Italian GP, Lando Norris on pole and front row all McLaren at Monza

GP d'Italia, Lando Norris on pole and front row all McLaren at Monza

After 12 years since Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button did it in 2012, there will be two McLarens on the front row in the Italian Grand Prix. It will be Lando Norris who will start from pole position for the fifth time in his career, the second consecutive time.

The Briton on the Monza circuit lapped in 1’19”327 ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri. On the second row will start George Russell in the Mercedes and Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari, in the third Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari and Hamilton in the other Mercedes.

Incredibly, the Red Bulls will start on the fourth row with Max Verstappen seventh and Sergio Perez eighth, Alexander Albon in the Williams and Nico Hulkenberg in the Haas close the top ten.

In Q1, Yuki Tsunoda in the Racing Bull, Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin, Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto in the Williams and the two Kick Sauber cars of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou are eliminated.

Q2 starts a few minutes late to clean up the track from the gravel left by an off-track of Colapinto’s own at the second of Lesmo, remain excluded from Q3 Fernando Alonso with the Aston Martin, Daniel Ricciardo with the Racing Bull, Kevin Magnussen with the Haas and the two Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

Very small gaps between the top six in Q3: Piastri è at 109 thousandths from Norris, Russell at 113, Leclerc at 134, Sainz at 140 and Hamilton at 186. Verstappen, on the other hand, is 695 thousandths behind, sealing Red Bull’s moment of serious crisis more than his own. The grid però could undergo some changes becauseé Piastri in Q2 and Sainz in Q3 coming out of the pits hindered precisely Verstappen who was already along the pit lane.