The Saturday in F1 Italian GP threw a surprise with Max Verstappen taking pole away from the McLaren pair, as the field got more tighter than ever.
Things turned around a bit on Saturday of F1 Italian GP at Monza, where Red Bull’s Max Verstappen worked through the consistency to take pole by 0.077s over McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The Dutchman felt better in the car straightaway from Friday onward.
He didn’t realise that he set the fastest lap around Monza but he could sense that the car feels better on the balance side from last year. It will be difficult to keep McLaren away, but he will try his best. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda noted about not having the same floor as Verstappen.
He doesn’t think it cost him massively, but smaller margins means things are complicated. He did not have slipstream in his final run as well, which potentially cost him few tenths. For Norris, it was a fightback especially after how Q2 panned out, where he almost got knocked out.
He termed the F1 qualifying as messy as he needed multiple laps to get through in Q2 after ruining his first attempt. He didn’t feel good on his first Q3 lap as well. And so he was a bit surprised after his final lap where he managed to move up to second and crucially end up ahead of Piastri.
The Australian felt he dipped in couple of corners, which left him in third, but overall it was a decent run and feels good about the race. The Top 3 left the Ferrari pair behind as both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton didn’t manage to improve on their final run, due to bad prep lap.
Leclerc thought Top 5 was maximum that Ferrari could have done in F1 qualifying. He noted that there was no discussion about getting a tow from Hamilton, who stated that he had to be as higher up due to penalty and so, it was not feasible to even attempt helping his teammate with tow.
Mercedes’ George Russell, meanwhile, took equal blame in the miscommunication about using medium tyre for his final run. He explained what transpired and noted that he should have stated it better. But he and Andrea Kimi Antonelli were fine where they finished, which was the maximum for either.
Verstappen: “It was good. It’s always tough around here. Low downforce, easy to make mistakes on the braking or on entries because you have to commit, but with low downforce, that’s not always easy. Also, you know, the closing speeds in certain corners to hit the apex perfectly. But I think that final lap was pretty decent. To get pole here for us is big. It’s not always been a good track for us, especially last year was quite a bit of a disaster. So, yeah, this year much better and very happy to be first. I think we had a good start to the weekend, so that was nice. That has been different at times. It still felt like we were lacking something, and then in FP3 it was a little bit better. Still not where I wanted it to be, so then some final tweaks, and that then brought it a bit closer to what I liked.
“I don’t think the car is ever going to be perfect around here just because of the low downforce feeling anyway. But at least it allowed me to attack corners, have the rotation that I needed at times, and that’s what you want. Difficult to say. I think this season so far, the race pace has not always been great. So I hope that I can do something tomorrow, but I think anyway it’s been a great day for us. We’ve been competitive today. We’ll try to do the best we can tomorrow, but of course to stay here will be tough, but we’ll see what we can do.”
Norris: “I’ll say no just because it was a pretty bad qualifying from my behalf. I think it was the best lap I did in quali by like six tenths or something. So impressive that I managed to improve so much – or probably impressive that I did such a bad job prior to that. But I think Max has been pretty good all weekend. I think also us as a team since FP1 already, we found that we were not quite in as good of a rhythm and had the pace advantage that we’ve had the past few weekends. So of course we wanted P1, but I don’t think we’d be disappointed to take a P2 either. Just I was hitting every kerb possible that I don’t want to hit and just locking up when I shouldn’t lock up. So just not quite in the rhythm. It’s not that I’ve not been in the rhythm this weekend. I’ve felt like I’ve done some reasonable laps so far this weekend and I felt like I had some good strengths here and there, but just couldn’t click back into it come quali, until the final lap. But that’s also the only lap that I need to do it, so I’m happy that I did it in the end.
“Q2 definitely wasn’t the most comfortable I’ve ever been, just because I wasn’t in that rhythm. To try and put in those laps, especially when you lock up in Turn 1, that’s the one place it’s hard. It kind of knocks the confidence the most. My Q2 run… my run two, first lap one was pretty bad. It was just so close. I think I improved almost a tenth, but it gained me six positions or something. Shows how such a small amount of lap time can help. I was definitely feeling it in both Q3, run two and Q2, run two, lap two. Not the best feeling inside the car at that point. That’s why I’m relatively happy I got into Q3 because I was out for a little while, and then to put it all together for Q3, run two as well. It was terrible, but I had no choice. Everyone’s waiting for us to go out first, really. I knew already last week that I was going to have a bad Q1 because I knew I was going to have to go out the pit lane first, and that was always going to be the expectation. It’s tough because you know it’s never going to be a pole lap, especially without straight line speed, which is quite a long way down on pretty much everyone. It’s impossible to even set a competitive lap. So it’s not the most reassuring thing doing Q1 and doing, like, a 19.5, pretty much, being about five and a half tenths off pole at that point. Not the best feeling inside the car.
