Valtteri Bottas leads the provisional grid for the 2021 Italian Grand Prix sprint qualifying race.
| Row 1 | 1. Valtteri Bottas 1’19.555 Mercedes | |
| 2. Lewis Hamilton 1’19.651 Mercedes | ||
| Row 2 | 3. Max Verstappen 1’19.966 Red Bull | |
| 4. Lando Norris 1’19.989 McLaren | ||
| Row 3 | 5. Daniel Ricciardo 1’19.995 McLaren | |
| 6. Pierre Gasly 1’20.260 AlphaTauri | ||
| Row 4 | 7. Carlos Sainz Jnr 1’20.462 Ferrari | |
| 8. Charles Leclerc 1’20.510 Ferrari | ||
| Row 5 | 9. Sergio Perez 1’20.611 Red Bull | |
| 10. Antonio Giovinazzi 1’20.808 Alfa Romeo | ||
| Row 6 | 11. Sebastian Vettel 1’20.913 Aston Martin | |
| 12. Lance Stroll 1’21.020 Aston Martin | ||
| Row 7 | 13. Fernando Alonso 1’21.069 Alpine | |
| 14. Esteban Ocon 1’21.103 Alpine | ||
| Row 8 | 15. George Russell 1’21.392 Williams | |
| 16. Nicholas Latifi 1’21.925 Williams | ||
| Row 9 | 17. Yuki Tsunoda 1’21.973 AlphaTauri | |
| 18. Mick Schumacher 1’22.248 Haas | ||
| Row 10 | 19. Robert Kubica 1’22.530 Alfa Romeo | |
| 20. Nikita Mazepin 1’22.716 Haas |
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2021 Italian Grand Prix
- Who was to blame for Hamilton and Verstappen’s collision at Monza?
- Friday qualifying needs earlier start after “nearly dark” Monza session – Ricciardo
- Drivers suggest sprint qualifying format changes after processional second race
- Sainz pleased for McLaren despite “worst possible” result for Ferrari
- Red Bull were advised Perez should let Leclerc past – Masi
Patrick (@paeschli)
10th September 2021, 18:05
Perez is very far yet again
jff
10th September 2021, 18:51
But at least Ricciardo is getting very close to his teammate.
Jere (@jerejj)
10th September 2021, 18:08
Perez’s slowness, though, even when behind someone.
DaveW (@dmw)
10th September 2021, 20:52
In fairness they said the tow is worth .7s? I don’t think Perez ever got it. But then again I don’t think ricciardo or Bottas had two laps with a tow.
He needs to go faster. I was looking at a video of him storming through the field at monza in a sauber. Those were the days.
RandomMallard (@)
10th September 2021, 18:08
Bottas pulling the traditional strategy of “Hang on I’m losing my seat? It’s time to turn into a mega driver”. See Perez in Sakhir, Palmer at Singapore 2017, Gio (maybe, not confirmed, but certainly at-risk) these last 2 races getting Q3
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th September 2021, 18:14
True, I think giovinazzi would deserve to stay though.
ttongsul (@ccpbioweapon)
10th September 2021, 18:14
That’s just a coincidence, I don’t think it has anything to do with any new found inner race craft… BOT got a new revised engine which is worth a few extra km/h,
Edvaldo
10th September 2021, 20:22
Gasly is a quality driver and looked terrible at RB. Embarassing really, and people said that “verstappen was just that good” to make him look so bad.
Now Gasly has become an accomplished driver within the smaller team and nobody seems to think it’s a good idea for him to return.
Not because verstappen is that good but because everybody knows he would be left to the side again.
They are invested in verstappen and that will last until he decides to leave and they take some time to find the next guy.
Cristian Ingles (@doctorlovesexy)
10th September 2021, 18:16
Palmer was never a mega driver. He was P6 in Singapore 2017 thanks to the first nail in the coffin of Vettels career with bonehead move and the crash between the Ferraris, Verstappen and poor Alonso who had a mega start at turn 1
Swifty
10th September 2021, 18:11
The people who compare Perez to Bottas make me laugh, honestly…
When will RB find a capable driver for that 2nd seat?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th September 2021, 18:13
Indeed, I don’t want to be too harsh on perez cause he’s been towing verstappen here, but I mean, wasn’t bottas towing hamilton in the end, and managed to do better than him? Why can’t perez do slightly worse than verstappen when towing him?
anon
10th September 2021, 20:03
@esploratore1 in the case of Bottas, Mercedes managed to position his car in the queue of cars in just the right spot so he also benefited from a tow from the cars in front on his final Q3 lap, so he was also gaining that same benefit.
In Perez’s case, as Red Bull sent him out first to ensure he would be able to provide Verstappen with a tow, his position was always going to be compromised because he had no such benefit. As a tactic, though, it seems to have failed to deliver – Verstappen ended up 0.3s slower on his final run, and Perez is now starting behind two McLaren’s who look like they could have the pace to keep him at bay.
Alex
10th September 2021, 18:14
To be fair they have been trying but Verstappen keeps blowing them away. Gasly, Albon and Perez are all accomplished drivers
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th September 2021, 18:16
There’s probably some element of how difficult it is to drive a red bull fast compared to a mercedes, cause from their earlier careers it didn’t seem like bottas would destroy perez in similar cars.
Patrick (@anunaki)
10th September 2021, 18:20
Or maybe Max is just that good
paulguitar (@paulguitar)
10th September 2021, 18:26
Max gets a better car, apparently, Perez is behind with updates.
