Feature
What the teams said – Qualifying in Italy
Special Contributor
Becky HartShare
McLaren
McLaren shaved off some more downforce going into Saturday, and it certainly made a positive difference. They locked out the front row here for the first time since 2012, with Norris a tenth ahead of Piastri. That was despite neither driver being overly happy with their final lap in Q3. But they had enough to beat the chasing pack, and look well placed to further erode Red Bull’s lead in the constructors’ tomorrow.
Lando Norris, 1st, 1:19.327
“Another pole, which is amazing. To have a first and second in Qualifying is a little bit of a surprise when the field has been as tight as it has all weekend. The team has done an amazing job. It would be great to replicate this tomorrow, but it’s been very, very close on track. There are a lot of very quick drivers behind in quick cars, so I’m not expecting an easy race. There’s also plenty of question marks over the tyre degradation on the new tarmac – so lots of unknowns for us but plenty of excitement for the fans.”
Oscar Piastri, 2nd, 1:19.436
“The first lap in Q3 was quite good, but the second was not quite there. However, it was still a good performance and a really good team effort. The field’s been incredibly tight this weekend, there was no guarantee of a front-row lock-out for us, so it’s an amazing effort to be able to pull that off. After the resurfacing, it’s been a little bit different to what we’re used to in Monza, and with such a tight field at the front, I think tomorrow’s race will be very exciting.”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal
“A great result for the team in what was an extremely tight Qualifying, with only a couple of tenths between first and sixth here in Monza. We were expecting a different situation to Zandvoort, given the two layouts are polar opposites, so it’s reassuring to confirm the MCL38 is working well across a range of conditions.
“We’re now focused on the race. Tyre behaviour will be interesting, and I think everyone will be going in with a degree of uncertainty about how it might pan-out. We have to work hard tonight, extract the most out of the car, and try to maximise this very strong grid position.”
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Mercedes
Hamilton topped FP3, and Mercedes went into qualifying as one of the favourites. When Hamilton topped Q2 as well, they certainly seemed in the mix but wound up behind McLaren on the first runs in Q3. The second runs saw Russell towing Hamilton again, but while he improved to secure third, Hamilton’s last effort was a touch messy and he had to settle for sixth – which might be something of a disappointment.
Lewis Hamilton, 6th, 1:19.513
"I am very disappointed with how today went. I think we could have been on the front-row, maybe even pole position. Unfortunately, I just didn’t do the job today. I lost one tenth and-a-half through turns one and two, and then one more tenth in the final corner. There is nobody else to blame but myself. Qualifying has been a weakness of mine recently, but I’ll keep trying to figure it out.
"We have a good race car. That should give us confidence for tomorrow. The team has done an amazing job to get the W15 into a much better window than it was in Zandvoort. The car has been feeling so much better."
George Russell, 3rd, 1:19.440
"P3 was a good result today. It was very tight out there between several teams so starting on the second row is not a bad place to be. It took me a little bit of time to get the most out of the car; we looked at how to get the best out of the tyres and I saved my two best laps for last. To be just one tenth off pole position is a little frustrating but overall, we can be happy with our Saturday.
"The McLarens are very quick at the moment. It is super impressive. Hopefully we can challenge them into the first corner and get ahead. If we can’t, I think it will be difficult to race them tomorrow. It is very hot out there though and the tyres are suffering. It will be interesting to see what impact that has on the Grand Prix."
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
We have to be pleased with today given our poor performance in Zandvoort. We have been able to bounce back strongly here in Monza and, at least in Qualifying, we were fighting at the very front. The McLarens are the benchmark at the moment and we able to challenge them today. It was incredibly close out there too. Lewis was just half-a-tenth shy of George and that was the difference between several positions. Small differences can really have a big impact at present.
"The McLarens have been very good on their tyres in recent races. That will help them tomorrow and you have to say that they are favourites heading into race day. Others were quick in their long runs on Friday though so I don’t think you can rule anyone out. We will be pushing hard to get back on the podium."