“Especially, in Q3, run two, I knew I had a slipstream, but it’s hard to know how much just the slipstream is going to help me a little bit. I don’t know what it’s like over a whole lap – maybe three tenths or something. It’s a mixture of having someone pushing some air in front of you. It was still a good lap, easily my best lap that I did. Like I said, I knew last weekend that I was going to be first out on Q3, run one. So it went exactly how I thought it would go. I definitely want to expect that. Everyone knows that our race pace is probably a bigger strength than our quali pace. We’ve proven that many times. But, like Max said, they’ve improved a lot from last year. I think coming into the weekend, we probably didn’t expect the Red Bull to be quite as good. But as soon as we did the first few runs, it was clear that they made some good steps compared to last season. So we’ll see. His race pace was good on Friday. It wasn’t too dissimilar to ours. So time will tell.”
Piastri: “It was okay. I feel like Q1 was a little bit of a struggle, but then Q2 and Q3 I was pretty comfortable. It was a solid lap without being amazing, but I think it’s been clear for us anyway that the competition’s been much tighter this weekend, and also with some unexpected teams and cars. So it’s not a huge shock for us, but I felt like I managed it pretty well, just ultimately lacking a little bit at the end. I would say yes. I think Q1 was a little bit tricky to get into the rhythm, but Q2 and Q3 I was pretty happy. I feel like I put in good laps that were clean and improved every lap I did.
“There are a couple of corners that I would probably like to do again, but I think it’s rare that you leave a qualifying session not having that feeling. So I’m pretty happy. I think reasonably confident [about the race]. It is generally a strength of ours, but it didn’t look night and day above everyone else yesterday. So let’s wait and see. It’s a track where slipstreams make a big difference. The start can be pretty chaotic. So I think there’s going to be a few factors at play apart from just pure pace.”
Leclerc: “I’m happy in a way that I think we’ve maximised the package that we had today. And I think I did a really good first lap in Q3, unfortunately, in the second run of Q3 I was a little bit in the front with nobody, or just you Yuki in front, and that makes a big difference here. So there wasn’t much more we could I’ve done, but I think we did a good job maximising the results now. And looking at tomorrow, I think McLaren and Red Bull are too far ahead for now. It wasn’t decided that way [to take a tow from Lewis in final run]. Not really, no [there was no discussion about it]. It is something we will discuss with the team now. It is tricky to get it perfectly right, Lewis is still fighting to start as far up as possible, so we will discuss about it but I don’t think it is the main point of qualifying.
“Yesterday with our simulations, we kind of had him [Verstappen] already being very, very strong. I think they sounded also quite confident yesterday. It was a surprise, like if you would have asked me before the weekend, I wouldn’t have expected Red Bull to be so strong. But after Friday we understood that they had done a massive turnaround compared to last year where I think they were struggling. It’s always bitter when you are fighting for fourth, fifth, third place, so maybe, but at the end, it’s kind of what we expected as well. But we shouldn’t be satisfied. We should be pushing as much as we can to try and turn that situation around, which is what we are doing, but at the end of the day, I did the lap that I wanted. I put everything together. I’m very happy with my lap, actually.
“And I don’t think there was much more possible. So that I’m positive, but obviously starting fourth isn’t great. We are quite fast in the straights. So it should be an exciting race. I think on pure pace, we don’t have a chance. Unfortunately, I think McLaren and the Red Bull of Max was way too strong in terms of race run. But with the start, with the top speed we have – we all believe in it, but it’s going to be tough. Yeah, there are some special races here. I’ll believe in it until the end, and we’ll see what’s possible. But let’s say on pure pace, I don’t think it’s possible.”
Hamilton: “I think the progress from last weekend, we carried that through this week. And so I’ve been relatively happy with the car. P1 the car felt great, I think that’s where it felt probably the best. And then we went into P2 we made changes into qualifying, and I think it was the most we could get from it. Obviously, with the penalty and everyone being so close, it’s naturally, going be tough to overtake everybody ahead of me. We’ve got good top line speed, so I’m really hoping that I can try to make up some ground. I need to do that. Probably a good start, good first lap, good strategy.
“We’ll go away now and try and figure out what we can do to try to leapfrog the guys up ahead of me, if possible. No, it [helping or taking help with tow] is not something that I have been in any other team, ultimately you end up sacrificing one of the drivers and I have already got a 5-place penalty, so I needed to be as high as I could. The long-run was okay, it wasn’t the set-up for long-run that we had chosen. The long-run in P1 was better, now we have made the changes, I am hoping with the straightline speed, we can be better and not be in a DRS train. It’s ultimately, downforce we need [referring to FP3 radio of juice].
