Ferrari’s weekend is continuing to show major promise after Carlos Sainz took pole position on their home soil at Monza Circuit.
Sainz narrowly gapped Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen and teammate Charles Leclerc to secure his first pole of the season. With a best lap of 1:20.294, the Ferrari driver edged Verstappen by less than one hundredth of a second.
“It’s been such an intense qualifying, especially in Q3, where we all three went for it – we were very, very on the limit,” Sainz said. “In that last lap, I knew I had some lap time to come in Ascari and Parabolica. I went for it and it worked well, thank God, because I really pushed hard in that last lap!”
Verstappen remains optimistic ahead of Sunday’s race, as he looks to secure a record-setting 10th consecutive victory.
“It was very close all the way through quali and Ferrari have been quick throughout the whole weekend,” Verstappen said. “From our side we did everything we could to be as competitive as possible and I was happy with the lap in Q3, so nothing really to complain about. It was just not enough for pole but we know we have a good race car. It is all about the race pace and if we have better race pace, like normal, we will try to put the pressure on them. I am happy with how we set up the car for the race and hopefully that will pay off on Sunday.
“I know the win is something that could happen. If it’s 10 in a row that would be amazing, but we have to execute the race in the best possible way to achieve that.”
Mercedes’ George Russell followed suit in fourth while Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez rounded out the top-five.
“You need to be dynamic in this new qualifying format as you jump down the tire compounds, and I think we did a good job managing it today,” Russell said. “The engineers did a great job overnight and we hit the ground running this morning, I felt more comfortable in the car. With the softer tire compounds Pirelli have brought here, I think there’s the option to tune the set-up more aggressively for qualifying or favoring the race pace a little bit more.
“We’ve done the latter, so I hope it pays off tomorrow. There’s always lots of talk about a tow here, but it’s always a double-edge sword; I chose clean air on each run and it worked well today. Overall, though, this was a session that just shows how you need to get every detail right in F-1: in Q1, I didn’t get the tire in the right window and was P13; then in Q3, we ended up P4.
“Now it’s full focus on the race and I hope we can challenge for the podium.”
Alex Albon gave Williams a strong sixth-place starting position, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri following in seventh. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton ended his qualifying session in eighth, with the other McLaren of Lando Norris in ninth.
Fernando Alonso solidified the top 10 for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
Haas F-1’s Nico Hulkenberg was knocked out of Q2 in 13th. Hulkenberg’s teammate Kevin Magnussen starts 19th.