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Charles Leclerc secured pole position for the Italian Grand Prix by beating Max Verstappen to the fastest time by a tenth-and-a-half in Monza.
Leclerc’s best time of a 1’20.161 was enough to see him end the session quickest ahead of the Red Bull driver, who will start from fourth on the grid after a penalty. George Russell will start second on the grid, with Lando Norris behind him in third.
Q1
Lance Stroll was the most eager driver to head out onto the circuit when the first phase of qualifying began. He set the first time of the hour with a 1’24.231. That was immediately beaten by Yuki Tsunoda, before the front running teams headed out for their first runs.
Sergio Perez went fastest of all on his first effort, before Max Verstappen went less than a tenth of a second faster to go quickest. However, the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr gave the Tifosi reason to cheer by beating the Red Bulls with their first lap times, Leclerc’s 1’21.280 setting a new benchmark, seven tenths faster than Verstappen, while Sainz moved into second.
George Russell jumped into third place in the Mercedes, half a second off the Ferraris, before Perez improved to take third. It was then Verstappen’s turn to improve and the championship leader broke into the 1’20s for the first time, comfortably putting himself on top of the times.
As the track fell quiet, the drop zone featured Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas, Lance Stroll, Mick Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. The two Haas drivers took to the track and while Schumacher failed to improve, Magnussen appeared to move into safety before his lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits at the second Lesmo.
Bottas improved to move into safety, but Vettel could not go fast enough to do the same in the Aston Martin. Bottas knocked Nicholas Latifi into the drop zone in 16th, but the newcomer in the other Williams was impressing. In his first qualifying session, Nyck de Vries appeared to be safe in 14th, but lost his final lap for track limits at Ascari. However, he was still fast enough to squeeze through into Q2 in 15th, knocking his more experienced team mate out.
Joining Latifi out of Q1 were the two Aston Martins of Vettel and Stroll, along with the two Haas of Magnussen and Schumacher, after Magnussen had both of his final laps deleted for exceeding track limits at the second Lesmo.
Q1 result
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Q2
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