Patrick (@anunaki)
10th September 2021, 18:30
Sure, but there are no 0,7 sec updates
paulguitar (@paulguitar)
10th September 2021, 18:55
That’s true, but it is very frustrating knowing we don’t have a legitimate contest in equal cars.
Patrick (@anunaki)
10th September 2021, 19:13
Well it’s not like they’re always running completely different cars. It’s more that when they only have one part, Max gets it.
jff
10th September 2021, 18:54
There probably is an element of that, but just find a driver who can.
I doubt they need Perez’ money.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th September 2021, 19:20
Absolutely, you won’t ever see me defending people like albon, gasly, perez etc.; if a driver is not performing I’d replace him, I’d probably get alonso at this point, I had already suggested it when he was struggling at mclaren.
ttongsul (@ccpbioweapon)
10th September 2021, 18:25
That is untrue, Danny Ric matched Max but was forced out of the team.
Albon accomplished? what? hes a mediocre journeyman only racing for RB because CEO owed a return favor to the Thai investors that invested in his energy drink startup in the 80’s
Perez is overrated, does not deserve to tie Kobayoshis shoes when they was team mates, only in F1 due to substantial backing from Mexican billionaire carlos slim.
Gasly is talented but pushed way too early and embarrassed himself , ironically the same is now happening to his current team mate Yuki Tsunoda..
RandomMallard (@)
10th September 2021, 18:21
I agree that Bottas is certainly a better qualifier than Perez. But Perez’s racecraft and overtaking ability just seems a lot better than Bottas’ (see Sakhir last year, a lot of his podium drives with FI/RP, while Bottas generally struggles a lot when he’s behind people, such as in Monza last year or at Baku this year). When you look at the stats, all but two of Bottas 9 wins have come from the front row, including 6 from pole, and he was assisted in winning Russia last year by Hamilton’s penalty and in Japan in 2019 by Vettel getting a very slow start. It’s a shame that Perez has to put himself in the position where he has to do that overtaking though…
Cristian Ingles (@doctorlovesexy)
10th September 2021, 18:22
Me. I use to outqualify Verstappen in the same car in F1 2021 videogame
@denn (@denn)
10th September 2021, 19:29
ha! COTD
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
10th September 2021, 18:12
Like back at Silverstone the Friday qualifying just fell a bit flat for me & I never really got into it because knowing it isn’t what will be setting the grid for the GP just takes away a lot of the jeopardy that is a big part of what normally makes qualifying so exciting.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
10th September 2021, 18:38
Completely agree @stefmeister. This gimmick race weekend format is awful, It kills the flow of the weekend, Makes the real qualifying session feel less relevant & exciting, Takes action away from the real race & also devalues the real race a bit.
Not to mention how this awful gimmick race weekend format makes some races more important than others due to handing out more points.
It’s just an awful format with an awful gimmick race that just makes fans want to shout #LibertyOut!!!!!!!!! and #NoToGimmicks!!!!!!!!!!!!
lucifer (@lucifer)
10th September 2021, 18:45
+1
Dave
11th September 2021, 11:23
Looking forward to seeing your second Sprint Qualifying rant!
You should do a rant on Haas too.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th September 2021, 18:15
In general mercedes clearly fastest on a single lap here, this also happened in the other event like this, silverstone, where however red bull was competitive on long run, so we’ll see what happens.
Mclaren impressive, both very close to verstappen who had a very good first lap, and ricciardo really close to norris finally.
macaque (@macaque)
10th September 2021, 18:15
Would be interesting if they could take the engine penalties between quali and sprint qualifying. Then we would get a real race on Saturday.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
10th September 2021, 18:34
@macaque Problem then would be if you did have a front runner starting the gimmick race from the back after a poor qualifying or some sort of penalty it’s then taking action away from the real race because any overtaking we would normally see in the real would would end up happening in the gimmick race.
For as gimmick hungry as the Liberty Americanisation of F1 to Indycar+ is I think even they want to avoid the scenario where the gimmick race is more action packed that the real race as they then lose the ability to argue against those who feel the gimmick race does nothing but devalue the real race.
jff
10th September 2021, 18:59
Did you just put ‘gimmick’ 4x in a single comment?
RandomMallard (@)
10th September 2021, 19:43
I think so. And too many gimmicks devalues the original point doesn’t it?
Dave
11th September 2021, 11:27
“Indycar+” again? Come on, “CART X” is coming in the future!
dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
10th September 2021, 19:03
Someone show Perez where the accelerator is
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th September 2021, 19:23
Ahah, good one! At monza you need it for 71% of the lap.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th September 2021, 19:23
Even ricciardo found it.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
10th September 2021, 19:33
Great final effort by Bottas! By the end of Q2 I thought Hamilton had this one in the bag, but now Verstappen is a serious threat for the main race on Sunday, if the McLarens aren’t going to interfer.
Also great job by both McLarens! They could score big points on Sunday, 3rd and 4th are definitely possible.
Ferrari did pretty well, considering Monza is a power track and they seem to have gone for a slightly bigger rear wing. Gio also up there in the top 10 highlights the progress Ferrari have made with their PU. And there is still one upgrade to come.
Williams and Aston Martin are a little bit of an disappointment. I thought there was more speed in their cars than P11-14. Let’s what they can do in the sprint and the main race.