Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Sainz needs to have a steady, trouble-free race. After he said he didn't know why he didn't handle the pressure in Australia, he can't afford any more mistakes. He has to get it right today.

A slightly confusing element of this whole shenanigans is that pole position, as far as it will go down in the record books, is awarded to the person who finished fastest in qualifying yesterday for today's sprint.

The driver who wins the sprint then starts Sunday's race in first place.

Basically, the driver who is first in qualifying gets pole position while the winner of the sprint starts on pole position.

More bad news for McLaren as they are now investigating a brake issue with Lando Norris' car.

But then his team-mate George Russell goes 0.030s quicker to move into P2. Some good laps from Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton improves and is up into second on softs, 0.177s off Sergio Perez's time.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, PA Media

Aston Martin have had a difficult start to the year, their car the slowest of all over the first three races. Sebastian Vettel missed two of them with Covid, and drove one of his worst weekends in an incident-strewn return in Australia two weeks ago. But the four-time champion was much more his normal self on Friday at Imola and put the car ninth on the grid.

“It was eventful for everyone,” Vettel said. “We take it. We qualified where we normally wouldn’t belong. I had maybe a slow start but I needed a bit more time with the car to get a feel. But when it mattered it was there. Q3 it would have been nice to get a proper lap but I only had a look-see and then I braked to late and went wide in Turn Two and then it was all red flag from there. A bit of an anti-climax but a great result for us.

“We can have a very good weekend from here. Definitely pleased with that and we see where it takes us. We know it will be difficult to maintain but we try to hang in there.”

Here comes Carlos Sainz for the first time today so only Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas haven't been on the track yet.

Sergio Perez improves in P1 with 1:19.878 while Alex Albon has moved to split the Red Bulls and is seven tenths off Perez.

Meanwhile, both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have had little trips off the circuit, Hamilton skipping across the grass after a lock up while Verstappen ran wide.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

The Kevin Magnussen fairytale continues in Imola. The Dane thought his F1 career was over not much more than a couple of months ago, but he has grabbed the second chance Haas have given him with both hands, and on Friday produced the team’s best qualifying result with fourth on the grid - despite going off early in Q3 at Acque Minerali.

“It feels amazing,” he said. “I can’t really believe it. The best qualifying Haas gave ever done. I went off and lost the car. Managed to keep it going and get back on track. The car was just phenomenal and I can’t believe we’re P4.”

Magnussen’s ex-F1 driver father Jan is a man of few words but sometimes one can do the job. “Unbelievable,” he wrote on Twitter, accompanied by emojis of a fist and a heart.

Image source, PA Media

No sign of Carlos Sainz yet. The Ferrari driver crashed in Q2.

Esteban Ocon has also not emerged yet from the pits. Kevin Magnussen is out there as he looks to build on a brilliant fourth in qualifying yesterday.

Sergio Perez's time came on the soft tyre compound and he's joined at the top of the order by his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen, who goes P2 with a time that is six tenths off Perez's.

Image source, Reuters

Pierre Gasly then goes two tenths quicker than Lewis Hamilton before Sergio Perez takes a big chunk out of the pacesetting time with 1:20.447.

Despite that power issue Lewis Hamilton is able to put in one of the early times to sit top of the timesheet with a 1:21.880. He's got mediums on his Mercedes.

Jamie Chadwick
Williams F1 development driver and W Series champion

It's races like this where it's so cool to see Ferrari back at the front. The Italian fans are so passionate. So cool to be back at Imola too - an underrated circuit in my opinion.

JJ Jackson: In light of RIC struggles since leaving Red Bull, were they right not to back him fully?

A huge cheer from the Ferrari fans as Charles Leclerc comes out and passes the grandstand before returning to the pits.

"I had a big drop in power right now," reports Lewis Hamilton.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, PA Media

McLaren are starting to look more like themselves after a poor start to the season in Bahrain. That first race went badly, but they have progressively moved forward ever since, and Lando Norris excelled in putting the car third on the grid on Friday.

Team principal Andreas Seidl believes McLaren suffered from a difficult second pre-season test, when front-brake overheating restricted their running. He says this had a knock-on effect at the opening race, on the same track, because the other teams had so much more experience of their cars there.

With more time since then, they have been able to recover and prove there is “nothing fundamentally wrong with the car”. That said, he admitted they are a long way from the front - “it’s clear we miss performance,” he said. And a development plan has been hatched to try to close the gap to Ferrari and Red Bull.

Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton are also out as the track starts to get busier but Daniel Ricciardo joins Valtteri Bottas in a frustrating start to the session because McLaren have found an issue with his car.