Four out of six Grand Prix won: Oscar Piatri gives a few fans in the Formula 1 paddock on Friday when they wish him luck for the Grand Prize of the Emilia Romagna on Sunday in Imola (3 p.m., Sky/RTL). One extends the hand with spread fingers: number five? The Australian came to Italy as the leading driver classification, at the start of the racing tours in Europe. And continues on Friday: First in the first training session, first in the second training session, fastest in simulation of the Grand Prix. A mood killer. At least for the neighborhood in the paddock. “McLaren is absolutely superior”, “sobering”, says Red Bull, Helmut Marko, the TV broadcaster Sky and lists: “McLaren is 0.4 seconds faster (on a round/editor). That is a lot on this route.” Because she only measures 4.9 kilometers. And because Red Bull came with a few improvements from his racing car. The first result: “We didn’t get any closer,” says Marko, “It stays that way. McLaren is absolutely superior.” The Austrian promptly dares a forecast before the seventh of 24 races: “It will be very difficult with the World Cup, more and more unrealistic.” This applies to both competitions, including the driver title. Marko speaks for the scene. Pierre Gasly, as third, only needed 0.276 seconds longer than Piatri in Imola. But when it comes to qualifying on Saturday (4 p.m., Sky/RTL), the Alpine pilot is not considered a dangerous opponent of McLarens. Rather George Russell in Mercedes (4th), Max Verstappen (5th), Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc (6th). All three with 0.4 to 0.475 seconds behind a tour clearly too slow. Simply too fast: the McLaren also seems difficult to beat in Italy. AP forecasts after training on Fridays should be enjoyed with caution, because this time again remained open how much petrol the pilots carried and which team off. Nobody reveals the cards. The trend now speaks for McLaren as a master for the shortest sprint in Formula 1. Especially since Mercedes like Red Bull arrived with a few improvements. “We tried a lot,” said Verstappen, “but we are not fast enough.” Whatever pilots and engineers overnight for improving the street: the path to pole position only leads past McLaren. Piatri and his teammate Lando Norris, which on Friday, are very second to displace on Friday would be worth gold. Because the route of the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari hardly allows overtaking maneuvers. Correspondingly grumpy, record world champion Lewis Hamilton looked out of the racing overall: eleventh, 0.650 seconds slower than the fastest. A world. And that in Italy, for his first appearance as a Ferrari pilot in the home of Scuderia.lewis Hamilton, struggles for his trust in the car density behind the McLaren promises a close race for the best places in the starting line-up, because the distance from the first to the last (Esteban Ocon/Haas) was only 1,127 seconds. Jumps are possible for nerve -wracking types as the Englishman. But small mistakes lead to the sidelines. Hamilton fights for his trust in the racing cars. And against the impression that the defeat series in the duel with the teammate Leclerc indicates the transience of a record driver. In this danger, Nico Hülkenberg does not. In the clean, the only German in the field on Friday experimented halfway unimpressed by the result: penultimate. There is something else. Probably also with Verstappen. He made it three times this season in the inferior company car on the pole position. The Dutch recently put more on the dreaded and loved north loop of the Nürburgring on the subject of its special tax skills. In the Ferrari 296 GT3 he achieved a record tour – in the third round under the pseudonym “Franz Hermann”. The industry excitedly took it as an opportunity to see a sign in the coup: at Mercedes, for such a curve artist soon to create space in the Formula 1 team.
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