Max Verstappen does it again with another pole, making history with his 8 consecutive pole positions matching Ayrton Senna‘s record at Imola. This year’s Imola Grand Prix marks the 30th anniversary of the incident that took Ayrton Senna away. The Grand Prix started with a hearty tribute to the late legend led by Sebastian Vettel. Now that we are in Italy, Red Bull will also be fighting Ferrari along with McLaren as they will race on the Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit.

As important a race as it is for Ferrari, Max Verstappen will need the win as Sergio Perez will start 11th on the grid. After the first rounds of free practice, Red Bull looked absolutely out of form and the qualifiers were no different. Fred Vasseur has confidence in his cars as they were the stars of the first day of practice, but insiders have stated that Red Bull is coming for them. Lawrence Barretto has disclosed Max Verstappen’s secret for his pole position.

How Red Bull took the 2024 pole at Imola

When talking to the teams around the paddocks, Lawrence Barretto with F1TV stated, “[I] spoke to senior figures at both McLaren and Ferrari yesterday and the noises were good. They expect it to be close between them though they suspect Red Bull will show a stronger turn of pace today.” He anticipated Red Bull taking the pole as he knew the team’s strategy and it was an effective one. In F1, it’s about competing with the other teams on a psychological level too, and for that, the Milton Keynes outfit reportedly sandbagged their car during the first day.

Their cars were all over the place on the first day of practice and Max Verstappen found himself beyond track limits quite a few times. Other teams might have had a sigh of relief before the qualifiers, but that changed quickly. Barretto added, “Sources say reigning world champions Red Bull were running lower power modes across Friday practice which would account for some of their deficit on the straights.” When the Red Bull unleashed its maximum power, Verstappen found himself more comfortable and made history while he did it.

Max Verstappen matches Ayrton Senna’s Record at Imola

What Max Verstappen did at Imola could not be any more poetic. He matched the late legend Ayrton Senna’s record of getting 8 pole positions and he did it on the track that we lost the legend on. It marks a beautiful moment as this is the 30th death anniversary of the Senna and this will be a moment that Verstappen will remember forever. Imola is a difficult track and a dangerous one too and it’s quite possible that things may go south. Luckily we are in an era of F1 that is the safest it’s ever been and may we never lose another driver again.

When it came to doing a single lap to record a time, Ayrton Senna was one of the best ones anyone has ever seen. So far there are only 2 other drivers in history to have more pole starts than Senna – Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher. And if Max Verstappen continues the way he has been driving, he will be a competitor for that too. Senna has scored 65 pole positions in his career and only 7-time world champions have surpassed him. So with 38 pole starts so far, Verstappen has a long way to go before catching up with the ‘Rain Master’.

That being said, do you think Max Verstappen will win this race from Pole Position? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.