Charles Leclerc gave the Tifosi what they came for by claiming pole position for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver set the quickest time in the first part of a disrupted pole position shootout, and it wouldn’t be challenged as crazy scenes on the out-lap for the final run only saw two drivers make the start/finish line on time.
Q1
For Leclerc, his pole completed a sweep of all three sessions in qualifying as he set the early pace on the medium tyre, fractionally ahead of both Renaults and both Mercedes on softs.
Just a quarter of a second would cover the top seven and a full second the top 15 before an apparent engine issue for Sergio Perez caused a red flag with four minutes to go.
The session restarted with a frantic dash to confirm places in Q2 although not for Max Verstappen, who was already starting at the back due to engine penalties.
However, even his attempt to post a banker time failed as he suffered a loss of power on the flying lap causing concern in the Red Bull garage.
With Verstappen and Perez out and Williams struggling to challenge, that meant only one driver would join them in the knockout zone.
And he would be Romain Grosjean in the Haas in 16th missing out by less than a tenth with Perez behind in 17th.
George Russell sat half a second off the midfield pace in 18th but would be another half-second clear of Robert Kubica in 19th.
Q2
Leclerc maintained his place at the top in Q2, a tenth and a half clear of Vettel and Hamilton.
Ricciardo moved upto fourth ahead of Bottas and Albon as the top six held a solid advantage over the rest going into the second runs.
In the battle to make the top 10, Lance Stroll was the big mover for Racing Point claiming ninth.
Kimi Raikkonen just squeezed in by 0.002s over teammate Antonio Giovinazzi in 11th much to the annoyance of the Italian crowd.
Kevin Magnussen was a tenth further back in 12th with the two Toro Rosso’s of Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly 13th and 15th respectively.
The Frenchman will move up a place, however, as Lando Norris takes engine penalties but helped McLaren teammate Carlos Sainz make Q3 by offering a slipstream.
Q3
As teams scrambled for a slipstream, Mercedes tried to pull their trick from Baku by going out first and doing a practice start, thus allowing the other cars through.
And it worked as Sebastian Vettel went first in the queue with the pack forming up behind him.
The session would be stopped, however, when Raikkonen lost the rear through Parabolica and crashed hard into the barrier for the second time this weekend.
Ahead of that, Leclerc would set the pole benchmark, less than half a tenth clear of both Mercedes with Vettel in fourth.
With the Alfa Romeo recovered, it paved the way for the final shootout for pole as teams waited until the last moment to head out on track.
There would be no final laps for the front runners though as fun and games trying to get a tow meant only two drivers made it to the line on time.
Leclerc was one of those but neither of his main challengers did, ensuring the Monegasque remained on pole for the fourth time this season.
Mercedes followed in second and third as Hamilton just led Bottas with Vettel fourth, having been quite fortunate to keep his time after running wide at Parabolica.
The two Renault’s validated their strong pace in fifth and sixth with Daniel Ricciardo ahead of Nico Hulkenberg.
Carlos Sainz was the only driver to post a time after the red flag moving upto seventh as Albon, Stroll and Raikkonen all failed to set a Q3 time.
A quite farcical end to qualifying and an investigation is underway after the stewards warned drivers against excessively slow out laps.
For the time being though, the final results of qualifying can be seen below:
