Pierre Gasly takes his first career pole position in Formula 1 in a massive upset ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.
Q1
Yuki Tsunoda would find himself behind the wheel of a Racing Bulls car once again this week as Liam Lawson continues to fill in at Red Bull for an injured Isack Hadjar, but the Japanese driver would be less successful in this qualifying session compared to his last time out in Zandvoort, as he found himself being eliminated in Q1 after going 17th fastest.
Aston Martin have looked better over the last few rounds than they had done in the early portion of the season, but showed that they still have a lot of work to despite all of their upgrades to the chassis and engine, as the two drivers would finish Q1 in the bottom two places. This result would leave Lance Stroll with a record to forget, as it made him the first driver in F1 history to get 100 Q1 eliminations.
ELIMINATED
17.Yuki Tsunoda – Racing Bulls +0.139
18. Alex Albon – Williams +0.740 (20 PLACE GRID PENALTY)
19. Valtteri Bottas – Cadillac +0.748
20.Sergio Perez – Cadillac +0.979
21. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +1.534
22. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +1.606
Q2
The second part of qualifying proved to be quite difficult for Red Bull, as they initially had Verstappen teetering on the edge of elimination while Lawson was firmly in 13th. The team got their drivers out early for their second runs, which did allow Verstappen to get a quicker time, but without slipstream Lawson was unable to improve.
The Red Bulls would stay out on track for one more lap, this time with Verstappen giving Lawson a tow, but the timing of when Lawson would set his last lap was awful, as he approached a lot of traffic coming into turn 1, and was effectively blocked by Oscar Piastri. The Kiwi was once again unable to improve, and would eventually find himself eliminated in 14th. It wouldn’t have mattered all too much for Lawson though, who has a 40 place grid penalty and was guaranteed to start from the back anyway.
Ferrari also had a tough Q2, with Hamilton finding himself outside the top 10 after his first lap, which was set on used tyres. He was able to improve and get into 10th place by the end of the session, but was only 1 thousandth of a second faster than Bortoleto, only barely escaping elimination. Leclerc did ever so slightly better in 9th place, but was himself less than 1 hundredth of a second away from elimination himself.
ELIMINATED
11. Gabriel Bortoleto – Audi +0.001
12. Ollie Bearman – Haas +0.240
13. Nico Hulkenberg – Audi +0.263
14. Liam Lawson – Red Bull+0.305 (40 PLACE GRID PENALTY)
15. Carlos Sainz – Williams +0.937
16. Esteban Ocon – Haas +0.938
Q3
George Russell would find himself at the top of the timing sheets at the end of everyone’s opening laps in Q3, but was complaining about the performance of the car on the radio, potentially opening the door for someone else stealing pole position by the end.
Pierre Gasly also proved to be a surprise package in qualifying, putting himself in the conversation for potentially taking pole position after going 3rd after his opening lap.
McLaren were the first to go out for their final runs, with Piastri ahead of Norris due to the fact that the former would likely get a penalty for the Lawson incident in Q2. However, Norris would not receive any help from his teammate, as Piastri locked up and went deep going into turn 1, which led him to pull to the side and let Norris past, who would subsequently fail to improve.
Verstappen would lead the following pack, and would himself fail to improve, but Russell behind would extend his gap at the top, while both Ferraris would improve to 4th and 5th place.
The last two drivers to finish a lap would be Gasly and Colapinto, and while Colapinto would only set a lap good enough for 8th, Gasly was able to put his car onto the top of the timing sheets, 6 hundredths faster than Russell, taking his first pole position in Formula 1.
Qualifying Results
1. Pierre Gasly – Alpine 1:21.786
2. George Russell – Mercedes +0.060
3. Oscar Piastri – McLaren +0.180
4. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari+0.218
5. Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari +0.225
6. Max Verstappen – Red Bull +0.284
7. Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes +0.307 (30 PLACE GRID PENALTY)
8. Franco Colapinto – Alpine +0.434
9. Lando Norris – McLaren +0.470
10. Arvid Lindblad – Racing Bulls +0.500
