F.I.A. stewards are investigating ‘bunching’ that occurred at day’s end.
MONZA, Italy—September 7th—In one of the strangest qualifying finishes in the sport’s history, Charles Leclerc took the pole for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
With only two minutes to go, ten drivers bunched and slowed down, enabling only Carlos Sainz Jr. to just make the cutoff to qualify for a lap time in which the Spaniard could only take seventh fastest.
The strange event came after Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen went off the track at Paribolica with 6:35 remaining, skidding backward into the barriers and heavily damaging the rear of his car. That incident brought out the second red flag session of the day. Things took only a few minutes to address. But when the green lights appeared, nobody came out of the pits until only a couple of minutes to go. When Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg lost his patience and decided to head out first, his action initiated every other car in the final session to appear.
When this occurred, all the entries–apart from Sainz Jr.–failed to make the cutoff time that was required for a driver to complete a lap. Since Monza is a 5.3-mile circuit per lap, it is tougher for a driver to be too slow if he is to take a flying lap. After Sainz failed to improve his time, Leclerc was declared the winner. He’ll take pole ahead of both Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valterri Bottas, who finished second and third, respectively.
Leclerc radioed back to the team radio calling it a “Big mess,” but was pleased at the same time. “It was just incredible,” Leclerc said. “I have never seen so many people and it was absolutely amazing. It was absolutely a shame at the end. It was a mess, and I was hoping for a good lap.”
Some popular names went home early. Max Verstappen was hit with a Honda power issue and never made it out of the first session. Joining him is Mexican Racing Point driver Sergio Perez, who pulled off the track at Curve Grande with the same issues. This brought out the first red flag for a few minutes until track marshals could pull Perez’s car off the circuit. The American Haas F1 Team did not have a good day, either. Romain Grosjean exited the first session, while teammate Kevin Magnussen left in session two.
Sebastian Vettel was disappointed about the mess in the final minutes, but he eventually took fourth.
It had been a while since a Ferrari took pole at their home race. But it has been even longer time for a race victory, something that Leclerc is hoping to change. “We should be able to do that.” Leclerc confidently added. “We have been doing race simulations during free practice two, and it seems to work well. So, we hope that we will do well.”
