Due to all the grid penalties, it was Charles Leclerc’s pole to lose but the main question was, could he beat Max Verstappen on pure pace?
Q1
In Qualifying 1; Nicholas Latifi, Sebastian Vettel, Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher all got knocked out. Nicholas Latifi qualified higher than he usually did but this wasn’t a good performance from him. He made a mistake on his final flying lap and got beaten by his teammate who didn’t know he was driving till about 20 minutes before FP3. That’s most probably the final nail in Latifi’s F1 coffin. Vettel headed Stroll in a shocking performance from Aston Martin. The car was horrendous! Somehow though, Haas were even worse. K-Mag got multiple laps disallowed for exceeding track limits whilst Mick made a mistake on his final lap. Haas became accustomed to qualifying 19th and 20th last year so they will be hoping that this is a one-off. Max Verstappen was over 3 tenths quicker than Charles Leclerc at the end of Q1.
Q2
In Qualifying 2; Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas, Nyck De Vries, Zhou Guanyu and Yuki Tsunoda all failed to make it into the top 10 shootout. Esteban Ocon will be very disappointed with his qualifying performance given the pace that was expected out of the Alpine. Valtteri did a decent job, don’t think the car was really quick enough to get any higher up. As for Nyck De Vries, he did incredible. He had no idea he was going to drive until just before FP3 so to get used to the car, outqualify your teammate and start in the top 10 due to penalties is awesome. Great chance for him tomorrow. Zhou Guanyu just didn’t have the pace compared to his teammate, but Zhou is usually better in Race trim than Quali trim. Due to Yuki’s penalties, he didn’t go out in Q2 which makes sense. Carlos Sainz topped Q2 ahead of his teammate, but Max didn’t get the greatest lap in. Still, all to play for in Q3.
Q3
In Qualifying 3, Charles Leclerc took pole, on pure pace! He legitimately outqualified Max Verstappen by a tenth and a half and Carlos by another tenth. Leclerc’s 1:20.161 was over a second quicker than his fastest lap in Q1 and Q2. Verstappen and Sainz both pulled out great laps, but it wasn’t quite enough. Sergio Perez qualified 4th but was a shocking 9 tenths slower than his teammate which isn’t acceptable. Lewis Hamilton beat his teammate in Qualifying by just 18 thousandths of a second, but George won’t mind as due to penalties, he will start Sunday’s race alongside Charles Leclerc on the front row of the grid. Lando Norris will be very happy with his performance, but he was less than half a tenth off starting the race on the front row which would have been crazy. Daniel Ricciardo finally started to show up by making it into Q3, but he was still over 3 tenths off his teammate. Pierre Gasly really didn’t get a good lap in, but he will be very happy given the fact that he will start the race from P5. Finally, Fernando Alonso messed it up as he failed to get a time on the board. He really should have been ahead of Ricciardo and close to Norris, but we know that as soon as the lights go out, Alonso will be on the attack.
Starting Grid for the Italian Grand Prix and my Qualifying grades
Charles Leclerc: 10
George Russell: 7
Lando Norris: 9
Daniel Ricciardo: 7
Pierre Gasly: 8
Fernando Alonso: 5
Max Verstappen: 9
Nyck De Vries: 10
Zhou Guanyu: 5
Nicholas Latifi: 3
Sebastian Vettel: 3
Lance Stroll: 2
Sergio Perez: 5
Esteban Ocon: 4
Valtteri Bottas: 7
Kevin Magnussen: 2
Mick Schumacher: 1
Carlos Sainz: 8
Lewis Hamilton: 8
Yuki Tsunoda: 6
My predictions for the Italian Grand Prix
Max Verstappen
Charles Leclerc
George Russell
Lando Norris
Fernando Alonso
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