Carlos Sainz beats Max Verstappen by 0.013s margin to win F1 Italian GP pole, as Charles Leclerc was third.
Q1:
The first part of F1 Italian GP qualifying saw the hard tyres put in use as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen first quick lap was deleted due to track limits at Turn 7 which forced him to do another lap. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso had his lap deleted too.
There was almost a big moment between McLaren’s Lando Norris and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon as they tried to see who would take the racing line. The Frenchman had his lap time deleted after his gravel moment while going for a quick lap.
Even Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll had his lap deleted as did McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. It was Verstappen at the top with a 1m21.573s lap as he headed Williams’ Alexander Albon and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, where the Top 18 were within 0.975s off Verstappen.
Both the Ferrari drivers were put under investigation for not following race directors’ note of not following maximum time limit set. In the knockout zone, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu was first in 16th after his 1m22.330s lap time.
He headed the Alpine pair of Pierre Gasly (1m22.545s) and Ocon (1m22.548s) with both of them getting knocked out, while Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m22.592s) was 19th and Aston Martin’s Stroll (1m22.860s) in 20th.
Q2:
The second part had medium tyres in action in F1 Italian GP qualifying which saw no lap deletions to start off where Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz headed initially with a 1m20.991s lap from Verstappen and Leclerc, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton outside the Top 10.
The final run saw Verstappen end up on top with a 1m20.937s as he led the Ferrari pair of Leclerc and Sainz in the Top 3 in a close fight. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m21.594s) missed out by just the 0.013s margin over McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Tsunoda’s teammate Liam Lawson did well in 12th after setting a 1m21.758s lap with Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg (1m21.776s) in 13th from Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas (1m21.940s) and Williams’ Logan Sargeant (1m21.944s), who went wide at Parabolica which cost him.
Q3:
The final part of F1 Italian GP qualifying at Monza saw the soft tyres put in use. The first run was electric where Ferrari were 1-2 with Sainz (1m20.532s) in lead from Leclerc (1m20.564s) as they led Verstappen who had a small moment on his lap.
Mercedes’ George Russell slotted in fourth from Albon as both of them pushed Perez down to sixth. It was pretty close in the end as Sainz (1m20.294s) edged out Verstappen (1m20.307s) by 0.013s to secure F1 Italian GP pole at Ferrari’s home event at Monza.
Leclerc (1m20.361s) was third and only 0.067s behind teammate Sainz. A late quick lap from Russell (1m20.671s) helped him to be fourth pushing Perez (1m20.688s) to fifth with Albon (1m20.760s) in sixth from Piastri (1m20.785s) who out-qualified his teammate.
Norris (1m20.979s) was only ninth behind Hamilton (1m20.820s), with Alonso (1m21.417s) rounding the Top 10. Post-qualifying, the FIA noted of no further action with regards to the investigation of Ferrari drivers.
https://twitter.com/fia/status/1697998769017573554?s=20
UPDATE: The FIA noted that both Sainz and Leclerc did not “unnecessarily slowly” as both took action to allow four drivers to get by them. They did not do that on purpose and tried to avoid impeding other drivers.
