This is how Charles Leclerc comments on the work done today at Imola ahead of next Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix: “The first free practice was a bit’ complicated and we had some difficulties, while in the second one we managed to put together something better, but we still lack performance”.

“Our race pace seemed decent but Imola is a circuit on which overtaking is rather difficult– stressed the Ferrari Monegasque – and since now our weak point is the performance in qualifying, this will therefore be our priority ahead of tomorrow”.

Inverse assessment, however, from Lewis Hamilton, according to whom “the first session was positive, the balance was good and there did not seem to be much to change. And instead FP2 proved more challenging because I struggled to find consistency in performance,” said the Briton.

“We will analyze the data collected this evening but we have completed the program, including the long runs, so we have a good amount of information to work on,” Hamilton added.

Here are the words of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Slovenian Primoz Roglic, who regained the pink jersey at the end of the seventh stage of the Giro d’Italia, the Castel di Sangro-Tagliacozzo stage won by UAE Team Emirates’ Spaniard Juan Ayuso.

“I would have preferred to win but it’s still nice to be in pink again. I won’t have a lot of Tours ahead of me, so you have to take advantage of every opportunity. I know Ayuso’s characteristics well, and I knew he would give me a hard time on a finish like this. I’m not worried about the outcome of the stage.”

“It was a shame to lose Jai Hindley yesterday. Unfortunately, however, cycling is also this and there is no turning back. However, I am grateful to my team, they are doing a great job and I want to win the Giro also so I can pay them back,” Roglic added.

The Italian basketball championship playoff scudetto will kick off on Saturday, May 17, with Trento and Olimpia Milano kicking off the first of the four scheduled series at 6 p.m. (the others are Virtus Bologna-Venezia, Trapani-Reggio Emilia and Brescia-Trieste). On the eve of game 1 at “The T Quotidiano Arena”, Paolo Galbiati issued his challenge to a club he knows very well, having coached its youth teams for six years.

“It will be a good series, an important stimulus and a great challenge – said the Vimercate-born coach, class of 1984 -. We have earned the right to play the first two games at home, so we hope the arena will be warm and the crowd will be vocal. Any opponent in the playoffs would be difficult to face, but Milan is clearly a team of the highest level: it has recovered key pieces, is unpredictable in depth and talent, has enormous experience and is led by the most important coach in our league, one of the greatest in the history of Italian basketball”.

“I am aware of the work this team has done – Galbiati then added, speaking then about his players -: they have worked hard, with seriousness, but above all with a great human component. It reminds me a lot of a historical group for me, the Under 17 of ’96/’97 that I coached in Milan and to whom I owe a lot in my coaching career. With them I could ask anything: they would throw themselves under the Milan subway for each other”.

“What fascinates me about this group is that they celebrate each other, there is no envy, only enthusiasm for each other’s successes. My dream is for this journey to continue: this team gives me a lot of confidence and reminds me of the Aquila of the EuroCup semifinals and the Scudetto finals, hoping it will do even better, because Toto (Forray, the HCL captain, ed.) deserves it”.