Alex Albon’s qualifying session at Emilia Romagna curtailed by dramatic brake fire; Watch

Williams driver Alex Albon did not have a great start to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with his car catching fire during the qualifying session. The flaming debris lying across the track caused the session to be red-flagged. Following the incident, the British-Thai racer will be forced to start Sunday's Grand Prix from the very back of the grid. Albon will line up on the back row alongside Esteban Ocon’s Alpine in the sprint, with his team-mate Nicholas Latifi having spun in Q1 and only managed to put himself P18 on the grid for Saturday.

Emilia Romagna Grand Prix: Alex Albon Williams car catches fire

Alex Albon had just started his qualifying session when he was forced to dramatically reduce his speed, as flames could be seen around the rear right-hand corner of his car as his brakes seemed to overheat. After the debris were spotted spitting from the back of the Williams, the Race Director had no choice but to bring out the red flags.

Emilia Romagna Grand Prix: Max Verstappen takes pole position for sprint race

Max Verstappen continued from where he had left off as he took pole position in sprint race qualification for Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. The rain-affected session which saw five red flag Verstappen took the top spot by being 0.8 seconds quicker than Leclerc who finished second. Lando Norris of Mclaren finished third. Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualified only 11th and 13th before the rain came down. 

Emilia Romagna GP schedule

Free Practice 1: 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM IST on Friday, April 22

Qualifying: 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM IST on Friday, April 22

Free Practice 2: 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM IST on Saturday, April 23

Emilia Romagna GP qualifying live stream details in India

Fans wondering how to watch the Emilia Romagna GP qualifying and practice sessions live in India can tune in to the Star Sports Network, which has the official telecasting rights in the country. As for the live stream of the entire F1 race weekend, fans can tune in to the Disney+ Hotstar app. Meanwhile, fans can also track the live updates of all the sessions on the official social media handles of the respective teams and F1.