McLaren Formula 1 team-mates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked out the front row for the Italian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen endured a nightmare qualifying session at Monza.
Verstappen suffered a big snap through Parabolica on his first Q3 run and ended up eighth at that point, slower than team-mate Sergio Perez who set his lap on used tyres.
“I had no f***ing grip at all on this set, shocking,” Verstappen told his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
Verstappen’s next lap wasn’t much better as he only rose to seventh place, edging ahead of Perez by 0.040 seconds. Perez couldn’t beat him as he kicked up a heap of gravel at the exit of Lesmo 2 which Verstappen had to drive through.
It means the Red Bulls will start from the fourth row of the grid, with the team’s 30-point advantage over McLaren in the constructors’ championship looking more vulnerable than ever.
Verstappen was almost seven tenths adrift of polesitter Norris, who he holds a 70-point lead over in the drivers’ championship.
Norris wasn’t even pleased with his final qualifying lap but his 1m19.327s was good enough to take fourth pole position of the season.
Team-mate Piastri was second but there’s an asterisk over his place on the front row with a post-session investigation into a potential unsafe release.
George Russell was third in his Mercedes with the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz fourth and fifth ahead of 2025 Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton.
Less than two tenths separated the top six with a further half a second to the Red Bulls behind.
Verstappen was seventh ahead of Perez, Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg.
Alonso’s Q3 streak ends
Fernando Alonso missed out on a place in Q3 for the first time since Austria in late June by just 0.010s. That was thanks to a tidy lap from Hulkenberg – the Haas driver and Williams’s Albon the interlopers among the top teams in Q3.
Aston Martin driver Alonso was 11th ahead of the lead RB of Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas.
The Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were the slowest two drivers in Q2 at a circuit where Alpine’s Renault engine deficit is particularly punishing.
Colapinto out in Q1
F1 debutant Franco Colapinto made a solid start to his first F1 qualifying session as he sat 16th ahead of his final run. But on that final flying lap he dipped his Williams’s wheels into the gravel on the exit of Lesmo 2 and compromised his run.
Others were compromised too by yellow flags for Magnussen’s Haas slowing at Parabolica.
Among those was Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll – knocked out in Q1 for the third successive year at Monza – who ended up in 17th ahead of Colapinto.
Yuki Tsunoda, who was pipped to 15th by RB team-mate Ricciardo right at the end of Q1, ended up 16th and pointed to a spec difference to Ricciardo as causing him problems all weekend.
Valtteri Bottas was 0.344s faster than Sauber team-mate Zhou Guanyu but that still wasn’t enough to help him escape joining Zhou on the back row of the grid in 19th place.
That might look like a standard result for Sauber in 2024 but Bottas is adamant it could have been better without hitting yellow flags at the end of Q1 for Magnussen’s off.
“Very close but today we were unlucky with the yellow flag on my second run,” Bottas said.
“I decided to only use two sets [in Q1]. The first lap was decent but we were tracking to improve. I should have been through without the yellow flag.
“That’s why the result looks maybe a bit worse than what it actually is. I think we’ve been in a little bit of a better place this weekend.
“[But] It’s not nice to be on the last row with two cars again. But that’s how it goes.”
Related News :