Track records set as Lewis Hamilton takes pole away from teammate Valtteri Bottas at Monza

Lewis Hamilton took his 68th pole for Mercedes as the Silver Arrows locked out the front row for another time this season.

Q1

The Temple of Speed welcomed the F1 drivers for Round Eight of the F1 Championship. The slipstream is important around Monza as the first qualifying session got underway.

Kevin Magnussen was the first one out onto the tracks, followed by the Ferrari, Williams, and Alfa Romeo pair as well as his Haas teammate Romain Grosjean.

Magnussen set the first lap-time of the session, setting a time of 1:21.618. Grosjean then went quicker by two-tenths of a second, but then Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari dethroned Grosjean with a time three-tenths quicker than the Frenchman. Magnussen’s lap-time was deleted not long after his lap after he exceeded track limits.

With five minutes remaining, Lewis Hamilton topped the timings so far with a lap of 1:19.539 with Valtteri Bottas two and a half tenths back and Sergio Perez in third a further five-tenths behind him.

It’s been a frustrating season for Ferrari and it was made even worse as Vettel was eliminated at Q1. Grosjean, Antonio Giovinazzi were also eliminated, as well as the Williams pair of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, who were out following a dramatic and horrid last flying lap.

The Mercedes pair topped the timings for yet another qualifying session, despite the party modes being disabled it looked to have not hampered the Silver Arrows.

Q2

The Mercedes drivers looked to capitalise on the open air in front as the stamped followed them out of the pits. All the drivers came out on red soft tyres as they looked to gain some valuable time on the speedy Mercedes duo.

Bottas set the first lap time of the second session with a 1:19.417, but Hamilton moved back on top of the timings with a 1:19 flat, three-tenths ahead of his teammate. The World Champion’s time also set a new track record at Monza, beating Kimi Raikkonen’s time set in 2018 by two-hundredths.

Daniil Kvyat, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc, Kimi Raikonnen and Kevin Magnussen were knocked out of the second qualifying session. At the other end, Bottas topped Q2 as he went into the 1:18’s, immediately taking the track record away from Hamilton by about five-hundredths. Carlos Sainz pipped Perez to third after Q2.

Q3

Lewis Hamilton looked to get a 68th pole for Mercedes as Bottas led the pack for their flying laps in the third qualifying session.

Bottas set a 1:19.121, but then Hamilton jumped on provisional pole by less than one-tenth. Perez then moved back into third for another qualifying session.

Max Verstappen was fourth as the Red Bull pair was split by the McLaren duo, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll after Alex Albon had his lap time deleted after he exceeded track limits at Parabolica.

For the seventh time, Hamilton qualified on pole, snatching it off his Mercedes teammate Bottas by seven-hundredths.

Final Grid For The Race

A dominant display from the Mercedes saw Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas lock out the front row. Carlos Sainz dethroned the Red Bull dominance of P3 as he qualified on the second row alongside Sergio Perez in fourth. Max Verstappen was only able to qualify fifth for Red Bull alongside Lando Norris sixth. Daniel Ricciardo qualified in seventh, Lance Stroll in eighth, Alex Albon in ninth and Pierre Gasly rounded off the top ten.

Daniil Kvyat qualified P11 behind his AlphaTauri teammate with Esteban Ocon alongside the Russian in P12. A shocker from Ferrari saw the best Scarlet Red car of Charles Leclerc only able to qualify P13 with Kimi Raikonnen in P14 and Kevin Magnussen in P15. Romain Grosjean qualified P16, Sebastian Vettel a poor P17, Antonio Giovinazzi in P18 and the Williams pair of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi qualified P19 and P20 respectively.

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