Q1: Rookie mistake and strange ending for Magnussen
Not all of the favourites managed to clear the doubts about finishing in the top 15 in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix after the first flying lap. Oscar Piastri locked his wheels and had to do an extra lap on the motorway. Carlos Sainz went out for the second time, but with the same set of tyres and improved with confidence. Sergio Perez also improved, at one point dropping to 19th position. As a result, Cheko passed with reserve, but that does not mean he was overconfident.
Franco Colapinto failed to prove himself right away. After a hard training session and a decent first attempt, the Argentine, as expected, overdid it at the decisive moment, got stuck in the gravel and was unable to improve: the rookie at Williams will start the first race of his career in 18th place, ahead of only two drivers from the desperate Kick-Sauber. Zhou, by the way, traditionally lost to Bottas, this time by more than three tenths.
The most offensive 16th place belonged to Yuki Tsunoda: he lost only 44 thousandths to Daniel Ricciardo and complained a lot about the car’s behavior. Lance Stroll was 17th – perhaps he was prevented from doing so by the yellow flags after Kevin Magnussen suddenly entered the safety zone at the Parabolic – or there was a malfunction in the car, or the Dane was strangely trying to let the drivers follow him. One way or another, the Haas driver himself managed to go further despite such a strange circle.
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P2: Hulkenberg saved by 10 thousandths!
This time, all the favourites made it through to the next segment without any major problems, so in fact it was only necessary to determine the holders of the ninth and tenth places. In the end, it was Albon and Hulkenberg, as was clear from the results of free practice. It is true that Niko gave his competitors a chance when he made a mistake at the end of the second flying lap. It looked like Alonso was going to beat the German’s time, but the leader in the Aston Martin was only ten thousandths of a second short!
Dan Ricciardo, who lost to Hulk by 0.68 seconds, probably also had the chance to move further. It is true that the Australian himself said on the radio that he gave his best. Magnussen was 13th, losing a quarter of a second to his teammate, and the worst performers in Q2 were Gasly and Ocon: Alpin objectively did not have the pace to fight for the top 10.
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P3: And yet, Norris!
The first attempt at the decisive part of qualifying fell to McLaren: Norris and Piastri had a margin of one and a half to two tenths over the Mercedes representatives, the Ferrari duo were three behind, but we could not understand the true potential of Verstappen: the Dutchman made a mistake at Parabolic and even lost to Perez, finishing in eighth place intermediate.
It looked like the reigning world champion was now fighting back to get at least close to the McLaren drivers, however, Verstappen’s second attempt was a failure – all Max managed to do was get ahead of Perez and take seventh place on the starting grid. This is bad news on a track where overtaking is difficult and the Bulls have struggled with top speed.
The McLaren drivers were unable to make perfect final attempts: Norris improved with only one “green” sector and Piastri drove even slower than before. However, not only did Lando keep the front row, but Piastri also remained second, with an advantage of just four thousandths of a second over Russell!
Overall, the density behind Norris is incredible: Leclerc lost 21 thousandths to Russell and was only six thousandths ahead of Sainz. In addition, Hamilton also took pole by two tenths of a second – how close the representatives of the three teams were. And how shocking that Red Bull is not among them!
Let’s note once again: Verstappen and Perez only took seventh and eighth place, while Max was only half a tenth faster than Sergio – you can think how much faster he could have driven in theory. Finally, the fifth row was, as expected, formed by Albon and Hulkenberg: in the battle between the two best intermediates, Alex beat Nico by 40 thousandths.
Sunday’s unpredictable Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix race starts at 16:00 Moscow time – don’t miss it!
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