Sainz sends the Ferrari Tifosi into raptures with Italian GP pole

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz sent the Tifosi into raptures after the Spaniard driver managed to pip Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to pole position, for the Italian Grand Prix, by one-hundredth of a second.

Q1

As per the alternate tyre allocation, all of the drivers were mandated to use the hard compound tyres for the first qualifying session. They will then need to use the medium and then the soft compounds for Q2 and Q3 respectively.

Although the pit exit light went green, at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, there was no flurry of action out of the pit lane as you would normally see in qualifying. However, it did not take long before the cars finally peeled out of the pit lane, equipped with the hard tyres.

Of the first banker laps, Williams’ Alexander Albon set the fastest time on the board as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen became the first driver to fall foul of track limits at turn seven. This was soon followed by the Aston Martin duo as both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll had their fastest lap times deleted for track limits at the same corner.

As the session approached the end of the first third, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was wheeled back into his respective garage with suspected damage on his F1 car. Just over the halfway mark, the French driver ran deep on the exit of the Ascari chicane and over the gravel.

After a quick check over, and some damage, the French drive was back out on track in a bid to get out of the elimination zone. However, both Ocon and his teammate – Pierre Gasly – were not able to get out of the bottom five to progress into Q2.

Eliminated:

20. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin

19. Kevin Magnussen, Haas

18. Esteban Ocon, Alpine

17. Pierre Gasly, Alpine

16. Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo

Q2

Ahead of Q2, Ferrari was under threat of the stewards as both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz – who had made it through to the second third of qualifying – allegedly failed to follow the race director’s instructions. In a bid to avoid drivers going too slowly, the race director has imposed a maximum lap time of 1:41.000 between both safety car lines.

However, the two Ferrari drivers are suspected to have broken this time limit.

In a similar moment to Q1, when the pit lane went green to signal the start of Q2, the remaining 15 drivers opted to stay in their respective garages. It was not long before the field finally pulled out onto the circuit, on the medium tyres.

Only the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell remained in their garages. When the session hit the five-minute mark, both Mercedes drivers finally peeled out of the pit lane.

After the first stint of runs throughout Q2, Sainz topped the session – despite the pending investigation – with a 1:20.991 which was four-hundredths of a second faster than Verstappen as Leclerc occupied third. By the chequered flag, the top three shifted around as Verstappen topped the timing table ahead of both Leclerc and Sainz.

Eliminated:

15. Logan Sargeant, Williams

14. Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo

13. Nico Hulkenberg, Haas

12. Liam Lawson, Alpha Tauri

11. Yuki Tsunoda, Alpha Tauri

Q3

The reigning world champion, and current championship leader, Verstappen decided to become the first bullet to punch a hole through the air for the remainder of the field. The Dutchman was the first driver to head out on track as the pit exit light went green and naturally set the fastest lap time on the board with a 1:20.6, on the mandatory soft tyres.

Although the Dutchman punched the hole through the settled air, he still put in a faster lap time than his teammate. Despite this, the Ferrari pairing jumped to the top of the timing boards with Sainz on top (1:20.532), three-hundredths of a second faster than Leclerc who sat in second place.

Of the remaining drivers, Russell and Albon rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth respectively. Perez led the bottom half of the top 10 ahead of the McLaren pairing, Norris and Piastri, in sixth, seventh and eighth respectively. Hamilton (9th) and Alonso (10th) rounded out the top 10.

Just under three minutes remained on the clock and Alonso was the first driver to head out onto the Italian circuit whereas Hamilton was the last.

On the final runs, Leclerc took provisional pole before Verstappen snatched that away from the Monegasque. However, the man who has put in the fastest times on the board in both Free Practice 2 and 3, Sainz managed to secure his second career pole position since the 2022 British Grand Prix.

Top 10:

10. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin

9. Lando Norris, McLaren

8. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes 

7. Oscar Piastri, McLaren

6. Alexander Albon, Williams

5. Sergio Perez, Red Bull

4. George Russell, Mercedes

3. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

2. Max Verstappen, Red Bull

1. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari

That’s all for the article: Sainz sends the Ferrari Tifosi into raptures with Italian GP pole!

Read more Formula 1 here:

• Sainz fastest in Italian GP FP2 to give Tifosi reason to cheer
• Verstappen tops first practice of Italian GP with hard tyre run
• Lewis Hamilton puts F1 speculation to bed with two-year extension with Mercedes
• Ferrari and Alfa Romeo to run special liveries for Italian GP
• Lawson set to continue with Alpha Tauri as Ricciardo recovers
• Verstappen secures 9th consecutive race win in Dutch GP

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