Formula 1: Imola opens European season, Lawson still chasing points

Formula 1's European season kicks off at Imola this weekend with Lewis Hamilton racing in Italy for the first time as a Ferrari driver while local teen hero Kimi Antonelli makes his home debut with Mercedes.

Even if champions McLaren take their sixth win in seven races, with Lando Norris hoping to cut teammate Oscar Piastri's lead, there will be some notable firsts when Imola hosts the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

Argentine Franco Colapinto will be back in the spotlight as he takes the place of Australian Jack Doohan with a first appearance for Renault-owned Alpine after nine races with Williams at the end of last year.

Then, he made his debut at Monza and he now starts again at Italy's other current F1 circuit.

Alpine, in their first race since team principal Oliver Oakes surprisingly resigned, will be looking for Colapinto to repeat his scoring exploits rather than the costly crashes that have also accompanied him.

Hamilton has had a tough start to life at Maranello, despite winning the Shanghai sprint race, and appears to have undergone a general reset ahead of Imola -- named after Enzo Ferrari and son Dino -- by removing distractions on social media.

The seven-times world champion, who joined Ferrari in January, has 39.5 million followers on Instagram but is no longer following anybody -- including Ferrari and his dog Roscoe.

Ferrari are fourth overall, already 152 points behind McLaren, with a lone third place for Charles Leclerc in Jeddah the only podium place they have to show for their efforts in regular grands prix.

Record race winner Hamilton, whose 105 career victories include one at Imola in 2020, has yet to finish higher than fifth this season and lags Antonelli in the standings.

The excitement around Antonelli has only grown since his debut, with the Italian now the youngest driver to lead a race, set a fastest lap and take a pole position in any format.

Piastri leads Norris by 16 points after four wins, including the last three in a row, with Red Bull's reigning champion Max Verstappen -- winner of the last three races in Imola -- 32 points off the pace in third.

Most teams are expected to bring some sort of an upgrade after the opening round of races far from the European factories but McLaren remain the favourites.

Monaco, the weekend after Imola, will see a change with a new mandatory second pitstop, while Spain is the first race with tougher tests for flexing front wings -- with some seeing that as a potential game-changer.

Kiwi Liam Lawson will be hoping for some more speed from his Racing Bulls car with qualification for Q3 a key to him picking up his first points of the season.

Lawson is coming off a collision at the Miami GP which prevented him from finishing.

Formula 1 statistics for the 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 -- Antonelli for Mercedes, Oliver Bearman for Haas and Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar.

Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) and Lawson (Racing Bulls) have yet to open their accounts.

They are joined this weekend by Colapinto at Renault-owned Alpine, the Argentine replacing Australian 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.

-Reuters/RNZ