“We’re quick on the straight, but then in the middle sector, we’re losing like three or four tenths, I think it was, and then a couple tenths in the last sector. We’re lacking the load, but we’re quick on the straight. We but if we went up on wing, for some reason the efficiency is just off. We can’t catch that four-tenths in this middle sector unless we go up a lot and then just lose it all down the straights. So this is the ultimate that we can have.”
Russell: “Yeah, I mean I was quickest in Q1 with the Medium. We were one of the only teams with two Mediums. So it was just a miscommunication to be honest with me and the team. So they’re not really to blame. It’s probably I’m as much to blame that I didn’t make it clear. I just thought with the lap time I showed, I just presumed. I said after Q1 the Medium feels great and we should consider it for Q3. And then I said in the middle of Q2, after my first lap I’d like to run the Medium in Q3. And then I said in the garage, ‘are we sticking to plan?’ And they said yes. And I thought the plan was Medium, but the plan was Soft. So that’s why it was a surprise.
“As I said, I’m as much to blame. We should have discussed it probably more. I don’t know to be honest. The gap was obviously pretty large in the end. But I just felt much more comfortable with the Medium tyre. I didn’t really do good laps in Q3. I only improved 1.5 tenths from Q1 on the Medium to my fastest lap in Q3. So you normally talk normal improvement of probably 5 or 6 tenths. And bearing in mind by lap in Q1 I’ve done two laps on the tyre. So you just look at those numbers, you would think substantially faster than what I did achieve. But anyway, P5 is probably a deserving position.
“Overtake at start, otherwise we are pretty doomed (laughs). They obviously went for quite an aggressive qualifying set-up. I think that low on drag will probably make them slower over the course of a lap but if you can’t pass, you can’t pass. They are going to be pretty racey on Lap 1, if there’s a safety car re-start, they get to be…it is a big advantage they have got from strategy perspective. And when I say there’s an easy one-stop, strategy is quite straight forward, so it is not stupid decision they have taken.”
With all of the Top 4 teams car making it in Q3, it left only two places to be filled up, which were taken up by Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. The Brazilian reckoned he could have done a bit more, but was pleased to make it in Q3 and the set-up choice of straightline speed.
Teammate Nico Hulkenberg praised Bortoleto’s run, even though the German missed out. Alonso, meanwhile, was surprised to make it in Top 10 after using three tyres in Q1, thinking that it was the last session for them. He pinned the progress to good execution and tyre prep.
Teammate Lance Stroll didn’t have the same feel to be knocked out in Q1. Haas’ Oliver Bearman was also on the surprise list after finishing 11th, but teammate Esteban Ocon wasn’t overly happy with his own lap. The Williams F1 pair rued the tyres for another low-key qualifying performance.
Alexander Albon explained why they lack in qualifying, where they need multiple laps to generate the optimum heat to excel. Carlos Sainz wasn’t too pleased with this random drop, which is hurting not only him but also the Thai racer. It is down to a fundamental issue rather than something minimal.
Both Visa Cash App RB and Alpine F1 teams saw their drivers getting knocked out in Q1. While Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto kind of expected it, Isack Hadjar was left annoyed by Sainz’s out lap, which seemingly hurt the Frenchman. Either way, since he knew he was to start from the back due to power unit element changes, he reckoned his mindset was hurt. Liam Lawson rued the errors he made.
Bortoleto: “The weekend has been really positive, it feel like that lap in Q3 with new tyres could have struck a bit more, I had few snaps, car was very much on the edge and I was pushing a lot. But anyway, looking at the gaps and everything, I am happy where we are and we achieved a very solid result for the team. We thought about it [straightline speed] when we discussing about the track, racing is the main thing here and I think we are in a good position for the race. “I’m grateful to hear this [being good in qualifying] from him [Hulkenberg] because he’s been a guy that I have always looked up like for when I was in F3 and F2 in qualifying, I always used to watch him and be like ‘this guy is so quick’ and when I knew I was going to be his teammate to be honest I was like ‘oh that’s going to be tough. This year is going to be pushy for me’.
“I would need to raise my level and everything and honestly it’s very close between us. If you watch the data, you know, it’s so close and we are extracting a lot from the car. It’s just that the midfield this year is so tight that every millisecond you find can put you out or in. And I think this has been a situation, and we have been so close to each other. I don’t know [about the strategy]. I have to look, we still have time to look at the data now and understand what we can achieve. It is going to be a tough race, long race and a lot of DRS zones and lets try to keep people behind and if possible, it would be great.
