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It will be the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc that will start tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix in pole position after a storming lap left him just three hundredths ahead of Lewis Hamilton who will start alongside on the front row, after a silly fumble between the drivers as they dueled for a tow during the final runs.
The two Renaults of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo were showing good pace in Q1, but the session was red-flagged with four minutes to go as Sergio Perez pulled over with yet another issue in qualifying. The session restarted, but Max Verstappen then suffered a power loss with a minute to go.
Verstappen, Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris all went into the session with grid penalties, meaning that they will face a start at the back of the grid regardless of their qualifying positions.
Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel will start tomorrow's race in third and fourth, while Ricciardo and Hulkenberg will line up on the grid behind in fifth and sixth.
Kimi Raikkonen's brief off-track excursion at the first lesmo brought out a brief yellow flag during Q2, while Lewis Hamilton managed to split the two Ferrari's on the first run.
With two minutes to go all the cars spilled out for a fast lap, with Leclerc almost coming to blows with Daniil Kvyat coming through the Curva Grande. Hamilton finished the second session fastest, the first time all weekend Mercedes managed to top a session.
The two Mercedes decided to pull over into the pit lane during the start of Q3, allowing everybody else past as drivers tripped over each other trying to get the best tow from each other for the fastest lap. Raikkonen suffered an early Q3 exit after another spin at Parabolica left him in the barriers.
There were bizarre scenes as no driver yielded coming around for their second runs as everybody desperately tried to earn a tow that saw only Leclerc and Carlos Sainz manage to reach the line in time, meaning that Leclerc grabbed his fourth pole position of the year
Sainz and Alex Albon will line up seventh and eighth, while Lance Stroll starts ninth, his first Q3 appearance of the year. Despite his accident in Q3, Kimi Raikkonen will start tenth.
Monza - 07 September 2019
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
Replies (9)
Login to replyf1dave
Posts: 782
Waiting for penalties.
abhidbgt
Posts: 283
Too clever for their own good. Feels like a joke. For such a highly technical sport they clearly sometimes make stupidest of decisions.
Ferrari had more to lose with Vettel in fourth position they should have gone out earlier. I mean seriously this is a waste of opportunity and to an extent a waste of money of the people in grandstands who were waiting for a final showdown. It made for a great debacle and drama for me as I didn't have to pay hefty amount to go and watch the session from the grandstands but for the people there it was.
I guess everyone thought of getting a double or triple slipstream and ended up getting neither.
Manto02
Posts: 93
This is embarrassing, who paid for the ticket doesn't deserve this
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Fully agree. I get they all want the best possible qualifying, but this shows how goofy it is when they all run the same strategy.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
Not generally a fan of penalties but this seems like an area where they could use a rule or two.
Dert38
Posts: 376
Who is this man with Charles wtf you post there??? What a mess!
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
I think that's his father. It looks like the guy they showed on tv that is his dad.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
No penalties will be given to Ferrari being on pole. There always seems to be some controversy around Ferrari results. Can't see Ferrari winning this one though.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
No but the front 3 were going so slow that nobody got to the line. LeClerc should have jumped ahead and let Vettel follow but he knew if he didn't get to the line in time he was guaranteed pole.