Mercedes finishes 1-2 for Sunday’s race as Ferrari fails to achieve a top ten slot.
MONZA, Italy—September 5th—After Valtteri Bottas had the fastest time in the circuit’s history in the second qualifying session for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton upped the ante by setting a better time in the final session.
Hamilton’s 1:18:867 ride enabled him to take the 94th pole of his career. In a heroic drive, Carlos Sainz Jr. took third in his McLaren.
Lewis Hamilton: It was not the easiest. You saw how close it was, and it demanded a clean lap. Valtteri was very close and pushing. I made some big changes going into qualifying, and I was a little nervous, but it worked out just fine.
Hamilton set the best time in the opening session, but Bottas came back quickly and managed to set the track record of fellow countryman, Kimi Raikkonen, by posting a 1:18:952. But Hamilton knew he had another session to go, and he made the best of it by qualifying just in front of Bottas by only 0.069 seconds.
Sergio Perez had his best qualifying result with a fourth-place finish in his Racing Point, while teammate, Lance Stroll took eighth. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Alex Albon were fifth and ninth, respectively. For the rest of the top ten qualifiers, Lando Norris was sixth in the second McLaren, Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo was seventh, and Pierre Gasly rounded up the top ten in the second Alpha Tauri.
For others, it was anything but a happy day, particularly for home-standing Ferrari.
For the first time since 1984, the Prancing Horse did not place in the top ten. Sebastian Vettel was eliminated in the opening session, and Charles Leclerc departed in the second.
That wasn’t the only bad news for teams on this qualifying day. Williams, who will have new owners next weekend in Tuscany, were both out in the opening session with George Russell and Nicolas Latifi. Alfa’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Haas F1’s Romain Grosjean met the same fate.
With bunching the order of the day until the last session, it was difficult for several drivers to secure a good qualifying time. In that category was Dani Kvyat in the Alpha Tauri, along with Renault’s Esteban Ocon, Alfa’s Raikkonen, and the second Haas F1 of Kevin Magnussen.
You can view Sunday’s race starting at 9:10 a.m. U.S. Eastern time on ESPN.
