Max Verstappen Poles, Setting Historic Time For Red Bull In Italian GP Qualifying Session

 

Max Verstappen won his fifth pole position of the season in the Italian GP qualifying session in Monza, setting the all-time quickest time for Red Bull in 1:18.792s, as the McLaren duo, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, followed in second and third positions, respectively.  

Norris was edged out by seven hundredths of a second after he improved on the time set on his second run. Verstappen battled strongly with his rivals in Q3 as the timesheet changed between him and his rivals in the first run and later in the second. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who had shown resistance earlier, later dropped behind in fourth. 

RB's Isack Hadjar was unable to live up to his performance from last weekend at Zandvoort in the Dutch GP and dropped out in Q1. Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton reached Q3 but was unable to improve his time on the second run and finished fifth behind Leclerc. 

Mercedes had a difficult race, despite deploying different tyres - they changed from medium to soft tyres - to improve their performance, both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli could not compete as favourably as their rivals. Russell finished in sixth, followed by Antonelli in seventh. 

Italian GP Qualifying Session Top 10

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)......1:18.792s

2. Lando Norris (McLaren)

3. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 

4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

5. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) 

6 George Russell (Mercedes)

7. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)

8. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)

9. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martins)

10. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)