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
"We knew it was going to be tight at the front today. It was therefore not unexpected that the field was so close at the end of Q3. Ferrari managed to get both of their cars into the 0.073s gap that was between Lewis and George. McLaren meanwhile have been quick at every track we’ve visited recently so it was no surprise to find that we couldn't quite match them. That is both frustrating and encouraging. The gap to P1 was just over one tenth of a second and pole position was within touching distance for both our drivers.
"George is well placed lining up in P3. Our starts have been good recently and it's a long run to turn one. If we can get between the McLarens off the line, that will help our chances of a strong afternoon. Lewis has a bit of work to do starting from behind the Ferraris, but the degradation here looks set to be high. There could be plenty of opportunity to get into the fight at the front if that is the case. As we know, he is one of the best at tyre management so we can be excited as to what tomorrow may bring."
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Ferrari
Ferrari were quick in FP3 and looked right in the mix for pole. Sainz wound up towing Leclerc around, although the Spaniard did benefit himself from the McLarens ahead. But they just didn’t have the pace to take the fight to Norris and were pipped by Russell as well. The gaps were incredibly tight though, and last week the Scuderia had exceptional race pace so they’ll be hoping for similar tomorrow to bag at least a podium on home soil.
Charles Leclerc, 4th, 1:19.461
"Qualifying was tricky. We had some understeer, which is something I already felt in the practice sessions yesterday, so I struggled in some corners, especially in the first sector. That’s where we lost the most lap time and what ultimately may have cost us a chance to fight for pole. P4 was the best we could do today, but that’s not the kind of position we want to fight for, so we are going to work on finding what we are missing ahead of tomorrow’s race.I expect this to be a tyre management race, so whoever does the best job there should come out on top. I will give it everything and I hope that we can bring home a victory for our tifosi."
Carlos Sainz, 5th, 1:19.467
"We knew it was going to be close. Pole was a tenth away and that’s obviously frustrating. Looking at the data afterwards you always think you could have done better here or there, but the track temperature dropped a bit in Q3 and because of this maybe we picked up some extra understeer that didn’t help. However, I feel like we pretty much extracted the maximum today and I remain confident for tomorrow. With a solid race execution we should target gaining positions and offer our tifosi a good show. I’m really looking forward to it."
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal
"I think this was a very good show for Formula 1 with six cars at the front within less than two tenths of a second and overall, it was a good session, even if of course we would have loved to be on the front row. We have paid a high price for gaps that are so small and it’s a shame we are just two hundredths off the front row. On the positive side we are so close to the cars in front that I think we can fight in the race and everything is still possible. We were running somewhat on the low downforce side which again could be a positive for tomorrow, but it probably made the car more difficult to drive in qualifying, but it will give us more top speed in the race. In the last couple of events we had the tyre degradation under control, maybe more so than our closest competitors and had a better race performance than in qualifying. As for strategy tomorrow, it will depend on the pace at which the opening laps are run. If it is a very high pace then a two-stop might be a consideration and the new tarmac will influence that. One thing’s for certain, it will be a very close fight and our fans will be supporting us from start to finish."
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Red Bull
Red Bull weren’t happy with their set-up overnight and opted to try something new in FP3. They still couldn’t find a decent balance though, leaving both drivers on the back foot heading into qualifying. Perez at times looked like he’d struggle to get out of Q1, but both drivers did eventually make Q3. Once there, Verstappen made a mistake on his opening flying run, leaving him with it all to do on his second. Perez was sacrificed to give him a tow, but made a mistake himself which didn’t help his team mate’s preparations one bit. Seventh and eighth was all they could do, leaving them up against it for tomorrow’s race.
Max Verstappen, 7th, 1:20.022
“It was a bit of a mixed Qualifying session, Q1 and Q2 actually felt pretty good and we set some more competitive lap times during those sessions. In Q3, we struggled with balance and I picked up a lot of understeer compared to the runs before so couldn’t attack the corners properly. This hasn’t happened before so I don’t understand at the moment, we will need to dig in to that and really analyse ahead of tomorrow. Our biggest challenge was finding a stable balance from rear to front, we’ve been working hard and chasing this all weekend. Tomorrow is going to be tricky for everyone, we of course hope it will be more positive than today and we can make some moves, but it is a bit of an unknown at the moment."
