Why sainzs qualifying crash had ramifications that stretched across the whole weekend

A Red Bull one-two and an accident-punctuated race for Ferrari left the Imola tifosi disappointed. Max Verstappen controlled the race beautifully from pole, benefitting from Sergio Perez unchangingly stuff there as a windbreak from wade by Charles Leclerc, the only Ferrari in the race once Carlos Sainz had been punted into the gravel on the opening lap by Daniel Ricciardo.

But the complexion of this race was largely specified by flipside Sainz incident – his wrecking in Q2 on Friday. Without this and the red flag it caused, the whole complexion of the weekend would have looked quite different. It was an incident which had a whole flurry of consequences.

The wrecking itself – initiated by a spin on the entry of Rivazza 2 on a track dry unbearable that everyone was on slicks – puzzled Sainz. “The target was to put a wholesaler lap in, knowing that the rain was going to come…. I wasn’t pushing that nonflexible at all. I didn’t believe I was exposing myself to any risk. The car surprised me in that corner and I missed it.”

It is now believed that rainwater had placid on the exit kerb of Rivazza 1. His outer rear wheel went over that kerb and was therefore still wet as he turned into Rivazza 2, immediately spinning him off and into the barriers.

2022 Emilia Romagna GP Qualifying: Carlos Sainz crashes out in Q2

Ironically the red flag he caused and the subsequent rain ensured he graduated to Q3 but could take no part in it – thereby putting him 10th on the grid for Saturday’s Sprint. From there he made a good recovery to fourth, his starting position for the Grand Prix. Starting three places superiority of him in the Sprint, Perez moreover delivered a recovery momentum – to third.

Verstappen put destiny in his own hands by winning the Sprint and therefore starting first for the Grand Prix. The goody of P1 was enhanced hugely on Sunday considering of heavy rain a few hours before, followed by an F2 race. It meant that the left-hand side of the grid, on the racing line, was massively increasingly grippy than the right.

Everyone on the Verstappen side of the grid made up places, everyone on the Leclerc side slid backwards. As Verstappen took off into the lead and Perez hands out-accelerated Leclerc, it put Red Bull very much in writ immediately – and thus was the race defined. Leclerc could find no way past Perez despite harrying him for lap without lap as Verstappen escaped up the road.

Had Sainz not crashed in qualifying and been worldly-wise to finish the Sprint superiority of Perez (who only qualified seventh) rather than behind, those dynamics off the grid of the Grand Prix would likely have been very different, with Sainz on the grippier side and Perez on the wetter side. It would likely have prevented Perez from getting in place to form a windbreak to Verstappen – and for the Ferraris to be running second and third.

\"1393393457\" — Perez slotting into second gave Verstappen zoetic room at the front

Sainz wouldn’t have been in place to have been taken out by Ricciardo and the Ferrari prospects would have been much improved. Verstappen may well still have won regardless, but it would have been a much less straightforward race for him – and a much largest one for Ferrari.

The other significant magnitude of the Sainz red flag in Q2 was the impact it had on George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, ensuring there was no Mercedes in Q3 for the first time since Suzuka 2012. Unlike every other car, the Mercedes needed two laps to get its tyres up to temperature.

Russell and Hamilton had completed their first flying laps – with Russell 0.3s superiority of Hamilton on what were intended to be just tyre prep laps – when the red flags came out, so denying them what would have been their ‘proper’ wade laps. As the rain then arrived and the session timed out, they had no endangerment of improving. Otherwise, both Mercs had the pace to have comfortably made Q3.

From those compromised grid slots, Russell and Hamilton could finish only 11th and 14th respectively in the Sprint, defining their starting positions for the Grand Prix. This of undertow put Russell on the grippy side of the grid and Hamilton on the slippery side – and this was reflected in their respective starts, with Russell vaulting straight up to seventh, Hamilton mired several places remoter when and overdue many slower cars.

\"1393394990\" — Hamilton spent much of his afternoon stuck in a train of cars

Russell remoter benefitted from Valtteri Bottas stuff elapsed by the Sainz/Ricciardo incident and so was running sixth within a few corners – the foundation of his unconfined momentum to fourth.

Hamilton by unrelatedness was stuck in a train of slower cars, all worldly-wise to tow each other along. He spent his first stint unable to find a way by the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda and the second stuck overdue the sister car of Pierre Gasly. When DRS was enabled without 34 laps, it just made the endangerment of passing plane lower as Gasly was unchangingly worldly-wise to goody from the DRS tow of Alex Albon in the quick-on-the-straight Williams. That was the essential difference between Russell’s fourth place and Hamilton’s 13th.

All of these consequences from a little bit of rainwater on a kerb on Friday afternoon…

HIGHLIGHTS: Relive the whoopee from the race in Imola, as Verstappen dominates to lead Red Bull 1-2