Karun Chandhok hails ‘star of Imola’ after ‘super’ display at Emilia Romagna GP

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Karun Chandhok has dubbed a midfield hero as his ‘star of the Imola weekend so far’ after their ‘super’ efforts in practice and qualifying for the 2024 Emilian Romagna GP.

Max Verstappen continued his dominance of the pinnacle of motorsport over a single lap to take pole position once again. The Red Bull driver fended off the challenge of McLaren stars Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to maintain a perfect record of seven poles from seven races.

Ferrari also gave their home crowd at Imola some optimism for Sunday, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz taking P4 and P5. George Russell also gave Mercedes a modicum of delight with his P6, in front of Yuki Tsunoda, Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg.

Karun Chandhok hails Yuki Tsunoda as his Emilia Romagna GP ‘star’

But it was not Verstappen as he equalled a Formula 1 record by taking an eighth consecutive pole position who Chandhok saw as his Imola ‘star’. Instead, the Sky Sports F1 pundit picked out Tsunoda after setting the third-fastest time in Q2 for Visa Cash App RB with his 1:15.358.

Tsunoda was just 0.182s slower than the benchmark time that Verstappen set for Red Bull in Q2. He was even only 0.030s down on the time Leclerc posted to reach Q3 and 0.013s faster than Norris in P4. Ricciardo in the other VCARB 01 car had the 10th-fastest time at 1:15.691.

READ MORE: 5 unforgettable Emilia Romagna GP moments, with Bottas and Russell’s crash

Ricciardo only narrowly made it into Q3, as well, with the 34-year-old trumping Red Bull ace Sergio Perez by 0.015s. The Australian’s time being 0.333s slower than Tsunoda’s lap further convinced Chandhok that the 24-year-old had emerged as a true Emilia Romagna GP ‘star’.

“I’ll tell you what, Yuki Tsunoda [is] a star of the Imola weekend so far,” Chandhok stated on Sky Sports F1 (18/5, 15:42). “Third fastest in practice yesterday, third fastest at the moment.

“[Tsunoda] only [did the] one run in Q2, so he’s got an extra set of tyres over his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo. And he’s got three-and-a-half-tenths over Ricciardo, as well. Super job.”

Yuki Tsunoda delivered for Visa Cash App RB at the team’s home race

Tsunoda showed Visa Cash App RB had the potential to deliver at their home event in FP2 at the Emilia Romagna GP during his qualifying simulation. Imola is less than 10 miles from the team’s Faenza factory. And Tsunoda gave their crew some optimism with the third-best lap.

He set a 1:16.286 in second practice to follow Verstappen’s time by 0.380s and Piastri’s lap by 0.192s. Ricciardo was only the 11th-fastest driver in FP2 with a 1:16.967 and in FP3 with a 1:16.560. Tsunoda set the 13th-best FP3 time at 1:16.668 but found pace come qualifying.