Sergio Perez, 8th, 1:20.062
“I think this track exploits more of our issues, I think we have a disconnection with the balance and at this downforce level it is even harder. I had a great run on my scrub tyre in Q3 but then I put the new tyre on and everything gets really peaky and difficult - we need to understand why that is. I lost my final lap in Q3 and went off a little, I knew Max was behind me so I tried to give him a bit of a tow but it didn’t make much impact. It is a really poor performance, something I am really disappointed with, as the whole Team is. Everything is a little too sensible with the car at the moment and that is the main issue we are currently facing. Generally speaking, we are struggling a little too much with the balance and how on the edge things are, the car is tricky to play around with. But tomorrow is what matters and we have to keep the motivation high across the whole Team because we need to have a strong race. I believe that is where our strength will lie, the long run pace looks positive so let’s look to minimise the damage with both cars and score some good points."
Christian Horner, Team Principal
"Today was very strange in terms of performance, we did a 19.6 lap in Q2 and went second on a scrub tyre and then couldn’t beat a 20.0 on two sets of new tyres in Q3. So, there is something going on which is affecting that and it’s something we need to understand quickly and get on top of. Checo made a mistake on his second quick lap in Q3, so he gave his teammate a tow at the end of the lap to try to help him, but it wasn’t the difference. There is an imbalance in the car, that when you sort one problem you get another, you sort the front and you cause a problem with the rear, you sort the rear and get a problem with the front, it is not connected. Of course, as a Team we are concerned by our form but more than that it is confusing. We will work hard overnight to try and understand it, but it gives us a tough race tomorrow."
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Williams
Colapinto had another assured session in FP3, and went into qualifying full of confidence. He dipped two wheels in the gravel on his final flying run though, to end any hopes of making it to Q2. As for Albon, he continued his excellent Monza record with another Q3 appearance. The Thai driver secured ninth on the grid, as Williams chase their first points finish since Silverstone.
Alex Albon, 9th, 1:20.299
"P9 is great, so I’m very happy. We were the best of the rest so far this weekend and that’s where we hoped to be, but I don’t think we truly believed we’d be here, so it’s good. When the car continues to deliver in the practice sessions, it does add a bit of extra pressure to make sure we deliver in Qualifying, but it all paid off. It’s a very different track to Zandvoort and as good as the upgrades have been, we know this track does suit our car, but we also know that if we didn’t have the upgrade, we wouldn’t be in Q3, so that’s a nice takeaway. We were fighting the Haas throughout Qualifying and they seem to have slightly stronger race pace for tomorrow. Graining will be our biggest concern, but let’s see how we go."
Franco Colapinto, 18th, 1:21.061
"It was special to do my first Qualifying session in F1. I’ve enjoyed every moment of the weekend so far. Unfortunately, I made a little mistake on my second push which cost me the chance to do a good second lap. It was looking promising as I was in a good place after my first lap and, of course, working towards making a step on the second push. The car was very competitive, and I think it was possible to go through to Q2 today. However, this is just the start and there are things I still need to work on with only having a few laps in an F1 car. I’m a bit frustrated right now but I know there is a lot of potential, and the team has been working hard to make the car suit me a bit better. Tomorrow will provide a great opportunity to learn more about the car and tyres as well as managing a full race distance in F1. Let’s see how it goes."
Sven Smeets, Sporting Director
"Overall, a very positive day today as we confirmed the car’s performance of last week in Zandvoort. In Q1, both drivers were happy with their car and Alex moved swiftly into Q2. Unfortunately, Franco made a small mistake in his second push lap which cost him dearly as up till then he was on the pace to pass into Q2. It became clear it was going to be tight to get into Q3, but a great lap secured Alex a place into the top 10. In Q3, Alex claimed P9 which was the highest position achievable today, but he and the team can look back on a great Qualifying session. Tomorrow it will be all about tyre management as it will be very hot again with track temps above 50 degrees, but we are confident we have a good race car and will be able to fight for points."
