The Latest Breaking News from Charles Leclerc

Verstappen beat McLaren’s Lando Norris and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in the 63-lap race at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

Higher tyre degradation than expected compared to when Red Bull struggled badly for car balance in practice on Friday appeared to ease Verstappen’s path, as he was also boosted by the set-up work completed at his team’s factory ahead of qualifying.

Verstappen will start ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

Having struggled in all three practice sessions so far at the Emilia Romagna race, Verstappen hailed Red Bull’s pre-qualifying set-up changes for “feeling a bit better and I could push a bit”.

Perez’s late shunt at the Variante Alta led to a last-gasp scramble for drivers to set final qualifying simulation times, where only Lando Norris was able to set a time that put him second, 0.3s slower than his team-mate.

Perez’s late shunt at the Variante Alta led to a last-gasp scramble for drivers to set final qualifying simulation times, where only Lando Norris was able to set a representative time that put him second 0.3s slower than his team-mate.

Fernando Alonso also takes aim at old rival Hamilton during a heated opening day in Italy

After the opening series of pan-continental flyaway rounds, the Formula 1 circus returned to its European heartland and descended upon Imola.

The Monegasque driver topped both practice sessions at Imola, edging McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by 0.192s in the second session, on a strong day for Ferrari following the arrival of its upgrade package.Yuki Tsunoda impressed in FP2 by shooting up to third place for RB, ahead of both Mercedes drivers Lewis…