FILE PHOTO: Formula One F1 - Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Italy - May 19, 2024 McLaren's Lando Norris in action REUTERS/Ciro De Luca/File Photo
(Reuters) -Formula One statistics for Sunday's Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Italy's Imola circuit, round seven of the 24-race championship and the start of the European season:
Lap distance: 4.909km. Total distance: 309.049km (63 laps)
2024 pole position: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull one minute, 14.746 seconds
2024 winner: Verstappen
Race lap record: Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 1:15.484 (2020)
Start time: 1300 GMT (1500 local)
IMOLA
The race at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari is named after the surrounding region. It has previously been the Italian Grand Prix and San Marino Grand Prix. This will be the fourth Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Anti-clockwise Imola hosted the 1980 Italian Grand Prix and was home to the San Marino Grand Prix from 1981 until 2006, when seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher won for a record seventh time.
Sunday will be the 32nd F1 world championship race held at the circuit.
Brazilian triple world champion Ayrton Senna and Austrian Roland Ratzenberger died in accidents over the 1994 race weekend.
Hamilton (2020), Verstappen (2021, 2022, 2024) and Fernando Alonso (2005) are the only current drivers to have won at Imola. Verstappen has won three of the four races held at Imola since 2020.
McLaren last won at Imola with David Coulthard in 1998.
In the 31 races to date at Imola, 11 have been won from pole. Another nine winners have come from second on the starting grid. No winner has started lower than fifth.
Senna still holds the record for most poles at Imola, eight in total.
The 2023 edition of the race was cancelled due to flooding that devastated the region.
CHAMPIONSHIP
McLaren's Oscar Piastri leads the drivers' championship by 16 points from teammate Lando Norris. Verstappen is 32 points behind Piastri.
Leaders and champions McLaren are 105 points clear of Mercedes and 141 ahead of Red Bull.
RACE WINS
Piastri has won four of the last five races and is chasing his fourth victory in a row after Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Miami. Norris and Verstappen have each won once this year.
Seven-times world champion Hamilton has a record 105 career victories from 362 starts. Verstappen has won 64 grands prix and is third on the all-time list after Michael Schumacher on 91.
POLE POSITION
Norris, Piastri (twice) and Verstappen (three) have been on pole so far this season. Norris has started on the front row in three of six races.
Verstappen is chasing his third pole in a row and fourth in five races.
Hamilton has a record 104 career poles, his most recent in Hungary in 2023.
ROOKIES
Three of the six drivers starting a season for the first time have scored so far -- Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes, Oliver Bearman for Haas and Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar.
Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) and Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) have yet to open their accounts.
They are joined this weekend by Franco Colapinto at Renault-owned Alpine, the Argentine replacing Australian Jack Doohan for at least the next five races.
MILESTONE
Imola is Antonelli's home debut. It is also Hamilton's first race in Italy for Ferrari since he joined in January.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Peter Rutherford)