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Haas
Haas got both cars into Q2, but it was a messy ending to Q1 with Magnussen running wide through the gravel to bring out the yellow flags. The Dane couldn’t progress after that but Hulkenberg did, making it to Q3 for the seventh time this season. He secured P10 on the grid, just getting pipped by Albon in the fight to head up the midfield on their finals runs in Q3.
Nico Hulkenberg, 10th, 1:20.339
“I think it’s a solid job to be inside the top 10. To be behind Alex (Albon) by such a small margin isn’t ideal; I lost it already into Turn 1 and 2, and on the new tyre somehow I didn’t make them stick, every time on new tyres it didn’t go well, so that’s something to understand. All in all, I’m happy, the car has felt pretty decent on the low downforce package, I have a good feeling and confidence and hopefully, we can take that into tomorrow. I think we’re in the mix, but I expect us all to be very tight.”
Kevin Magnussen, 13th, 1:20.698
“In Q1, the Williams went off in front of me and there was so much dust I didn’t know if he was off the track or on – I couldn’t see anything – so that lap was ruined. It’s very important to get a slipstream here, it can give you three tenths, and I went out behind the two Alpines, but they did a prep lap, so I ended up without a tow. That margin is what I’m missing for Q3 but P13 isn’t too far away from the top 10 and we can do something from there.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal
“It was a decent qualifying. We wanted to get both cars into Q3, but couldn’t quite achieve that. To be honest, to get out of Q1 was a bit lucky when Kevin went off on his final run, but his first run was good enough to progress. In Q2, Nico’s used tyre lap was also good enough for Q3 and then in the final session we always knew, we were fighting for P9 with Alex Albon, and we lost it by four hundredths, but I think we maximized what we could. Overall it’s been a pretty satisfying day, starting P10 and P13 at a circuit where you can overtake, I think we can really fight for points.”
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Aston Martin
Aston Martin haven’t ever quite looked on the pace of the front teams here, but they found themselves sliding backwards into the pack on Saturday. Stroll exited at the first time of asking in a lowly 17th to leave him up against it tomorrow. Alonso wound up missing Q3 by just 0.010s, but claimed on the radio that P11 was positive considering how the car was handling.
Fernando Alonso, 11th, 1:20.421
"We were heading into Qualifying feeling a little pessimistic, so all in all we have to be happy with P11. The car is struggling a bit here so to be so close to Q3 is a good sign. We are going into the unknown tomorrow and it won't be easy, but a top ten finish is still the target."
Lance Stroll, 17th, 1:21.013
"I think we had the potential to get through to Q2 today, so it's frustrating to miss out by such small margins. I was up a couple of tenths on my final lap but the call for the yellow flag came and so I had to back out [of the lap]. It's been tricky all weekend and we haven't quite found the pace we need, but we'll see how we go in the race tomorrow. It's a tight pack here, so we'll need luck on our side."
Mike Krack, Team Principal
"Today’s Qualifying session was extremely close across the entire grid with very small margins proving decisive. Lance was unfortunate to come across the yellow flags at the end of Q1, while Fernando nearly squeezed through into Q3 and was only denied by a hundredth of a second. Let’s see what we can do in the race, but we know we need a quicker car to compete in this tight midfield going forward. We will make the most of any opportunities to try and score some points tomorrow."
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RB
RB seemed to have good straight line speed on Friday, but they couldn’t convert that into grid positions. Ricciardo just escaped Q1 at the expense of his team mate, his final lap dropping Tsunoda into the elimination zone. Once into Q2, Ricciardo couldn’t go any further though and had to settle for P12.
HIGHLIGHTS: Watch the qualifying action at Monza as Norris claims spectacular pole in McLaren 1-2
Daniel Ricciardo, 12th, 1:20.479
“I’m quite happy with the lap today, I didn’t feel like we left much on the table. I knew after this morning it’d be tricky to get into Q3, so to get quite close to it in the end was good. Ultimately, I’m pleased with the lap and felt like we did all we could. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough, but the field is really close. There’s a whole mix of cars from P8 to P20 realistically, and the fight for points will be on tomorrow. No one’s used the Hard yet so that’s unknown for the race. We’re close enough and if you do have pace, you can overtake here. I’m looking forward to making up places tomorrow.”
