Max Verstappen took a shock pool position for Lando Norris in an unpredictable qualifying session for the Italian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman had only been in the run-up to Q3, with the McLaren and Ferrari managers most likely to compete to fight the top position. But Verstappen peaked at the right time. He was perfectly placed on his first run to pick up a slipstream from teammate Yuki Tsunoda as one of the last drivers on course to Pip Charles Leclerc with only 0.084S and Oscar Piaastri with 0.133S. But his positioning was even better the second time, when he left Pit Lane directly behind Piastri and Norris to get a powerful drag from both McLaren managers and his most important polar rivals.
Norris played in the first place with his final round, but Verstappen landed his last punch to set a new track record with a time of 1m 18,792s and defeated the Brit with 0.077s for his fifth pool of the season and his first since July British Grand Prix.
“Q3 felt good, I am happy with the laps,” he said. “To be here on a pole is fantastic. The car works much better here all weekend.
“It was tight. We still missed a small amount [after FP3]. We have made a number of last changes that I think I was a bit more. That is exactly what you need to qualify. For us it is a great moment. “
But the reigning four -time champion was more careful with the chance to turn Pool into the victory.
“Historically, the race has always been a bit more complicated for us this season, but we are going to give it all we have,” he said.
Norris was relieved and frustrated in equal parts to save second place after a Scrappy qualifying session that had almost eliminated him in Q2. The title Challenger closed on the first chicane on his first round of the middle segment and was forced to draw on fresh tires and an alternative run plan.
The Brit got a push-cool-cool-push program to try to get the most out of his reduced chance, but his first round was only lukewarm and dropped him outside 10 at the end of the session. He crossed the starting line with just enough time to set a flying round, and McLaren used Piastri to give his teammate a slipstream to help his progress.
Norris also benefited from slipstreams elsewhere on the trail of cars on their cooling laps to confirm his place in Q3. His first round in Q3, which was set without slipstream, left him seventh in the provisional order and more than half a second from Verstappen. But a Piastri slip stream on his second round led him to the front row and hurts what would have been a fifth pole for the season.
“It was quite a session for me, just up and down,” he said. “Too many mistakes.
“I feel that I have not done the best work, but to end P2, I am still happy with it. P2 is not a bad position of the line.”
Piastri regretted his own qualifying performance, opened him to the defeat, although he said that the proximity of the session was not surprising him after missing the post with 0.19s.
“Turn 1 was a bit average, but the rest of the round all felt pretty tidy,” he said. “I feel that I have performed a pretty good session. I think it has just been incredibly tight this weekend.
“Max and Red Bull look fast this weekend – to be honest, many teams look quickly. It has not been so comfortable for us.”
Ferrari finished a relatively distant fourth and fifth, Charles Leclerc for Lewis Hamilton, and 0.215s and 0.332s of the pace respectively.
Hamilton is relegated to the 10th on the grid after he has been given a fine of five space for an infringement on a yellow flag of the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend.
Mercedes teammates George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli were closely matched in the sixth and seventh in the order, 0.365s and 0.408s of the pace. They share the third row in Sunday after the punishment of Hamilton.
Gabriel Bortoleto used his fourth Q3 performance of the last six Grands Prix to qualify at the head of midfield in the eighth and 0.598s from the post.
Fernando Alonso followed in the ninth for Yuki Tsunoda-the Japanese driver in Q3 for the second time in the last 10 rounds of the order 0.727s behind his teammate of the Pole.
Oliver Bearman qualified 11th and missed a top 10 berth with only 0.013s, before Nico Hulkenberg, who still has to make his first Q3 appearance of the season.
The hope for a big weekend for Williams was a blow by Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon qualified 13th and 14th. The team even tried to arrange a slipstream between them during Q2, to walk them out of the series with the other drivers, but it didn’t help.
Esteban Ocon was eliminated in the 15th as the slowest motivation of Q2.
Isack Hadjar was eliminated in the 16th but only 0.08s short for a place in Q2. The Frenchman, who had never been beaten from the first quarter for this weekend, was only 0.503s from the top position on a tight opening stanza to qualify, of which he said it was influenced by traffic and then a mistake. Hadjar later confirmed that he would start from Pit Lane before changing his power unit at night.
Lance Stroll will therefore be lit 16th after his 11th Q1 elimination of the season and his sixth failure to get past Q1 from the last seven rounds.
Franco Colapinto Outqualified Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly with 0.111s in the 18th and 19th for Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson, who left his last flight round after running the track at the second Lesmo bend. All three will be promoted a place after Hadjar’s punishment.
Result
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