Lando Norris led a McLaren front row in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, while championship leader Max Verstappen could only manage P7 in the Red Bull.
George Russell took third for practice pacesetter Mercedes, with Oscar Piastri and Verstappen set to see the stewards post-qualifying due to an incident in Q1 where the McLaren was released into the Red Bull’s path in the pits and Verstappen had to step on the brakes.
Norris led Piastri after the first runs in Q3, with the Dutch Grand Prix winner leading the way with a time of one minute, 19.401 seconds and his teammate 0.035 seconds down.
At this stage, the two Mercedes trailed in third and fourth, with the Ferraris, as were the Red Bull cars – Verstappen down in eighth and behind Sergio Perez after saving a massive snap at the Parabolica on his opening Q3 effort.
In the second and final runs, Verstappen ran first of the frontrunners in Perez’s slipstream, but although he improved his personal best he only moved up slightly in the order – only beating Perez who went off at Lesmo 2 while still running ahead of his teammate on their final laps.
Behind, Norris only went quicker in sector two compared to his previous personal best, but he still improved the first-place benchmark to set pole with a time of one minute, 19.327 seconds.
Piastri could not go quicker across all three sectors of his second Q3 lap but stayed second when Sainz could not head him and then Russell slotted into third slightly later for Mercedes.
Leclerc also shuffled Sainz back to fifth, with Hamilton ending up sixth – but with a healthy margin to the Red Bull cars behind.
The other Q3 runners – Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg – ended up ninth and tenth for Williams and Haas.
The start of Q2 was delayed by nearly ten minutes as the marshals had to sweep gravel off the circuit at “multiple areas” – per an FIA spokesperson – with Franco Colapinto’s Lesmo 2 gravel trip and Kevin Magnussen going off briefly and Ascari and for longer at the Parabolica.
After this, Fernando Alonso was the highest-profile driver to exit in Q2, as he ended up P11 for Aston Martin – ahead of RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, Magnussen and the Alpine duo of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.
In Q1, Ricciardo’s last-gasp improvement knocked out Yuki Tsunoda, with Lance Stroll shuffled back to P17 ahead of Williams rookie Colapinto, who had an off on his final run.
Behind were Sauber pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, who were running behind the various Magnussen offs when it came to completing their final laps despite scattered gravel and various yellow flags.
So a thrilling qualifying session at the temple of speed and the McLarens continue to impress by being the quickest car. By starting on the front row with rival Red Bull knocked down to row four, this is an important moment in the championship. Let’s see what the race has in store.
Italian Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:19.327
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:19.436
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:19.440
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:19.461
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:19.467
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:19.513
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:20.022
8 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:20.062
9 Alexander Albon Williams 1:20.299
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:20.339
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:20.421
12 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:20.479
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:20.698
14 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:20.738
15 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:20.764
16 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:20.945
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:21.013
18 Franco Colapinto Williams 1:21.061
19 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:21.101
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:21.445
Lando Norris has continued his promising run of form by taking a stunning pole position for the Italian Grand Prix, with the Briton and McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri locking out the front row in a super-close qualifying session.
After initially claiming P1 during the first runs of Q3, Norris secured his place by pumping in a time of 1m 19.327s, just 0.109s ahead of Piastri. While the Woking outfit came out on top, the leading six cars were all covered by less than two tenths of a second, with George Russell the closest challenger in P3.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz followed in fourth and fifth for Ferrari as they look to give the Tifosi something to cheer about, while Lewis Hamilton was sixth fastest for Mercedes.
It was a tricky session for Red Bull, with Max Verstappen suffering a snap on his first flying lap before struggling to improve on his second effort, leaving him in P7 ahead of team mate Sergio Perez in P8.
Behind them, Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg round out the top-10 for Williams and Haas respectively.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-seals-pole-position-ahead-of-piastri-at-monza-as-mclaren-secure-front.4ZYpKyV7XxYPQoJ8WzLTtX
Christian Horner says Red Bull “simply doesn’t understand” why it qualified so poorly at the Italian Grand Prix, admitting “something clearly isn’t working” on its Formula 1 cars.
