Mercedes will start the Qualifying Sprint race on Saturday from a one-two on the grid, with Valtteri Bottas outqualifying Lewis Hamilton by 0.096s.
Despite Hamilton having the upper hand through the Qualifying 1 and 2 sessions, Bottas squeezed out his lap time on the final run. Mercedes have looked the class of the field since the opening lap of the weekend at a track which seems to suit them every year.
In usual Monza fashion, the traffic was a disaster as each driver attempted to get themselves the best slipstream possible as that boost can provide them with up to half a second a lap.
Behind the comfortable Mercedes duo see’s Max Verstappen who did well to place his Red Bull into third. Monza is not usually a happy hunting ground for the Red Bull team nor Verstappen and they trail their title rivals, Mercedes, by near half a second – the largest gap between the two teams for a while. With the help from his teammate, Sergio Perez, Verstappen scraped himself into third, 0.411s from the front.
Perez saw his best attempts sacrificed in an attempt to aid Verstappen and lines up in ninth, a full second from the leading pace.
McLaren came into the weekend with confidence in their chances and it seems they were right. Lando Norris was unfortunate not to take third place away from Verstappen, trailing the Dutchman by 0.023s. Daniel Ricciardo was able to match his teammate throughout the session and lines up in fifth. The Australian found himself an agonising 0.006s away from his teammate.
To nobody’s surprise, Pierre Gasly pulled off another strong performance to begin his weekend on the front foot, placing himself in sixth place on the grid for the Sprint – after getting a handy tow from the Red Bull of Verstappen after they opted to lead the pack on the final runs.
Ferrari are, so far, enjoying a better Monza weekend then last year with both of their drivers remaining close to each other on the track. Carlos Sainz edged out Charles Leclerc by half a tenth for seventh and eighth. Leclerc found problems with his engine braking since his first run out in Q1, with the issue seeming to become less consistent.
Antonio Giovinazzi made it two Q3 sessions from the last two weekends as his Alfa Romeo in tenth, 1.2s away from the leading time. Where has this Italian been all season?
Aston Martin miss out after a strong practice.
Aston Martin found themselves with both cars inside the top six in the practice session, but were unable to replicate that performance come qualifying. Sebastian Vettel edged out Lance Stroll by 0.093s but both drivers would miss out on the top ten. To make matters slightly worse, Aston Martin would be slapped with a fine after an unsafe release from the garage saw Vettel almost go into the side of Hamilton’s Mercedes during the Mexican style stand off mayhem in the pit lane.
There is run of team formations in the grid as Alpine follow in Aston Martin’s footsteps with having both of their drivers next to each other in the timings. Fernando Alonso lines up ahead of Esteban Ocon.
George Russell originally failed to make it to the second qualifying session but circumstances meant he would go through. It would not get much further then that though as the British driver could only get his Williams into 15th, with teammate Nicholas Latifi just behind as the team formations come to an end.
Yuki Tsunoda thought he had done enough of a job to warranty safe passage to Q2, knocking Russell out. However, a track limit infringement would see his best time get deleted and dropped the AlphaTauri man back into 17th and another elimination in Q1.
Mick Schumacher performed well in his difficult Haas by gapping his teammate by half a second, whilst finding himself just two tenths away from Tsunoda and Latifi. Like Schumacher has been recently, Alfa Romeo’s Robert Kubica – who is replacing the unfit Kimi Raikkonen – found himself quite annoyed with the other Haas of Nikita Mazepin after the Polish driver had his lap “ruined” by the Russian. This left Kubica on the back row in 19th with Mazepin alongside.
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