It’s an all-McLaren front row at Monza, the “Temple of Speed”. For now, the Woking team has achieved its goal by bringing both MCL38s to the front, especially considering that Max Verstappen did not go beyond seventh place, with Red Bull occupying only the fourth row, which also presents a good chance of recovering further points in the constructors’ championship.
In front of everyone, once again, is Lando Norris, also this time able to precede his teammate by about a tenth, even if the last lap in Q3 was not the best, as he himself explained. The final time was however sufficient to leave all the rivals behind and start from the first box, with the aim of concretizing the result in tomorrow’s race, right from the start.
After the last few poor starts, McLaren has been looking closely at the data, particularly from the start in Holland, where it believes there was a traction issue in the second phase which, at least from its own predictions, it believes it has fixed.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Despite a top speed that was not exactly exciting compared to the Ferrari, which on the Monza track proved to be extremely competitive from this point of view, the Woking team was able to take pole by making the difference exactly where it was expected, namely in the corners. The two Lesmos and the Parabolica were a real hunting ground for the two MCL38s, even if something was missing, however, in the first chicane compared to a Mercedes that was solid in that section. In general, a performance like today’s is also a nice testimony to the great steps forward made by McLaren in the last year, because here twelve months ago the MCL60 did not shine, showing all the limits on the low-downforce package that still had to be updated.
“Another pole, it’s fantastic. To have two cars in front, when the grid has been as compact as it has been these days, is a bit of a surprise, but a positive surprise,” said Lando Norris after the official practice, noting that the final lap was not exactly clean.
“I have to congratulate the team, they did a great job. To be honest, mine wasn’t a great lap, it pains me to say that, my first lap in Q3 was better, while the second lap wasn’t great, but it was still good enough for pole. A bit of a surprise, but I’m happy.”
“The aim is clearly to get another one-two, because that would mean important points for both championships, not to mention that now McLaren really wants to realise its potential. “It would be nice to get the same result as today in the race too. But as we have seen all weekend, the grid is very compact, there are a lot of fast drivers, so I don’t expect a very easy race tomorrow. There are a lot of unknowns for the race, with degradation, the tyres, the asphalt, so a lot of question marks and a lot of emotions, I’m sure,” added Norris.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Behind him will start another McLaren, that of Oscar Piastri: just like his teammate, the Australian also did not have a brilliant last lap, also due to a big oversteer coming out of turn 1 which probably contributed to slightly overheating the tyres. The front row is still an excellent result for him too, even if it should be underlined that Piastri, as seen yesterday, lost something on the straight compared to Norris, perhaps due to a slight difference in aerodynamic configuration.
“The first lap in Q3 was quite good. The second lap was not good enough, as I think I’ve said a few too many times this year,” Piastri said, noting how he’s struggled a bit this year to get his best qualifying performance, an area where he’s generally done very well.
“It’s still a good performance and a great team effort. I think the grid is incredibly tight this weekend, so there was no guarantee of a front row for us. Starting a bit further ahead than last week is definitely a positive for me. Let’s see how the tyres behave tomorrow. The conditions in Monza are a bit different to what we’re used to, so it could be a very exciting race,” added the Australian.
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