popular Norris clearly relishing the celebrations with the entire McLaren team.
Hold the back page: Max Verstappen’s monotonous march to another title was interrupted in Miami a couple of weeks ago when McLaren’s Lando Norris scored his first grand prix win at the 110th attempt.
Verstappen and Red Bull then endured a challenging start to this meeting before the reigning world champion produced a stunning qualifying lap to score his eighth consecutive pole, matching the great Ayrton Senna’s record.
It is fitting that Verstappen achieved the feat at Imola, scene of Senna’s tragic death 30 years ago. “It is very special,” Verstappen said of bouncing back for pole and matching the late Brazilian’s mark. “I am very pleased to get pole and in a way it’s a nice memory to him.”
Fresh from his maiden grand prix win, Norris is second on the grid in his McLaren, with Charles Leclerc third for Ferrari. But can anyone stop Verstappen?
Lights out: 2pm UK time