Yuki Tsunoda, 16th, 1:20.945
“It was tough today. Yesterday we started pretty far off the pace, and then session by session we managed to close the gap towards the midfield, but unfortunately, it’s clearly not enough. I’m frustrated, there are some things unclear, so we need to understand what’s going on, as throughout the weekend we don’t have an easy car to drive. I’m pretty happy with the lap I did in qualifying, but I think we’re still missing something, as generally this weekend I’m feeling a lack of pace. There are differences across the cars, so surely there are a lot of things to learn. I’ll do my best tomorrow.”
Claudio Balestri, Chief Engineer – Vehicle Performance
“Yesterday we were not completely satisfied with our level of performance, especially on Yuki’s car, which carried some new parts. We made some changes overnight on both sides of the garage, to get the maximum out of our cars on this challenging track, with some tuning on the level of downforce. This morning during FP3, we tested both cars with low fuel load on Soft tyres and we found some positives from the changes applied. Unfortunately, we were not quick enough, with Yuki out in Q1 and Daniel only being a few hundredths away from Q3. Now we need switch our focus on to the race, where we will aim to get some points."
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Alpine
Alpine said they would struggle at this track, and so it proved. They did get both cars into Q2 which is a moderate success but wound up with P14 and P15 on the grid. The staying Gasly continued his strong form since the summer break, as he out-qualified Ocon for the second race in a row. But scoring points for a second weekend in a row looks a tough ask for the Frenchman.
Esteban Ocon, 15th, 1:20.766
"Some positives to take from today, we have made some changes overnight that seemed to have done the trick. The car felt better since yesterday and more like our performance pre-Zandvoort. We have not fully understood why, so need to investigate this further. It was always going to be a challenging weekend for us at Monza, but I think the hard work the team has put in overnight paid off and we have made a step in the right direction. Although, we have not put in a fully clean lap so left a bit of performance on the table and maybe even could have moved a few positions up further. Now we need to work on our strategy for tomorrow, to make sure we get it right. It will be interesting to see what will happen as the teams don’t have too much representative data on the long runs yet and with the new tarmac there will be some unknowns. We will see how tomorrow goes and we will make sure we put ourselves in a position to fight and hopefully be able to gain positions."
Pierre Gasly, 14th, 1:20.738
"It was great to reach Q2 in Qualifying today, as it has been very difficult for us this weekend especially on the softer compound tyre. Every time we fitted the Soft tyres this week, we haven’t been able to make it work the way we wanted to. The front and rear tyre, the whole grip on the car hasn’t felt right. The best lap was with used tyres in Q1. In Q2, we tried many different things to get on top of it but somehow the grip hasn’t been there today. That said, we are not far from getting up into the points and look forward to race day tomorrow where we will fight our way up the grid to get up to the top-10."
Julian Rouse, Sporting Director
"Getting both cars into the second part of Qualifying is a good step forward from the practice sessions and a reasonably positive outcome on a track we expected to struggle at a bit more than in recent races heading into the weekend. We knew we would be less competitive here in Qualifying but in the end, it was slightly closer than expected. It’s not something we can celebrate and it’s not where we want to be but it’s also an improvement on last year’s result, where we weren’t able to get either car out of Q1. We have been consistently more competitive on the longer runs in practice and better on the Medium tyre compared to the Soft compound. With the track being resurfaced there’s still some unknowns with tyre life and degradation, this combined which how competitive we look on the Harder compounds means there could be opportunities with strategy during the race to give us a chance of fighting for points. Tomorrow, we’ll need to execute everything perfectly if we’re to repeat the points finishes in recent races."
