Carlos Sainz earned pole position at the Italian Grand Prix, set to race on Sunday at Monza, the fastest circuit on the calendar. After a strong performance in Friday practice and a dominant showing in the third session this morning, the Madrid driver confirmed his goal before the Italian crowd, delivering Ferrari their first pole of the season.
In a tight battle, Sainz edged out the World Champion by a razor-thin margin, just 13 thousandths of a second ahead of Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver finished second, while Charles Leclerc completed the front row in the SF-23, a mere 67 thousandths behind Sainz.
The two Ferrari drivers faced the possibility of a grid penalty for slowing down during the first phase, but the stewards quickly reviewed the incident and announced no sanctions would be applied.
“Tell me we’ve got it!!!” Sainz exclaimed over the radio, welcomed by the Monza crowd’s roar. Fernando Alonso, by contrast, ended up tenth on the starting grid for Sunday.
Q1: Ferrari Under Investigation
Max Verstappen began the first phase from the front on hard tires, posting a rapid lap time of 1:12.573. Officials enforced strict track boundaries, resulting in several drivers having laps canceled, including Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
Albon secured a strong performance for Williams, earning a place in the next round. Alonso qualified tenth, and both Sainz and Leclerc advanced without issue, though an investigation into the two Ferrari drivers for potentially slow pace on their laps was noted by the FIA.
Several others, including Alpine teammates Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu, Kevin Magnussen, and Lance Stroll, were eliminated in the first segment. Stroll also faced an earlier reliability issue, complicating his Italian weekend for Aston Martin.
Q2: Verstappen in Control
The experimental qualifying format, criticized by many drivers, returned in Italy after a trial in Hungary. The middle tires were used in the second stage, beginning with Sainz delivering a strong intermediate time of 1:20.991, drawing cheers from the Monza stands.
Verstappen was 0.044 seconds behind, with Leclerc just under two tenths behind his teammate. Alonso sat ahead of the McLaren pair, while Hamilton found himself in a risky position after a run-in with Checo Pérez on the track.
Alonso received a push from Leclerc on his final lap attempt, but the attempt was ultimately canceled. Verstappen then claimed P2 with a 1:20.937, beating Leclerc by 0.040 seconds and Sainz by 0.054. Alonso, half a second behind, advanced to Q3 in fourteenth place, marking a season full of strong showings despite a rough grid.
Q3: Pole Battle
With soft tires and two new sets available to each driver, the final duel for pole position was clearly a contest between Red Bull and the home team Ferrari. The field kept the door open for a surprise, though.
Red Bull orchestrated a coordinated run from Pérez to Verstappen, and Verstappen appeared to have saved his best for the decisive moment. Sainz seized the moment and claimed provisional pole with a time of 1:20.2, surpassing Leclerc by 0.032 seconds and electrifying the Italian fans.
Verstappen faced a slower first attempt on the soft tire and remained in tenth place after the final run, failing to improve. Sainz did not falter, keeping the top spot as the clock counted down.
Sainz ultimately edged Verstappen and Leclerc in a razor-thin finish, securing pole with a best lap of 1:20.294. Verstappen finished 0.013 seconds behind, with Leclerc a further 0.067 behind. The remaining positions in the top four placed another strong showing for the field, while Russell trailed more than three-tenths behind the leaders.