Verstappen was already good in Monza all weekend and made the difference on Saturday afternoon. He was ahead of McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The Ferrari and Mercedes drivers followed behind it.
Verstappen’s first fast round of qualification was not flawless. He went a little too wide and then immediately asked his team to check the floor for possible damage. In his second flying round, on used tires, he still drove to the second time. George Russell (Mercedes) was surprisingly the fastest in Q1, on the harder medium rubber.
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Yuki Tsunoda, the teammate of Verstappen, continued fourth to Q2. The canvas fell for Isack Hadjar – last week third in Zandvoort – Lance Stroll, Franco Colapinto, Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson.
Yuki Tsunoda also through to Q3
In Q2, Norris had to give a lot of gas because he had to break down his first fast round. The Brit chose to ride two more fast laps in the final phase. In the end, that was enough for a fifth time, in one and a half tenth of the time of the fastest man in Q2: Verstappen. His Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda set the tenth time and therefore achieved Q3, just like Gabriel Bortoleto and Fernando Alonso, among others. For Oliver Bearman, Nico Hülkenberg, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon, the shelter did not survive.
Exciting battle for pole position
The audience in Monza went well in the final phase of the qualification. Leclerc was faster than Piastri, but then saw Verstappen diving under his time. Norris got no further than the seventh time after that first run.
In the second run, Norris still came under the time of Verstappen, but the Dutchman then sharpness his time. He was eventually 77 thousandths rapper than the British and almost two tenths than Piastri.