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Kick Sauber
Bottas’ glory run yesterday seems an age ago, with Kick Sauber relegated back to the lower positions on Saturday. They didn’t show much pace in FP3, so qualifying wasn’t too much of a surprise as they locked out the last row on the grid. Bottas took the team honours with P19, finishing three tenths ahead of his team mate. Zhou did feel his final run had been hampered by yellow flags though.
Valtteri Bottas, 19th,1:21.101
“It feels there was something more we could have achieved today, so I'm disappointed to be in P19: the first push lap I did was quite decent, and with the track improvement, I had every possibility to make it into Q2, only for the yellow flag towards the end of Q1 to take away that chance from us. The third practice session was more difficult than yesterday, so we opted to revert to the Friday settings for qualifying. The feeling was much better but, in the end, it was all down to luck and, unfortunately, the last run got halted by a yellow flag, so I couldn’t improve much. A question mark remains on where we could have ended up, as overall it seems like we are in a slightly better position than last weekend. Looking at tomorrow, tyre management will be crucial – hopefully, there’ll be some opportunities to catch our rivals and try and improve our positions on track.”
Zhou Guanyu, 20th, 1:21.445
“Today’s qualifying session was quite frustrating, as we know we could have got something more than we did. My final lap began promisingly, with an improvement over my previous runs – until cars in front of me started going off the track, forcing me to lift off and compromising my lap. As a result, I couldn’t set the lap time I was on pace for. I’m confident that, without these incidents, I would have achieved a higher starting position and would have been much closer to Q2. Despite the tough qualifying, the car definitely felt better than it did this morning: we’ll use this improved feeling to try and move forward in the race and learn as much as we can.”
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative
"After a difficult FP3 session, we were able to make some good improvements in terms of car handling and balance for Qualifying, something we displayed during the final laps. Both drivers reported a more balanced car throughout all range of corners: unfortunately, we’re left with a bitter taste as both drivers were improving on their final lap but had to slow down in Parabolica due to a yellow flag caused by Kevin Magnussen. Valtteri was close to entering Q2 until that moment and Zhou was significantly improving his lap time – almost running four tenths quicker compared to his last lap – and we believe that we had the potential to fight for Q2 today. We end the day with mixed feelings: on the positive side, we improved the car balance, but on the other side, we’re left with a difficult starting position. Here in Monza, nothing is lost: in terms of top speed, we are competitive within the midfield, so there’s still a chance to make up positions. We need to analyse all sessions of this weekend: with high temperatures and the new tarmac, graining and tyre degradation will be a key factor, so we need to have all elements under control to be best prepared for tomorrow’s race.”
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Pirelli
Mario Isola, Motorsport Director
"A great qualifying session, very closely contested by this season’s top four teams with the championship looking more open than ever. McLaren confirmed it has the most versatile car at this point in the season, taking pole at the very tight and twisty Zandvoort, in rather cool conditions and now at the Temple of Speed on a typically hot Italian summer’s day. “In fact, temperatures will play an important role in the race, with conditions tomorrow forecast to be similar to today’s and that definitely won’t help teams and drivers when it comes to tyre management. Graining could still be a factor, which could open the door to a possible two-stop strategy. That is why, apart from ensuring they have an additional option in the event of a neutralisation, all the drivers, with the exception of Tsunoda, have chosen to keep two sets of Hards for the race. On paper, the very long Monza pit lane usually means that a one-stop is almost obligatory here: so a strategy based on using one set of the C4 and one of the C3, stopping between laps 20 and 26 is the quickest. Although the opposite usage would work for those thinking of running a longer first stint, stopping between laps 26 and 32. This year however, a two-stop cannot be ruled out, running one set of Medium and two of Hard. Honestly, I think everyone will try and run a one-stop, trying to manage the tyres especially in the opening laps of each stint to avoid stressing them too much, while aware they have a Plan B up their sleeve thanks to having two sets of Hard.
“Finally, I’m pleased to report that our simulations prior to qualifying as to the pole position times (1’19”1, in cooler temperatures than were actually experienced) were substantially proved to be correct, even in unusual circumstances, as we had very little data available relating to the track surface as it was completely new.”
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