He's not the only one with a problem.

Here's Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin...

"The brakes are on fire, the whole thing is on fire," he says.

We haven't even started the race and it's all happening...

A quick reminder of the chosen 20 that will be on the grid in 2021.

• Alfa Romeo: Antonio Giovinazzi (Italy) and Kimi Raikkonen (Finland)
• Alpha Tauri: Pierre Gasly (France) and Yuki Tsunoda (Japan)
• Alpine (formerly Renault): Fernando Alonso (Spain) and Esteban Ocon (France)
• Aston Martin (formerly Racing Point): Lance Stroll (Canada) and Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
• Ferrari: Charles Leclerc (Monaco) and Carlos Sainz (Spain)
• Haas: Nikita Mazepin (Russia) and Mick Schumacher (Germany)
• McLaren: Lando Norris (Great Britain) and Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)
• Mercedes: Valtteri Bottas (Finland) and Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain)
• Red Bull: Sergio Perez (Mexico) and Max Verstappen (Netherlands)
• Williams: Nicholas Latifi (Canada) and George Russell (Great Britain)

Out from last year: Alexander Albon (Red Bull), Romain Grosjean (Haas), Daniil Kvyat (Alpha Tauri), Kevin Magnussen (Haas).

Some quick repairs from Alpine.

It wasn't a heavy contact with the barrier, but Alpine will be hoping there's no damage to the front wing.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

"Massive rain, mate. We need to change to extreme," says Max Verstappen, who is on intermediates. Maybe not, though, with Rivazza and the pit area dry.

"Final sector pretty much completely dry," says Lando Norris. "Inters is OK, but the first sector is pretty sketchy".

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Saturday was not a good day for the big-name drivers who find themselves in new teams this year.

Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso were all significantly slower than their team-mates, even if Ricciardo had a let-off after Lando Norris’s track-limits error.

Interestingly, their post-session comments all had a similar theme - that they are not yet sufficiently comfortable with and confident in their new cars to push to extract the utmost.

Vettel, down in 13th with Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll 10th, said: “On a track like this in particular, you need the ultimate confidence to extract everything. I’m not yet there, but it’s only the second race, so I guess I have to be a bit more patient.”

Sainz - seven places behind team-mate Charles Leclerc, who is on the second row - said: “I am fast in each corner but just to put them together is what I am struggling with at the moment.”

And Alonso, used to blitzing pretty much every team-mate he’s had pretty much all the time, was remarkably frank about his struggles in lining up 15th with team-mate Esteban Ocon ninth.

“I was not fast,” he said. “I guess I need to get better and understand better where is the limit of the car. Maybe on difficult tracks you need more trust in the car and maybe I am not into that level yet, and I will try to improve for the next one.

“We saw when Carlos got to Renault he struggled in the beginning. We saw Daniel struggle a little (when he moved to Renault) and then perform well in the second year. I guess it will be the same for me. But this is not an excuse I can use every Saturday. I will try to analyse, and see why there is more grip than I felt in my hands and get to that limit quicker. I need to make this adaptation as short as possible.”

We don't get going until 14:00 BST and the drivers are testing out how wet the track is.

Daniel Ricciardo is on the full wets, Fernando Alonso was on the inters but then goes through the gravel. Hopefully there's no damage to his Alpine.

Matthew Murnaghan: It's raining! Let's hope we get a chaotic race like Turkey 2020!

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

It's properly wet at Imola as the cars head out for their reconnaissance laps - big puddles in various places around the track and rain still coming down.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

The quality of Lewis Hamilton’s performance on the way to the 99th pole of his career was underlined by seeing his team-mate Valtteri Bottas down in eighth, more than 0.4 seconds adrift.

The Finn blamed a lack of confidence in the rear of the car in final qualifying.

“First run, I went into Turn Two and had a really sudden snap from the rear-end, and then it really continued through Sector One, and I lost a lot of time," he said.

"Actually the same thing [happened] in run two; it was never there. I couldn’t trust the rear end of the car, and it was something that I didn’t feel in the whole qualifying before that.”

Team boss Toto Wolff said it was down to “tyre warm-up issues”. He said both drivers had them but - not for the first time - it seems Hamilton was far better at getting them into the right place.

Image source, Getty Images

It's only six months since F1 was last in Imola.

In 2020 Mercedes claimed a one-two at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with Lewis Hamilton winning and Valtteri Bottas second. It wasn't as simple as it looked on paper, however.

Like today, Hamilton started on pole but dropped down third after a poor start.

He then regained the lead from Bottas and Max Verstappen by staying out longer before his pit stop and was given a helping hand by a well-time virtual car towards the end.

Max Verstappen was in second when his race was ended by a puncture.

Full report

It's raining! This is going to cause some headaches for the strategists.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Roles are reversed at the front of the grid at Imola, with two Red Bulls going into the race against one Mercedes, where it was the other way around in Bahrain.

Three weeks ago, Mercedes used Valtteri Bottas to block Red Bull’s attempts to play strategy with Max Verstappen and run long at the first stops - and this was only possible at the second, bringing Verstappen oh-so-close to a win because Bottas had a slow stop.

This weekend, Sergio Perez starts on soft tyres and Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen on the mediums. And it is Red Bull who have the chance to potentially snooker Mercedes, with Bottas down in eighth on the grid. Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff admits this gives Red Bull an “advantage”.

Hamilton said: “I can’t remember the last time I saw the two Red Bulls so close. If we get off in order, they have a better set of cards in terms of strategy but that doesn’t mean we can’t pull out something unique and do something different.

"I probably won’t have the support of Valtteri early on but maybe he will make it through, Otherwise, we just have to focus on our job and try to do everything and more rot keep these guys behind.”

This is today's circuit at Imola. The track is 4.909 km long and we will have 63 laps at a much-loved, historic venue, which first staged an F1 race in 1980.

Some of the famous turns...

2/3/4 Variante Tamburello

5/6 Variante Villeneuve

7 Tosa

11/12/13 Acque Minerali

14/15 Variante Alta

17/18 Rivazza

19 Variante Bassa

Image source, F1

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Lando Norris was distraught after qualifying, having seen a lap that would have been good enough for third on the grid chalked off for a track limits transgression.

“Gutted,” “I let everyone down,” “One mistake and it all goes down the drain,” were among his comments to TV cameras afterwards, before taking to social media and saying he had “effed up”.

But there he found a friend. “Nobody can knock you for giving it your all,” said Lewis Hamilton. “Amazing lap - it’s great to see you and the team shine. Move on, let’s race.”

Norris starts seventh, one place behind team-mate Daniel Ricciardo after McLaren’s most competitive showing for a long time.

If you weren't excited enough already for today's race, how about the prospect of showers to spice things up further?