Bottas edges teammate Hamilton for pole in F1's Imola return

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was narrowly beaten by Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas for pole position Saturday at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as Formula One returned to the Imola circuit for the first time since 2006.

Racing on the track where his childhood idol Ayrton Senna lost his life, Hamilton finished 0.097 seconds behind Bottas' time of 1 minute, 13.609 seconds.

"Valtteri did a great job and it was a pretty poor lap from myself but you can't always get it right," Hamilton said. "The track is unbelievable and it was a real challenge out there but I enjoyed it."

Max Verstappen of Red Bull qualified third, 0.567 back.

Hamilton has taken pole in nine of the 13 races this season, with Bottas grabbing the other four. Hamilton also has eight wins this season to Bottas' two.

The Enzo and Dino Ferrari track is a narrow, old-school circuit with little room for overtaking — and Hamilton already sounded like he was preparing for second place.

"I'm pretty certain you'll see a boring race tomorrow," Hamilton said. "After Turn 1 it is going to be a train as there is nowhere else to pass. Nonetheless, I'll give it everything tomorrow."

It was Bottas' 15th career pole.

"Never easy to get pole position but I really enjoyed it around this track," Bottas said. "I knew I had to improve on the last lap so I found those little gains. I had those shakes after the final run."

It was a wild session for Red Bull.

Verstappen was second to Hamilton in the abbreviated weekend's only practice session earlier Saturday but the Dutch driver reported that he had "no power" during Q2 and returned to the pits without setting a time.

Alexander Albon then spun off track in the other Red Bull.

Red Bull was able to repair what it reported as a spark plug issue for Verstappen and he returned just in time to reach Q3, as did Albon, who sixth.

"The mechanics did a very good job to fix my car," Verstappen said. "We just managed to go through."

Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri qualified fourth and Daniel Ricciardo of Renault was fifth.

Ferrari struggled again with Charles Leclerc placing seventh and Sebastian Vettel eliminated in Q2.

In a sign of F1's progress, Bottas was more than nine seconds faster than Michael Schumacher's pole time for the 2006 San Marino GP at Imola.

Due to rising coronavirus infections in Italy, no fans were allowed into the track located in the country's auto racing heartland.

Mercedes can clinch a record seventh straight constructors' title in Sunday's race unless Red Bull outscores it by 34 points — something that hasn't happened in more than four years.

Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen, the only current driver to have raced here in 2006, was dropped in Q1. qualified