Imola race track (F1)
The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix 2022 is scheduled to take place on 24th April at the historical Imola Circuit
Imola’s first F1 event was the Italian Grand Prix in 1980 and then became the venue of the San Marino Grand Prix from 1981-to 2006. The circuit made a return to F1 as the venue for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in 2020. Hence, under its new name the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was first held in 2020. Emilia Romagna is one of the two Italian GPs in F1 – Monza hosts the Italian Grand Prix.
The Emilia Romagna GP takes place at the historical and unique ‘Autodromo Internazionale Dino e Ferrari’ circuit also known as the ‘Imola circuit’. The unique feature of the track in Imola is thay is one of the very few international circuits to run in an anti-clockwise direction. It has a total length of 4.909 kilometres including 19 turns. The circuit was first opened for the public in 1953 and supports a total capacity of 78,000 people.
The circuit has undergone major revisions since 2007 and is quite different from its older version. The old pit garages and paddocks have been demolished and completely rebuilt while the pit lane has been extended and resurfaced. Faster timings have been recorded in the revamped circuit. The official lap record for the current Grand Prix Circuit layout is 1:15.484 set by Lewis Hamilton in 2020.
F1 returns this weekend after a short break and unfortunately, there is some not-so-good news for the fans. The qualifying session for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is set to take place on 23rd April followed by the race on the next day. However, there are high chances that we may face disturbances in the form of rain and thunderstorms on both days. According to the official weather forecast, scattered showers are predicted on April 23 while it gets worse with expected thunderstorms on April 24. The chances of rain on both those days are more than 50% as per the current forecast.
The weather forecast implies that the Grand Prix might well be taking place on a wet track just like it happened in 2021. It is going to be more challenging for the drivers to race on a wet track and at the same time it bridges the gap between the more ‘powerful’ and the relatively ‘weaker’ cars on the grid.
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