Italian GP: Leclerc takes pole ahead of Verstappen

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc secured pole position, in front of the home Tifosi, as the Monegasque finished 0.145 seconds ahead of his championship rival, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Q1

As the pit exit light went green, to signal the start of qualifying, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was the first driver to venture out onto the Italian Autodromo Nazionale Monza circuit. As Stroll was prepared to start his first flying lap, the Canadian driver was the soon joined out on track by the likes of both Haas’, his teammate Sebastian Vettel and Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Naturally, the Canadian was the first driver to set a lap time on the board with a 1:24.231, but this was soon beaten by the likes of both Haas’ and Tsunoda – who set the fastest lap (1:22.762) before the bulk of the field peeled out of the pit lane.

After a handful of laps for the opening third of qualifying, Verstappen topped the timing board with a blistering lap time of 1:20.922, 0.358 seconds faster than the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, in P2 and P3 respectively.

At the same time, Williams’ Nyck de Vries was performing well in his first qualifying debut for Williams as Alexander Albon went into surgery for Appendicitis. The Dutch driver sat in P12, as the session crept into its final minutes, 0.02 ahead of – his teammate – Nicholas Latifi in P13.

By the end of the first third, Latifi was knocked out of Q1 while his Dutch teammate went on to secure his first Q2 appearance in his competitive F1 debut.

Eliminated

20. Mick Schumacher, Haas (penalty incoming)

19. Kevin Magnussen, Haas (penalty incoming)

18. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin

17. Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin.

16. Nicholas Latifi, Williams

Q2

When the pit exit light returned to green, to signal the start of Q2, the surviving drivers eased their way back on track and began to travel slowly around Monza to generate a big enough gap to the car in front.

Verstappen was the first driver to set a lap time on the board but the defending world champion was soon beaten by Sainz who managed to set a lovely 1:20.878, 0.330 seconds faster than Leclerc who went second fastest. Both Ferrari drivers were believed to be on used soft tyres.

After the first set of runs, Sainz topped the timing board with his best time, ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen. While further down Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas headed those in the elimination zone, ahead of De Vries, Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) and Tsunoda.

However, the Japnaese driver climbed out of his AT03 after he failed to set a lap time in Q2. This means, with a P15 finish in Q2, Tsunoda will start at the back of the grid with a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding the allowed amount of reprimands across a season.

De Vries saw the end of qualifying as the Dutchman locked up his rear axle into the Del Roggia chicane (turns four and five) and was forced to take the run-off area with seven second left on the clock.

Eliminated:

15. Yuki Tsuonda, Alpha Tauri (penalty incoming)

14. Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo

13. Nyck De Vries, Williams

12. Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo (penalty incoming)

11. Esteban Ocon, Alpine (penalty incoming)

Q3

After the top 10 drivers returned to the circuit, Sainz – who was set to take a grid penalty – sat at the top of the timing board with Leclerc (+0.186) tucked in behind while Verstappen (+0.275) rounded out the top three.

Perez, in the leaderboard, sat behind his teammate in fourth. Whilst Mercedes’ George Russell occupied fifth ahead of Lando Norris (McLaren), Sir Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Ricciardo respectively.

With two minutes left to go, Alonso – who was sat in P10 – finally ventured out onto the circuit to get a lap time on the board.

Top 10:

10. Fernando Alonso, Alpine

9. Pierre Gasly, Alpha Tauri

8. Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren

7. Lando Norris, McLaren

6. George Russell, Mercedes

5. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (penalty incoming)

4. Sergio Perez, Red Bull (penalty incoming)

3. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari (penalty incoming)

2. Max Verstappen, Red Bull (penalty incoming)

1. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

That’s it for the article: Italian GP: Leclerc takes pole ahead of Verstappen! With the grid set, who do you think will win the race? Let us know in the comments!

Read more Formula 1 here:

• Italian GP: Sainz tops FP2 ahead of Verstappen
• Motorsport mourns death of Queen Elizabeth II
• Will Ferrari fluster at Italian Grand Prix
• Dutch GP: Verstappen secures home win after late safety car
• Dutch GP: Verstappen beat Leclerc by 0.021 seconds as Perez crashes

To keep up to date with the latest news from Apex Motorsports, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!