Blazing Bottas takes pole position ahead of the F1 Sprint at Monza

Valtteri Bottas set a perfect lap at the end of Friday’s Q3 session meaning he’ll start the Sprint from pole position ahead of his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton with Max Verstappen in third.

The Finn will start Saturday’s Sprint with an unobstructed view of the first chicane, where vital bonus championship points will be on offer to the top three finishers.

Q1

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The first drivers to take to the circuit were the two Ferrari cars of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. The Monegasque set a 1:22.801, however, his teammate went three-tenths quicker to move up to first.

Dutch Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen went quicker but McLaren’s Lando Norris went over four-tenths faster than the championship leader to quickly drop him from the top of the timing charts.

With 11 minutes to go, Mercedes duo Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton set times respectively as the latter set the fastest time of the session with an impressive 1:20.543.

Alpine duo Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso went 12th and eighth respectively, as both drivers avoided slow traffic through sector two.

Nicholas Latifi and George Russell set new best laps with the Brit getting a tow from his Williams teammate and moving up 11th with Latifi in 13th.

In the dying embers of Q1, the queue on the entry to Parabolica built as cars again squabbled over track space and tows.

The session’s final times were set, as Norris moved up to fourth, only four-tenths behind the session topping Hamilton.

Drivers eliminated from Q1 were Nicholas Latifi, Yuki Tsunoda, whose best lap time was deleted for a track limit infringement at turn 11, Robert Kubica, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.

Q2

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Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Verstappen were the first cars out of the garage and onto the track in Q2. The duo looked to work together to give each other a tow which is worth seven-tenths at Monza.

Early times started to trickle in, as Hamilton top spot with just over 10 minutes to go with Bottas a tenth behind his Mercedes teammate.

McLaren duo Norris and Ricciardo sat third and fourth, with Pierre Gasly in fifth as the session’s first runs came to an end.

Red Bull had it all to do after their poor first runs with Verstappen in sixth and Perez at risk of elimination in 10th.

With a little over three minutes remaining, all of the drivers took to the track for their second runs.

The chequered flag came out and the drivers’ final times were posted. Verstappen went third, three-tenths behind Hamilton, however, he fell to fourth with Norris’ late time moving him up to P3.

Drivers eliminated from Q2 were Sebastian Vettel, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and George Russell.

Q3

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Both Mercedes cars were the first to leave the pit lane at the start of the Q3 shootout.

Bottas crossed the line first, but his time was beaten by Hamilton. Verstappen soon followed with his time two-hundredths slower than the leading Brit.

McLaren’s Norris and Ricciardo both returned to occupying third and fourth with Bottas narrowly ahead of Gasly in fifth.

Just over seven minutes remained as the first runs of Q3 came to a close, and four minutes later, every car returned to the track, again fronted by Sergio Perez.

In the end, Bottas set a perfect lap time, a tenth ahead of his teammate Hamilton. Verstappen could only find the pace for third, ahead of Norris in fourth and Ricciardo in fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 starters for Saturday’s Sprint was Gasly, Sainz, Leclerc, Perez and Antonio Giovinazzi.