This session has finished. No further updates will be posted.
That’s qualifying done, here’s the starting grid for the Italian Grand Prix.
Norris: “Shit lap, I’m sorry. My bad.” Joseph tells him it was good enough for pole position!
Russell reclaims with with a 1’19.440, Hamilton stays sixth, and that’s the grid set.
Norris improves to a 1’19.327, Sainz falls short and goes third.
Verstappen only manages seventh. Perez went off in front of him at Lesmo 2.
Red Bull opt to avoid any problems, sending Perez out first to tow Verstappen. The rest of the field follow them.
Mercedes displace Ferrari from the second row of the grid, George Russell 0.168 seconds off Norris. As it stands that’s Norris’ dream grid – he’s on provisional pole position, Verstappen eighth.
Piastri sets a 1’19.436 but Norris beats that by three-hundredths of a second. The Ferraris take the second row, three-tenths of a second behind.
Q3 has begun and everyone is on new tyres except for Perez on used rubber. Hulkenberg beats Albon with their first laps.
The chequered flag falls on Q2. Fernando Alonso misses the cut for Q3 by just a hundredth of a second. Ricciardo, Magnussen and the Alpine drivers also will not appear in the top 10 shoot-out. “I think P11 is better than expected,” remarks Alonso, whose team mate starts 17th.
Verstappen improves to second, 0.021s off Hamilton now. Perez stays eight but he’s safe from Ricciardo who is out.
Nico Hulkenberg picks up a slipstream from a few cars on the pit straight and goes fastest of all in the first sector. He fails to improve in the final sector, however, and stays ninth.
Q2 is more comfortable for Perez, who’s eighth after the first runs.
Now the Ferraris have fresh softs on. Sainz is fastest of all in the first sector, manages a 1’19.799 for third place. Leclerc is two-tenths off in seventh: “The car is not turning at all again.”
Have Mercedes sussed their tyres? Hamilton goes to the top of the times with a 1’19.641, 0.086s faster than Norris.
Q2 is go and Ferrari hit the top of the times. Verstappen beats that, then Piastri goes quicker still. Norris goes quickest with a 1’19.727, only 0.018s faster than his team mate.
A furious Tsunoda says: “It’s so ridiculous.” New race engineer Ernesto Desiderio reminds him to “keep it clean on the radio”, as of course he copped a five-figure fine for an outburst earlier this year.
“Oh my god, man,” says Magnussen. “The guy went off in front of me.” He slid off at Parabolica after driving through the gravel dropped by Colapinto.
There will be a delay to the start of Q2.
Russell: “The tyres don’t seem to be in a great window as they were in FP3. Still sliding on the surface.”
The chequered flag is out and both Saubers are eliminated in the last two places. Colapinto, Stroll and Tsunoda are out too. Aside from Sauber, every team set a time within a second of the quickest lap in that session.
Tsunoda goes 15th and eliminates Stroll – then Ricciardo takes it off him and knocks his team mate out.
Colapinto almost crashes at Lesmo 2 but keeps going. Magnussen is in trouble at the exit of Parabolica and that has spoiled the laps of a few drivers.
Perez gets up to ninth with just under two minutes remaining. Will that be enough to get him into Q2? He’s three-tenths of a second slower than Verstappen.
McLaren at risk of getting a penalty for an unsafe release with Piastri on Verstappen.
Russell: “I think these tyres will be okay to go again, they’re just not in the right temperature window.”
Alonso gets up to seventh, 0.706s off the pace. The Mercedes drivers slot in behind Verstappen, fourth and fifth.
Albon: “A lot of smoke on the front brakes.” He’s sixth fastest, nine-tenths off the pace. Piastri recovers to set fourth-fastest time, 0.577s off Norris.
Verstappen’s first lap looks smoother than he was at the end of final practice. He crosses the line a tenth of a second off Leclerc. Then Lando Norris produces a 1’19.911, fastest of all and three-tenths up on Verstappen. Piastri cuts the Rettifilo on his first lap.
Sainz bails out of his first lap. Leclerc does a 1’20.074 – immediately faster than the best time from final practice. Sainz: “Check the floor of the car.”
Gasly: “Smoke coming out of the front brakes.” Nonetheless he’s gone fourth, albeit half a second slower than his team mate.
Q1 has begun. Zhou leads the field out followed by the Alpines, both Haas drivers – Magnussen having a gearbox change after his FP3 stoppage – then the Ferraris. The timing screen insists Leclerc is on full wets under the sunny skies but he is not.
The fastest lap time in final practice, Hamilton’s 1’20.117, was almost eight-tenths of a second quicker than the best in the same session last year. It was also a tenth of a second faster than last year’s pole time. The all-time record is likely to be out of reach – that is the 1’18.887 Hamilton set in 2020.
The stewards have said they won’t be able to hold hearings on potential infringements by Sergio Perez and Franco Colapinto until after qualifying. Perez appeared to rejoin the track incorrectly at the Roggia chicane while Colapinto is under investigation over his practice start. No mention about the other investigation regarding Lance Stroll, who appeared to commit a similar infringement to Perez.
Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri had a close run-in during final practice when the McLaren driver moved right coming out of Lesmo 2 and the Ferrari took to the grass in order to avoid him. The stewards took a look and cleared the pair, and also had a chat with Daniel Ricciardo who saw the whole thing unfold. “The three drivers and their representatives agreed that the situation was caused through a misunderstanding by the drivers of cars 81 [Piastri] and 16 [Leclerc] about each other’s intentions, which were both well-intended,” they noted.
The Monza crowd was treated to a home pole position by Ferrari last year and a repeat is certainly possible today. However final practice showed the competition for a place at the front of the grid is likely to be extremely close. Lewis Hamilton was fastest, as he also was in second practice, but McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull all showed flashes of pace. Max Verstappen set the fastest final sector time late in the session.
Qualifying for the 2024 Italian Grand Prix is coming up next.
2024 Italian Grand Prix
- Verstappen faces post-race investigation along with five other drivers and McLaren
- Red Bull lose constructors’ championship lead for first time in two years
- “Never had so much pain in a car”: How Colapinto impressed Williams on his debut
- F1’s most competitive season for 47 years? Four teams now have three wins each
- “Can I have my PU performance back?” – Verstappen’s “tough” Monza race on his radio
