Round 15/23: Review of the Italian Grand Prix qualifying

Carlos Sainz beat Max Verstappen by 13-thousandths of a second to take the Italian Grand Prix pole position in front of the Ferrari home crowd. Sainz, Verstappen, and Charles Leclerc were separated by less than a tenth on the podium as once again the fight for the pole was close. George Russell in the Mercedes and Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull rounded up the top five.

The qualifying session at the Italian Grand Prix had some novel changes with hard tires being mandatory in Q1, medium tires in Q2, and softs in Q3. This probably means that slower teams cannot gamble on soft tires early to get into Q2 and Q3. Additionally, a maximum time limit for a lap has been set by the race director to avoid any hazards during the out lap, and the time was capped at 1 minute 41 seconds.

Ferrari at home, had a special livery to honor their Le Mans victory earlier in the year and went aggressive on their setup for the qualifying. Carlos Sainz appeared to be the one to challenge Max as he topped two of three practice sessions. Lance Stroll has not had a great weekend as his Aston Martin suffered from a fuel issue that left him out of FP2 while the Williams looked very strong on a track where downforce is not significant. Let us now delve into the qualifying session in detail.

Q1

Max Verstappen began the session by running wide on his very first lap and later got his time deleted for track limits at turn seven. The time set by Max at 1:22.047 was good enough for P1 in the initial laps. Fernando Alonso too had his lap time deleted for track limits at turn seven during his first run. After the first run, it was Alex Albon in the Williams who was at the top of the charts with George Russell, Sergio Perez, and Carlos Sainz behind him.

Lando Norris and Esteban Ocon had a moment on their out lap as they almost crashed into each other as they were fighting for track position. In his push lap, Esteban Ocon lost control of the car and went wide at turn 10 compromising his lap time and also getting the time deleted for track limits. Pierre Gasly in the other Alpine too ran wide at turn 2, getting his lap time deleted. With less than two minutes to go, both the Alpines were at risk of elimination along with Valtteri Bottas, Oscar Piastri, and Lance Stroll. The Ferraris meanwhile occupied P3 and P4 with Verstappen at the top.

Piastri and Bottas managed to get out of the bottom five in their last run as they finished P11 and P14. Liam Lawson finished P12 as he moved into Q2 for the very first time in his career. Yuki Tsunoda meanwhile finished P4 in the session. Zhou Guanyu and Kevin Magnussen were pushed down into the bottom five and missed Q2 as they finished P16 and P19. The Alpines finished P17 and P18 and it was the first time since 2016 that both Alpines failed to reach Q2. Stroll was the last car to miss Q2 as he finished P20.

Q2

Q2 began competitively as Max Verstappen split the Ferraris in the first run but the gap between the top three was less than two tenths. George Russel was in P6 but Lewis Hamilton was in P12 struggling with his car after he expressed his happiness with the car after FP1. Nico Hulkenberg, Liam Lawson, Logan Sargeant, and Bottas were the other drivers at risk after their first runs.

With Williams looking very strong and is one of the tracks where they have an immense advantage over the rest of the field, it was Logan Sargeant's turn to impress Williams and secure his contract for the next year. However, the young American failed to improve on his time set earlier as all his sectors on his final lap were yellow, and could only finish P15. Hamilton got out of the drop zone by finishing P6 and pushing Tsunoda into the drop zone.

Lawson finished P12 behind his teammate by just over a tenth. It was an impressive performance from the youngster in just his second weekend and once again he showed why he was so highly rated by his peers. Hulkenberg and Bottas were the other two eliminated as they finished P13 and P14. Norris just made it into Q3 by 13 thousandths of a second.

Q3

By the start of Q3, it was clear that the battle would be between the two Ferraris and Verstappen for pole position. In the first runs, it was the Ferraris who led Verstappen with Sainz taking the provisional pole position by three-hundredths of a second from his teammate. Hamilton’s struggles continued as his teammate finished fourth ahead of Albon in the Williams.

In the final lap, Leclerc was the first amongst the three to go and he got the fastest first sector. Sainz who started the last got the fastest middle sector while Max got the fastest third sector. At the end of their laps, Leclerc raised the bar by finishing ahead of Sainz’s provisional pole lap time while Verstappen edged out Leclerc by five-hundredths of a second only to be beaten by Sainz by 13-thousandths of a second.

Russell finished P4 while Perez ended up in P5 ahead of Albon in P6. Piastri beat Norris finishing P7 while Hamilton finished P8. Alonso ended up finishing P10.

References

1. Image Credits: www.formula1.com
2. Thumbnail Image Credits: www.formula1.com

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