Verstappen pips McLaren to surprise pole at Monza

Max Verstappen rocketed to pole position for the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, beating Lando Norris’ best effort of the session despite the McLaren driver’s recovery through the contest.

Verstappen bounded onto the scene in Q2 and set the fastest time in the middle stage, demonstrating strong pace in the high-speed first and third sectors following Red Bull’s decision to trim its car out.

Norris, meanwhile, struggled through the middle session; the McLaren driver had to abort an earlier effort and was instructed to set a banker lap before two cool laps, ahead of a final push. 

That final effort ensured that Norris, who had dropped into the bottom five of Q2 through Hamilton’s escape from the relegation zone, could breathe a sigh of relief. 

Norris didn’t set a particularly stellar first effort in Q3, and was almost half a second off Verstappen’s opening benchmark of a 1m18.923s. He was able to recover, however, and briefly factored at the top with his follow-up 1m18.869s.

Verstappen then reasserted his authority with a 1m18.792s, showcasing a significant turnaround in Red Bull’s fortunes at Monza after last year’s dismal weekend.

Championship leader Oscar Piastri was third fastest, just over a tenth behind his McLaren team-mate, and will start alongside Charles Leclerc in Sunday’s race.

The Ferrari driver set a 1m19.007s in his opening Q3 effort, but was unable to spark celebrations from the tifosi in his second run having been unable to improve.

Lewis Hamilton was fifth ahead of George Russell, whose request to run with mediums in Q3 was denied; Andrea Kimi Antonelli qualified seventh. Gabriel Bortoleto, Fernando Alonso, and Yuki Tsunoda completed the top 10 – the latter used to help Verstappen on his opening run of Q3.

Haas driver Oliver Bearman suffered a last-minute Q2 elimination; Bearman was just 0.3s off Verstappen’s Q2 best, while Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg also fell the wrong side of the cut line and found himself being outqualified once more by rookie team-mate Bortoleto.

Williams’ practice promise was not delivered upon as both Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon could not do enough to improve in the final runs and qualified only 13th and 14th, while Esteban Ocon’s session also ran aground in Q2.

Dutch GP podium finisher Isack Hadjar was unable to reprise his Zandvoort heroics and was dumped out in Q1 by Albon, in an extraordinarily tight session; the rookie was only 0.5s away from Russell’s first-stage qualifying headliner. 

Albon chiselled Hadjar out of the top 15 by 0.08s, but only rose to 15th place himself as he escaped the drop. Hadjar is set to take a penalty for a change in power unit components for Sunday’s grand prix, and his lowly result will have made the decision easier.

Lance Stroll improved on his final run but was unable to get out of the bottom five, a fate which befell Alpine pair Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly. Liam Lawson was slowest, having aborted his final run.

F1 Italian GP results – Qualifying