Verstappen and Perez had looked competitive and on the pace of fellow frontrunners McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari until Saturday afternoon’s final qualifying round, in which its three rival teams diced for pole while the pair was a whopping seven tenths off.
Not only have Red Bull’s chronic car handling problems persisted, but curiously Verstappen was four tenths slower in Q3 on fresh soft tyres than he was in Q2 on a used set, with Red Bull mystified by where its pace suddenly went.
“We simply don’t understand that we did a 1m19.6s on scrubbed tyres and then on two sets of new tyres couldn’t do better than 1m20.0s,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.
“The balance just isn’t there for [Verstappen], so there’s something that fundamentally is happening that we’re not on top of at the moment. We need to obviously understand it and understand why on the old tyres we are able to do that time, and two sets of new tyres we couldn’t get anywhere near it.
“In Q2 it didn’t look too bad. I mean, still the handling characteristics that Max has been talking about, but then Q3 there’s something amiss. The others can all improve on new tyres, but we were miles away.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red-bull-at-a-loss-to-explain-monza-qualifying-rout-something-isnt-working/10649863/
George Russell was pleased to qualify third for the Italian Grand Prix given his lack of track time over the weekend, in the wake of new Mercedes recruit Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s FP1 shunt at Parabolica.
The Briton gave up his seat for Antonelli, as per Formula 1’s rookie driver FP1 rules, and the Italian rookie impressed across his lap and a half before bringing his session to an abrupt end with a large crash at the final corner.
This ensured that Mercedes’ mechanics had to make multiple repairs, which spilled over into FP2, sapping Russell’s track time in the car on Friday.
With just FP3 to go on, Russell felt that he was compromised by the aftermath of Antonelli’s accident and did not feel comfortable making too many changes to optimise his set-up for qualifying and the race – ultimately feeling he only “scraped” into Q3.
“It was a very up-and-down weekend. Obviously I missed a lot yesterday, which put me really on the back foot,” Russell said.
“We hadn’t made a lot of changes from FP3 into qualifying because that was really my first proper session out on track. Q1 and Q2 were really, really messy; I wasn’t confident, didn’t feel good in the car.
“I just sort of scraped through the session and then suddenly managed to get in the sweet spot for Q3, both my laps had us third or fourth and we obviously ended up third. So I’m pretty pleased with that result and excited to see how close it is with everyone.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/russell-antonelli-italy-fp1-crash-back-foot-qualifying/10649885/
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were both full of praise for McLaren’s efforts as the team recorded their second front row lock-out of the season with an electric qualifying display during Italian Grand Prix qualifying.
Norris and Piastri showed strong pace throughout Saturday’s session at Monza and delivered when it mattered in the decisive Q3 phase, getting the better of the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers in an ultra-close top-six.
Outside of that top-six were Red Bull, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez only seventh and eighth, meaning both Norris and McLaren are in prime position to cut their rivals’ championship leads once more.
Reflecting on the session, Norris said: “Another pole, which is amazing. To have the cars first and second when the field has been as tight as it has all weekend, it’s a little bit of a surprise, but a nice one. A big well done to the team as they’ve done an amazing job.
“Honestly, my lap… It hurts me to say, it was not a great lap. My Q1 run one was, but run two [there] was a little bit more and we’re still good enough for pole. So, a little bit surprised again, but very, very happy.”
Piastri, meanwhile, was left to ponder if a maiden pole position could have been on the cards with a cleaner final lap – having wound up just over a tenth away from team mate Norris.
“The first lap in Q3 was quite good, just the second one not quite enough, which I feel like I’ve said a few too many times this year,” he commented. “Still, a good performance, and a really good team effort.
“The field’s been incredibly tight this weekend. I think I said on the radio, there was no guarantee of a front row lock out for us, so an amazing effort to be able to pull that off.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-and-piastri-hail-amazing-front-row-lock-out-for-mclaren-at-monza-as.5exiwioc2YYOWxBLsJemqQ