Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Saturday Round Up- Monza

Practice 3- Dry

Practice started with all but the 3 cars of Verstappen, Piastri and Albon making their way onto the track and after the first round of laps it was Norris top with the Redbull of Sergio Perez second but that didnt stand for long as once the reigning world champion set his first lap he was firmly top of the table. After a trip to the gravel Hamilton managed a time to put him 3rd and started to gain confidence at the Temple  of speed. 
The Mclaren(donned with plenty of Flovis paint) started to practice the tow that could be make or break in Qualifying later in the day. Maggnusen set an early qualifying simulation lap putting him up to 3rd with 28 minutes to go. From then on the times showed how fast the track and the Williams drivers were evolving, with purple sectors being set by both  Albon and Sargeant. 

As the session drew to a close everyone was on track and trying to get track position for their qualifying simulation laps to dial in the car or make any changes they needed to make before the afternoons shootout.
This is the point in the day when Sainz really started to show his speed and he topped the times as the session ended beating Verstappen who finished 2nd with Hamilton 3rd and team mate Charles Leclerc after a slow start coming 4th. 

Qualifying- Dry 

This weekend F1 is again trialing a new Qualifying format were drivers have a mandatory tyre allocation per round of Qualifying so Q1 only the Hard tyres may be used, Q2 Mediums and Q3 only the soft tyre is avaliable.  

Q1- Hard Tyres for all

Qualifying started and Max Verstappen lead the Mclaren's out to start the running, but quickly the rest of the grid followed and the Monza slipstream traffic began. Perez set the fastest time with Max following suit before having his lap deleted for track limits at turn 7. Both Williams car showed great pace with Albon putting the car top on his first run and rookie Logan Sargeant getting 4th. The ferrari's had a slow start to the session but ultimately found their pace finishing a respectable 3rd for Leclerc and 7th for Sainz. Verstappen topped the first round of Qualifying and on only his 2nd Qualifying in F1 Liam Lawson made it through to Q2 finishing 12th, Piastri left it late to get out of the bottom 5 but put in a solid last lap and sadly after a strong showing at Zandvoort both Alpine cars were out in Q1.

Q1 Result 

1 VER    2 ALB
3 LEC     4 TSU
5 PER    6 SAR
7 SAI      8 HAM
9 NOR   10 ALO
11 PIA    12 LAW
13 RUS  14 BOT
15 HUL   16 ZHO
17 GAS   18 OCO
​19 MAG   20 STR

Q2 Result 

1 VER    2 LEC
3 SAI      4 PER
5 ALB     6 HAM
7 RUS    8 PIA
9 ALO    10 NOR
11 TSU   12 LAW
13 HUL   14 BOT
​15 SAR

Q2- Medium Tyre 

Q2 began with the news that both Ferrari drivers were under investigation for ' not following the Race Directors instruction' this was in reference to the addition of a minimum time to set your out lap, in an effort to avoid dangerous traffic at the end of the lap impeding car on fast laps trying to orchestrate a tow with their team mate or just gain track position, after the session the FIA would state no further action would be taken against the Scuderia. 
Regardless of that hanging over the Ferrari's they came out flying and after Albon had set a cracking time that beat both Redbull drivers times, his time was beaten by Leclerc, followed quickly by Sainz going fastest and breaking the 1.20 barrier.
When the cars returned to the track to make their last runs there was a big queue of cars scrapping over track position and who was going to lead them all around essentially compromising their own lap before they started it. Verstappen set the fastest time, with the 2 Ferrari's of Leclerc and Sainz in 2nd and 3rd. Norris narrowly made it into Q3 by just 13 thousandths of a second over Yuki Tsunoda in 11th. followed by team mate Lawson, HAAS's Nico Hulkenburg, Bottas and Sargeant. in the drop out zone.

Q3- Soft Tyre 

Max lead the pack out and despite a mistake meaning he touched the gravel on the outside of the track still managed to go 3 tenths faster than team mate Sergio Perez could, but that was quickly beaten by the Ferrari of Leclerc with Sainz quickly beating the times of both men by just 0.032 of a second, it was close after the first runs with Albon in a solid 5th and Hamilton and Alonso down in 9th & 10th.
2 minutes left on the clock and all the cars were out and preping for their fastest laps of the weekend, Verstappen hadn't displayed his usual domiance in Qualifying and the Tifosi around Monza were starting to sniff the chance of a Ferrari pole at home. Leclerc was on a great lap but Verstappen again was going faster beating the purple sectors set by the lead Ferrari to go top as he crossed the line but Sainz was on a MIghty run at Monza and took pole with a truely brilliant lap Screaming over the radio 'TELL ME WE GOT IT' showing his real passion and pride in giving the Ferraris fans the Pole they deserved. Russell had a great lap to go 4th, Perez 5th, Albon again showing his skill putting the Williams in 6th, Piastri in 7th out qualified team mate Norris who could ony manage 9th behind the Mercedes of Hamilton in 8th and Alonso made up the last of the top 10.
A Ferrari Pole at Monza. Be you a Ferrari fan or not, you can't not enjoy seeing the sea of red dance and show the kind of love very few will ever feel and even less with truly inspire and even this die hard Mclaren fan had a smile on their face watching them celebrate.  

Qualifying Result 

1 SAI 
2 VER
3 LEC
4 RUS 
5 PER
6 ALB
7 PIA
8 HAM
9 NOR
10 ALO
11 TSU
12 LAW
13 HUL
14 BOT
15 SAR
16 ZHO
17 GAS
18 OCO
19 MAG 
​20 STR

Joanna Blackmore 
​Writer @ F1 Journal