F1 – Norris on pole as McLaren lock out front row at Monza, Verstappen seventh

Lando Norris took this fourth pole position of the season and his second in a row as P2 for Oscar Piastri locked out the front row of the grid for McLaren for the 2024 FIA Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix. Geroge Russell qualified third for Mercedes as championship leader Max Verstappen ended up in seventh place.

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At the start of Q1, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the early pace with a lap of 1:20.074. Verstappen then crossed the line in 1:20.226 to take P2. He was soon demoted to third, however, when Norris jumped to the top of the order with a lap of 1:19.911.

Further back Sergio Pérez, in the second Red Bull, looked in trouble ahead of the final flyers. In 19^th place and 1.2 seconds off Norris, the Mexican required a strong final flyer and he delivered with a time of 1:20.598 that was good enough to hand P9 at the end of the opening session.

At the top of the order Norris claimed P1 ahead of Leclerc and Piastri, with Ferraris Carlos Sainz fourth place ahead of Russell and Verstappen.

Ruled out at the end of the session were RB’s Yuki Tsunoda in P16, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Williams’ rookie Franco Colapinto and the Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

At the start of Q2, Leclerc again set the early pace, with the Ferrari driver lapping in 1:20.296 to take top spot 0.032s ahead of team-mate Sainz as both went out on used Softs. Verstappen, meanwhile, had new Softs onboard and he jumped ahead of both Ferraris to take P1 with a time of 1:19.874. The championship leader couldn’t hold on to P1, however, and Norris soon jumped to top spot with a lap of 1:19.727, 0.081 ahead of Piastri who was just under seven hundredths of a second ahead of Verstappen. Hamilton then moved ahead of all three thanks to a lap of 1:19.641.

In the final runs of Q2, Versatappen improved to 1:19.662 to climb to second place behind pacesetter Hamilton, who backed out of what appeared to be an exploratory final run. Norris and Sainz, who elected not to run in the final moments, took third and fourth respectively ahead of the second McLaren of Piastri.

There was, however, no place in the top-10 shootout for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who exited in P11 ahead of RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and the Alpine cars of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

In the opening runs of Q3, Norris led Piastri, with the Briton claiming provisional pole with a time of 1:19.401, just 0.035s ahead of the Australian. They were followed by Russell and Hamilton, with the Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc in fifth and sixth ahead of Pérez and Verstappen who complained of a lack of grip from his new set of Soft tyres.

In the second and final runs, the Red Bulls again struggled. Pérez, leading the way on track, ran wide at the second Lesmo and kicked up a plume of dust, which then upset Verstappen who had already gone slightly wide at Lesmo 1. It meant that although he improved his personal best, Verstappen only rose above his team-mate and the title leader will start seventh.

Behind, Norris only went quicker in sector two compared to his previous personal best, but he still improved the first place benchmark to set pole at 1m19.327, a tenth ahead of Piastri with just 0.004s behind the Australian. Leclerc qualified in fourth place ahead of team-mate Sainz, while Lewis Hamilton took fifth at the flag ahead of Verstappen and Pérez. Alex Albon was ninth for Williams and the top 10 order was rounded out by Haas’ Hülkenberg.

2024 FIA Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix – Qualifying

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