Verstappen To Start On Pole At The Italian Grand Prix #F1
MonzaThe Sprint Qualifying worked very well for Max Verstappen as he picks up a couple of points and will start the Italian Grand Prix from pole position because of the grid penalty for Bottas.
In the other Red Bull, Checo had to fight a bit more to finish where he started in ninth place. Unfortunately, the afternoon did not go well for AlphaTauri, even if Yuki actually finished one place than he started after coming in for a nose change. After making up a couple of places off the line, Pierre clipped a McLaren ahead of him, which caused him to crash as his wing went under the car and he faces a tough afternoon tomorrow. Our other three drivers showed good pace, so we can hope for a strong performance in the Grand Prix itself.
Max will start from pole position in the Italian Grand Prix after a controlled drive in the Sprint, but there was heartache for Scuderia AlphaTauri.
On the opening lap, Max made a great start to run second to Valtteri Bottas, who has a grid penalty to take tomorrow for exceeding power unit components. Pierre also made a really strong start and was fighting for fourth into the first chicane, but just tapped the rear of Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren and damaged his front wing.
With the front wing broken, it then failed on Pierre’s car as he rounded the high-speed Curva Grande and he was a passenger as the car hit the barriers, taking him out of the race. We’ll now assess the damage to see if he can start from the back of the grid or the pit lane on Sunday.
Yuki’s hopes were also then hit when he was involved in light contact with Robert Kubica that also damaged his front wing, necessitating a pit stop that dropped him to the back of the field. Sergio lost some ground in the opening battles but both he and Yuki then set about making amends.
Having started on soft tyres - compared to mediums for the Red Bulls and Pierre - Yuki overtook Nikita Mazepin into Turn 1 on the eighth lap, moving up to 16th place, meaning he will start from 15th on Sunday. He was also the fastest driver through the speed trap in the race, clocking 356 km/h.
One lap later, Sergio fought with Lance Stroll and was forced wide at the first chicane, giving up the position before making the move stick with a strong move down the outside under braking on Lap 10. That put Sergio ninth, and he too will gain a position on the grid tomorrow when Bottas drops to the back.
Max showed strong pace throughout but sat behind Bottas with no need to take any risks, ensuring he will start from pole position on Sunday having extended his championship lead to five points.
In today’s Sprint Qualifying, Max had an excellent start to move up to second which is where he finished. And because of Bottas having a grid penalty, he starts from pole position tomorrow, which is a great result for us. Unfortunately, Checo lost a few places at the start, but he managed to overtake in the DRS train to get back to ninth from where he had started. Pierre’s race was over almost immediately after losing his front wing and crashing out and Yuki also had a contact which meant he had to come in for a new nose, but he recovered well, overtaking to move up to 16th place. After an 18 lap race today, we now have 53 tomorrow and, with a free choice of tyre compound for the start, the teams will be reconsidering their strategies in the light of the data provided from this afternoon’s race. We had some ups and downs across our four cars today, but we can fight again tomorrow and hope to have a good afternoon with all of our drivers.
To be on pole tomorrow at a track like this is a real positive for us, we had a good start and the race went better than expected. We scored a few championship points and it’s great to be starting at the front tomorrow. I was giving it my all to keep close to Valtteri today, but I still expect a tough race tomorrow as Lewis is starting in P4 and they have a bit more pace than us, we know we are slower than the Mercedes here. I’m hoping for another clean start tomorrow so I can create a bit of a gap at the beginning, because I will definitely need it later in the race. It’s going to be an interesting battle and we’ll see what happens, we’ll keep pushing and try to make the most out of it.
I think we have a good chance in the race tomorrow, we start P8 and there should be more opportunities to come through the field with our strategy. I was hoping to gain a few more places, but my start wasn’t ideal and it was pretty hard to pass. We need to work hard tonight to find some more pace, but I am looking forward to it. On the incident with Stroll, I just didn’t have anywhere to go so had to cut the corner to avoid hitting the curb and damaging my race, I gave back the position as soon as I was able to.
It’s a frustrating day. I had quite a good start and had gained a couple of positions before we headed into Turn 4 but unfortunately, I had contact with Kubica and suffered front-wing damage. After I came in to change it, I think I had a good recovery drive and was able to make my way forward. The car felt good today and the pace was quite strong, I really maximised the opportunity of the soft tyre, so I’ll take this experience into the race tomorrow. I think it’ll be difficult, but I will aim to make my way into the points.
I’m obviously very disappointed, it’s not been a good day. We had a great start on the Mediums, I managed to pass Lando, and also Lewis. Then at the first corner I was a bit surprised by Daniel, I touched the back of him a little bit and damaged the front-wing. I didn’t initially know how bad it was, but it broke off completely and went under the car at Turn 3, I couldn’t turn anymore and went straight into the wall. The target tomorrow is of course to try and get into the points. I will watch the replay tonight and analyse the possible overtaking spots, as it seemed that it was difficult out there today to make up many positions. We know that anything is possible though, and we’ll try our best to come back tomorrow.
