Max Verstappen paid tribute to Ayrton Senna after tying the Brazilian's record by taking pole position at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The Drivers' Championship leader equalled Senna's record of eight successive poles set across the 1988 and 1989 seasons, as he seeks his fifth race win of the season.

Verstappen struggled on Friday, finishing seventh on the timesheets after exchanging angry radio messages with his team and several off-track excursions, but bounced back 24 hours later with a best time of 1:14.746 in the final qualification session for Sunday’s race.

And the Red Bull driver felt it was fitting to match Senna's achievement on the 30th anniversary of his death at Imola.

"Of course, it’s a great start to the year, but also very special," he said. "It's 30 years since he passed away at this track, so I'm very pleased to get pole here.

"In a way, it's a nice memory to him. He was an incredible F1 driver, especially in qualifying laps as well.

"[It has been] a really difficult weekend so far, even this morning [in final practice]. I'm incredibly happy to be on pole here. I didn't expect that.

"We made some final changes [to the car set-up] before qualifying, and they seemed to make it feel a bit better, so I could push a bit harder."