FACTS AND STATS: Verstappen endures his worst qualifying in a year as Norris scores back-to-back poles for the first time

Lando Norris grabbed pole from his team mate in Monza, McLaren proving to be the class of the field in what was a very tight session. Crucially for their championship hopes, they have both Ferrari cars and the Mercedes pair between them and Red Bull, with Max Verstappen struggling in the Italian heat. Here are the best facts and stats from a thrilling qualifying session…

• Norris has scored back-to-back poles for the first time in his F1 career, as well as his fourth pole in the last seven Grands Prix.

• Norris has lost the lead on all previous occasions he has started from pole – four in Grands Prix, two in Sprints.

• Norris is the fifth different pole-sitter in the last five years at Monza, but none of the previous four went on to win the race.

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• McLaren scored their first front row lockout at Monza since 2012 – when Lewis Hamilton won from pole for them.

• Their improvement is stark, with Norris qualifying ninth here last year and Oscar Piastri seventh.

• Piastri was out-qualified by his team mate for the eighth consecutive race, but he did score his third front row start of the season and he did win from P2 on the grid in Hungary.

• The two McLaren drivers collided here last year.

• George Russell extends his qualifying lead over Hamilton to 12-4 as he grabbed only his fourth top three start in the last 15 races.

• Charles Leclerc was fourth, and he has now out-qualified his team mates six times out of seven visits here.

• Carlos Sainz was fifth, as he gets set to celebrate his 30th birthday tomorrow. The last driver to win on their birthday was Jean Alesi in a Ferrari at Montreal in 1995.

• Hamilton was sixth, his best start at Monza since 2001.

• Verstappen qualified seventh, his worst qualifying performance since missing Q2 in Singapore last year.

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• Sergio Perez was eighth, as he came within 0.040s of out-qualifying his team mate for the first time since Miami 2023.

• Alex Albon qualified ninth, having reached Q3 in all four attempts at Monza. Nico Hulkenberg recorded his seventh Q3 appearance of the season.

• Fernando Alonso missed Q3 by 0.010s.

• Daniel Ricciardo was 12th, his first time starting outside of the top 10 here since 2018.

• Kevin Magnussen qualified P13, his highest start here since 2019.

• Pierre Gasly out-qualified his team mate for the second race in a row, by trails in their head-to-head by 10-6.

• Esteban Ocon hasn’t started in the top 10 here since 2018.

• Yuki Tsunoda suffered his second Q1 elimination in the past three races.

• Lance Stroll dropped out in Q1 for the third time this season, and the third time in a row at Monza.

• Franco Colapinto was 18th in his first qualifying with the team – bettering Logan Sargeant’s last effort of P19 in Belgium.

• The Kick Sauber cars are the slowest for the second weekend in a row.

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