Learn Italian: Aveva molta fretta, ha accelerato troppo e lo hanno bocciato. - He was in a big hurry, accelerated too much, and they failed him.

Aveva describes a continuous state or background situation in the past (he was in a hurry). The passato prossimo verbs ha accelerato (he accelerated) and hanno bocciato (they failed him) describe specific, completed events that happened during that state.

Who is the subject of hanno bocciato?

Using the third-person plural without naming a specific subject is a common way in Italian to express that an unspecified group did something. It translates perfectly to the generic English 'they', which in this context implies the driving examiners.

Why does the sentence use molta fretta instead of molto fretta?

In Italian, you don't 'be' in a hurry, you 'have' haste (avere fretta). Because fretta is a feminine noun, the word for 'a lot' acts as an adjective and must agree with it, changing its ending to become molta.

Could we write l'hanno bocciato instead of lo hanno bocciato?

Yes! The direct object pronoun lo (him) often drops its vowel and takes an apostrophe before the auxiliary verb hanno. Both lo hanno bocciato and l'hanno bocciato are perfectly correct and natural.