Sainz tops qualifying in Italy ahead of Verstappen, Leclerc P3

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Qualifying Report Italian Grand Prix 2023 Sainz wins ahead of Verstappen
2 September 2023 at 16:05
Last update 2 September 2023 at 16:10
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  • Kada Sarkozi
  • Editor

Carlos Sainz has won qualifying at Monza with a 1:20.294, and will start from Pole Position in Sunday’s Grand Prix. Max Verstappen will start alongside the Spaniard, while Charles Leclerc completes the Top 3 in Italy. The first three drivers were only seperated by 0.067 seconds.

On soft tyres in Saturday's special qualifying format, Carlos Sainz topped a close session in Italy. Max Verstappen went wide on his first flying lap on the exit of the Roggia corners, but the Dutchman later managed to complete a lap without a mistake and finished second just 0.013 seconds behind Sainz. Charles Leclerc finished in P3 with 0.067 seconds behind the winner.

George Russell completes the second row of the grid, after the Briton finished ahead of Sergio Perez and Alexander Albon. Oscar Piastri got the better of his teammate and will start from P7, and Lewis Hamilton finished eighth ahead of fellow Briton Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso.

Q2

The second qualifying session continued with the mandatory use of medium tyres. Verstappen was once again the quickest, while Hamilton was in the bottom five ahead of his final lap, but the Briton eventually managed to qualify for Q3 ahead of his teammate in P6. This was the 300th time the seven-time world champion has qualified for a Q3 session.

Logan Sargeant could not improve and finished last with his competitive Williams. Bottas and Hulkenberg were also eliminated alongside the two AlphaTauris, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver finished in P11 just 0.013 seconds behind Lando Norris.

OUT - P15 Sargeant, P14 Bottas, P13 Hulkenberg, P12 Lawson, P11 Tsunoda

Q1

In the first session of qualifying, all drivers had to fit the mandatory hard tyres. Esteban Ocon was involved in a couple of incidents, first, he came close to crashing into Lando Norris, then he almost lost his car exiting the final Ascari corner and went wide. Moreover, Sainz and Leclerc will be investigated for not respecting the maximum time limit introduced this weekend.

It was another eventful out lap leading up to the drivers’ final lap of the session. Verstappen finished the quickest in Q1 ahead of Alexander Albon. Lance Stroll finished last, and Kevin Magnussen was eliminated along with the two Alpines struggling for pace. Lastly, Guanyu Zhou’s lap was deleted in the final moment, and as a result, Nico Hulkenberg was elevated to P15.

OUT - P20 Stroll, P19 Magnussen, P18 Ocon, P17 Gasly, P16 Zhou