It’s qualifying time in Monza! Today the alternate tyre format will be used for the second time after the Hungarian GP, with drivers having to use hard tyres in Q1, mediums in Q2 and softs in Q3.
Verstappen can never be counted out on a top performance, but Ferrari has been surprisingly fast, with Carlos Sainz leading two practice sessions.
The championship leader’s teammate Sergio Perez hasn’t had the easiest weekend so far, crashing out in both FP2 and FP3 and suffering from an oil leak. Red Bull is still hard at work to fix the issue on the Mexican driver’s car, and they swapped his power unit for a used one.
First driver out on track was Verstappen, followed by the McLarens and everyone else shortly after. The first fast lap was signed by Kevin Magnussen in 1:22.853s, whereas the championship leader is the first driver to see a lap time deleted for track limits.
After the first round of attempts, Albon is leading with a 1:22.123s, followed by Russell and Perez, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc popping briefly in P2 but having his lap time removed as well. Lando Norris and Esteban Ocon almost make contact at the Parabolica.
With eight minutes to go, Verstappen and Alonso finally managed to put in a valid lap, ending up in P1 and P3 respectively, whereas Liam Lawson in his second weekend at AlphaTauri is in provisional P7. The bottom 5 momentarily features the Alpines, Hulkenberg, Stroll and Piastri.
The Ferraris come to life, as Sainz slots in P3 ahead of Leclerc in P4, 0.400s off Verstappen’s leading 1:21.573s. Lance Stroll improves from P20 to P17, but is still miles off his teammate Fernando Alonso’s performance in P5, whereas Piastri’s best effort that had put him in P11 was removed because of track limits.
Photo credits: Scuderia Ferrari
In the final moments of the session, Williams showed very impressive speed as Albon shoots up to P2 and Sargeant to P5, with the American driver dropping to sixth after Tsunoda’s run.
After not getting any chance to run on Friday, sitting out in place of Felipe Drugovich during FP1 and suffering from an electric issue during FP2, Stroll qualifies P20 for a very tough weekend so far in Monza.
The Ferrari drivers are put under investigation for not complying to the newly issued maximum out lap time rule, which will be investigated after the end of the session.
Out in Q1: Zhou, Gasly, Ocon, Magnussen, Stroll.
All the drivers come out at the same time for Q2, The first time is issued by the two-time Dutch championship winner on a 1:21.035s, but is slightly bested by Sainz’s first attempt. Leclerc, Albon and Perez round up the provisional top five.
A notable mention in the provisional bottom 5 is Hamilton, who mentioned on the radio that he was “held up” by Sergio Perez, who overtook him before diving into the pits. The Mercedes driver is joined by Hulkenberg, Lawson, Sargeant and Bottas.
After a quick tyre swap everyone is back on track wih two minutes to go in the session, but the Williams drivers both catch the chequered flag. Leclerc’s final attempt puts him in provisional P1, replaced shortly afterwards by Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton makes history as the first Formula 1 driver ever to make 300 appearances in Q3.
Out in Q2: Tsunoda, Lawson, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Sargeant.
After the first round of pole attempts it’s a provisional Ferrari front row, with Sainz leading in 1:20.532 from Leclerc, with Verstappen, Russell and Albon close behind as the Red Bull driver slightly ran wide in the gravel during his attempt
All the drivers return on track for what will definetly be a heated finale of the session, as Leclerc, Verstappen and Sainz all have their moments in P1.
The Spanish Ferrari driver ultimately delivers the best time on a 1:20.294s for his first pole of 2023, and it’s confirmed that he will be starting on the grid tomorrow from P1 as no further investigation will be done for his team’s Q1 offence.
He will line up with championship leader Max Verstappen, as his teammate Charles Leclerc slots in P3 alongside George Russell. Perez and Albon will start from the third row. Oscar Piastri scored P7, ahead of his teammate Lando Norris in P9. World Champions Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso ended up in P8 and P10.
