In a chaotic qualifying at Imola, Oscar Piastri has remained the model of calm and serenity amid the traffic to roar to pole position again at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in his ever more convincing push to become world F1 champion.
Australia's championship leader pulled out a corker of a lap when under the utmost pressure in his McLaren on Saturday, edging Red Bull's champion Max Verstappen, while George Russell was third for Mercedes with Piastri's unhappy teammate Lando Norris fourth.
Yet Piastri really demonstrated the extent of his unruffled excellence at the end of a session which had to be twice red-flagged after Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda and then Alpine's Franco Colapinto crashed in the first phase.
