The certainty of the front row came at 19:00, due to the unsafe release that risked jeopardizing Oscar Piastri’s second position. The Australian got away with a ten thousand euro fine (paid by the team) and in the McLaren garage they padlocked the front row of the Italian Grand Prix. Lando Norris was the favorite, but with small margins and in a large group with opponents who were anything but resigned. “It wasn’t like Zandvoort where I went three or four tenths faster – explained the poleman – in Monza there are many fewer curves and it becomes more complicated to put things together. You work a lot on the details, I think it’s important to start with a good base and continue to work on the details. And we’ve progressed a lot in this aspect”.
McLaren took the stage when it needed to, namely in Q3. A progression that caught off guard some rivals who had thought they could aim for the front row. It is no coincidence, for some races now the McLaren drivers have praised the car’s behavior with little fuel on board. “I think this plays a role,” Norris admitted, “when you lower the fuel load the car seems to come to life even more, personally I have the impression that it progresses better than some of our rivals.”
Norris had a small gap between himself and Piastri (0”109) but Lando stressed that his final lap was not the best, a clear message to say that there was something more to squeeze out. “In qualifying you always want everything to flow – explained Norris – I tried to force the brakes and I hit the kerb badly at turn 2, I was a tenth and a half behind compared to the previous lap and I thought ‘Ouch, this is going to be bad’. At that point I forced the brakes again at the second chicane and I regained a tenth and a half, and from then on I shaved off a few hundredths in each corner. So I can’t say it was a perfect lap, it was enough for pole but it wasn’t like Saturday at Zandvoort”.
Poleman Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Six days after the success at Zandvoort, and in light of the qualifying result, it is difficult to think of a favourite other than Norris. “I understand,” Lando admitted, “if you think back to Zandvoort I understand that he could be seen as the favourite, but we also have a lot of data that tells us that we could have a very, very close race. Oscar and I are on the front row, we certainly have a good car, but there are still some question marks starting with the graining and degradation. But I don’t hide, we are in the best position to start a good race.”
Not far behind Norris and Piastri is an overall happy George Russell. He is truly the first among those who do not have a McLaren, and considering the difficult start to the weekend, his third position is to be considered a good result. “Yesterday I lost a lot of time,” Russell underlined, “I didn’t know what to expect but in FP3 we managed to do a good job. Then Q1 and Q2 were really chaotic, I didn’t feel good in the car, then suddenly I managed to put it in the right place for Q3, both my laps were good.”
Russell has a very positive outlook, and it couldn’t be otherwise, given that he has straightened out, for now, a weekend that started uphill and has left his teammate behind him, something that every driver can only be pleased about. And here the reading of the day changes a lot. Hamilton concretely believed in the front row, a prediction that realistically seemed within his reach, but at the crucial moment it was Lewis who was missing. His self-criticism was ferocious, too much so.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
“I expected to do a better job than I did,” he admitted. “We were the fastest in Q2 and there were still some small areas for improvement. But in Q3 I behaved in an unacceptable, ridiculous way, it’s my fault and no one else’s. In turns 1 and 2 I lost a tenth and a half compared to my lap in Q2, and another tenth in turn 11.” The chance I had of fighting for the race win has gone to waste, Hamilton concluded. “Tomorrow I will just have to recover as much as possible, try to overtake the Ferraris and see whether or not it will be possible to aim for the podium.”
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