Bottas wins the F1 Sprint at Monza but Verstappen will start from pole position after the Finn’s grid-penalty

Valtteri Bottas cruised to a comfortable Sprint victory as he held Max Verstappen behind with the Dutchman on pole position for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo claims a front row start for McLaren with Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton on an exciting second row.

Starting Grid

Valtteri Bottas out-qualified his Mercedes teammate and championship contender Lewis Hamilton to start the F1 Sprint from pole position with the Brit second on the grid.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen only had the pace for third as he started ahead of the speedy McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo in fourth and fifth. Pierre Gasly followed in sixth, Carlos Sainz in seventh, Charles Leclerc in eighth, Sergio Perez in ninth and Antonio Giovinazzi in 10th.

Aston Martin once again failed to make Q3 as Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll qualified 11th and 12th respectively. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon started 13th and 14th with Williams’ George Russell and Nicholas Latifi in 15th and 16th. Yuki Tsunoda was 17th, Mick Schumacher in 18th, Robert Kubica in 19th and Nikita Mazepin in 20th.

As It Happened

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It was a good start from Bottas as he led into turn one ahead of Verstappen in second and Ricciardo in third. Behind the Aussie, Gasly collided with the back of his McLaren as he broke his front wing and crashed out of the race at Curva Grande.

Hamilton had a rather poor start as the championship contender dropped from second on the grid down to fifth place. Kubica was left in the gravel trap as Tsunoda tapped the Alfa Romeo driver who fell to the back of the field.

After Gasly’s car was extracted and the Safety Car came in, Bottas led the drivers over the line as the green flag was waved. Alonso moved up to 11th ahead of Vettel into the first lesmo.

Russell got up to 15th place as the Brit overtook Mazepin into the first chicane and returned to his starting position.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton looked to make amends after his poor start. Norris was ahead of the Mercedes driver but kept his compatriot behind him.

At the halfway point of the Sprint, Bottas led the race with Verstappen in second and Ricciardo in third. Norris followed in fourth, Hamilton in fifth, Leclerc in sixth, Sainz in seventh, Giovinazzi in eighth, Stroll in ninth and Perez in 10th.

In the battle for ninth, Stroll and Perez went wheel to wheel into turn one as the Mexican was left little room at had to cut across the chicane. The Red Bull man moved up to ninth but let Stroll back through into the Ascari chicane, however, took the position permanently down the start/finish straight.

At the back of the field, Kubica was able to move up into 18th as he got ahead of Haas’ Schumacher. It was Bottas that controlled the race and crossed the line first but will start the Italian Grand Prix from the back of the grid after a grid drop.

Verstappen inherits pole position after finishing second with Ricciardo on the front row alongside his ex-Red Bull teammate for the first time since Mexico 2018.

Norris held onto fourth place ahead of Hamilton, Leclerc, Sainz, Giovinazzi, Perez and Stroll rounded out the top 10.

What’s Next?

Max Verstappen will look to extend his championship lead as he starts from pole position. Daniel Ricciardo will look to trouble the Red Bull driver as McLaren look for an elusive victory.

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