Alonso: “I am happy, I am definitely happy. It was little be expected to be in Q3, we committed to three set of tyres in Q1 thinking that, that was our last session of the day and yeah, eventually we found ourselves in Q3 and P8 for the race after Lewis’ penalty. We take it. I think it is down to tyre preparation to be honest, we found the sweet spot on the tyres, has been difficult to find the first push in the tyres to find the peak grip and in qualifying we changed a little bit approach of out laps and little bit preparation and the car was much-much better. We know it [slipstream] was important and the team was spot on, in whole qualifying, pitlane action and radio communications and things like that.
“That’s why I think it was well executed in terms of tyre preparation and traffic management, so thanks the team for that. We are the slowest car on the straights, so that is a little bit concerned for sure. Lets see what we can do. I was thinking to start the race P14 or P16 and points were probably out of reach and now…maybe we are little bit slow on the straights but in the points. So the picture has changed in the last hour, so a little bit more optimistic.”
Bearman: “I’m feeling pretty good. I’m happy with my lap, even though of course there’s always a little bit of time to be found when you look at it, but I was giving it everything out there. It’s more annoying to miss Q3 by such a small margin compared to a massive one, so that’s a shame, but it shows the good work we’ve been doing in the practice sessions because I didn’t expect to be fighting for Q3 today. We improved the car a lot yesterday so that’s great, and with regard to tomorrow, I have a good feeling also about that as the car felt great on high fuel.”
Albon: “I think the car is still quick. The same car in qualifying, the same car we had in FP2 and FP1. It’s tyres. It’s been tyres all year and it’s tyres again today. I think this time we just, you know, most tracks there’s maybe one of us that can get it just in the window. This weekend I think we’ve tried absolutely everything in terms of out-laps, prep laps and can never get it to work. What you see in free practice is you see us do push laps, try to get on the first lap, it’s never ready on the first lap. You do two cool-down laps, you go again, the tyre gets hotter, it starts to work a bit more, it feels good. In qualifying, you have the minimum delta times you have to respect. You’re basically forced into making it the first lap and we can’t seem to get that tyre to bite.
“You have to imagine that for me to get the tyre to work, I got weighbridged in Q2, so I basically have to get sent out in the middle of everyone’s push laps to guarantee myself a clear out-lap. An out-lap that’s maybe 15 seconds quicker than everyone else’s. And then I don’t even get the out-lap I want because I have to let all the cars pass who are on their push lap. By the time I go into Turn 1, I have to overtake six cars during my lap. So ifs, buts and maybes — in the end, the problem is the tyre and the fact that we have to be so different to everyone. We cannot join everyone else out the pitlane and do the same thing as them. It’s frustrating, but it’s what we have.
“I don’t think we should focus only on tyres. It could also be our car — geometry or whatever. Maybe we’re not putting the load into the tyre like other teams are. We know our car’s quite peaky, wind sensitive, maybe also tyre sensitive as well. Not fantastic. We have a quick car, you’re right. In a race the tyres get hot and they actually work. I think we’re going to be OK. It’s just one-stop DRS trains that I worry about. Hopefully, Carlos and I are together so maybe on strategy, we can do something.”
Hadjar: “It was just super annoying on the outlap, he was not going to push anyway so he was… I don’t know why he was fighting so hard for track position. And he then just let me by on my lap, so I compromised the outlap for nothing. Later on I made a mistake, but honestly all of that doesn’t matter because I’m starting last tomorrow. I could reach Q3. I think it’s the first time in Q1 so much happened. Everything goes wrong and I made a mistake also on my lap. It’s always been really tight. I mean, it’s how we like it. It’s very close. And again, I hate going into qualifying knowing that anyway, I’m starting last round. So as well, the mindset was probably not great. I like pressure going into qualifying but this was just wrong.”
Colapinto: “It was tricky for us this afternoon. Monza is a circuit which probably does not work well for our car and that has been clear all weekend. Personally, I felt like the laps were good, I am feeling happier in the car at the moment, but we are just lacking some speed to put ourselves any further up the grid. We will work on a strategy for tomorrow and aim to maximise our end result. It will not be a straightforward one but we will do our best to move forwards and round off the European part of the season in the best possible way.”
Here’s how F1 Italian GP FP3 panned out: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/fp3-norris-fastest-as-leclerc-splits-the-mclarens-in-final-practice-for.5xFmIbdyndGQbHAM6GPMDp
Here’s how F1 Italian GP qualifying panned out: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-beats-norris-and-piastri-to-pole-for-italian-gp-in-qualifying.7j6Ls1jDJUp67EqfCoQhiN