Qualification report for the Italian Grand Prix 2021 & highlights: Bottas beats Hamilton in Monza and takes first place on the grid for the F1 sprint

Outgoing Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas won the Pirelli Speed ​​King Award in Monza, was fastest in qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix and means he will start from P1 in Saturday’s F1 sprint after beating his teammate Lewis Hamilton had defeated.

Bottas, who announced earlier this week that he will be driving to Alfa Romeo for 2022, set a breakneck pace on his last flying run in qualifying on Friday evening in Monza and stopped the clocks with a time of 1: 19.555, 0.096 seconds faster than Hamilton.

F1 SPRINT: What to expect every day when the exciting format returns in Monza

And while Bottas will start the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday after a series of engine penalties for this weekend from the end of the grid, he will nonetheless play a role for Mercedes by starting from P1 in the F1 sprint in hopes of deducting points by Red Bulls Max Verstappen.

Verstappen had learned the pace of the Mercedes all Friday. And that was confirmed in qualifying when the Dutchman finished third on the grid for Red Bull, 0.411 seconds behind Bottas.

McLaren was one of the surprises of qualifying, with Lando Norris finishing both Q1 and Q2 in P3 and ahead of Verstappen. But Norris ended up in fourth place, just two hundredths behind the Dutchman, and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo also impressed with fifth place.

Pierre Gasly finished sixth for AlphaTauri, ahead of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc’s two Ferraris – both Ferraris that made it to Q3 this year, unlike last year when neither car reached the final segment of qualifying. Sergio Perez was a disappointing ninth for Red Bull, ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo.

READ MORE: Bottas finished P1 in qualifying, but will be the last to start the Italian GP on Sunday after the drive unit has been changed

Aston Martin was a surprise Q2 exit after going well in Friday’s FP1 session. Sebastian Vettel drove from P11 to P12 for Lance Stroll, with the Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon behind them on P13 and P14, in front of the Williams of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi.

Yuki Tsunoda from AlphaTauri, Mick Schumacher from Haas, the second Alfa from Robert Kubica and the second Haas from Nikita Mazepin rounded off the 20 cars.

Qualification: Italian Grand Prix 2021

WHEN IT HAPPENED

Q1 – Tsunoda lap clearing promotes Russell in Q2 as Hamilton is fastest

Since Ferrari had planned their home race at Monza as one where they could have problems due to an aggregate deficit, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were sent out early and seemed to be playing around with the mighty T-bar at the Temple of Speed ​​- said up to here be worth seven tenths per lap.

Traffic in Q1 was likely always a problem with 20 cars on the track – and so it turned out that Pierre Gasly was particularly angry when he saw the situation, with a series of quirky moments where the drivers met cars on fast laps “Af * ***** joke”.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the F1 Sprint format returning in Monza this weekend

Italy GP qualifying 2021: Verstappen and Gasly rage after close talks with slow Monza traffic

After the scrum was over and the laps were recorded, Hamilton continued the form of Mercedes from FP1 – where he had led the session of Verstappen with 0.452 seconds – and was the fastest with 0.142 seconds ahead of team-mate Bottas, as Lando Norris of McLaren took an impressive third, just 0.373 seconds behind Hamilton and over a tenth ahead of Verstappen in P4.

Sainz and Leclerc meanwhile took them to fifth and seventh – with Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi doing a good job of dividing them into P6.

It initially looked like both Williams had been knocked out in the first quarter. But Yuki Tsunoda then canceled his last lap because of the route limits in Turn 11 – the newly named Curva Alboreto – and promoted the newly signed Mercedes driver Russell into Q2 as Nicholas Latifi, Tsunoda, Mick Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen Robert Kubica and Nikita Mazepin went out.

KO: Latifi, Tsunoda, Schumacher, Kubica, Mazepin

Raikkonen deputy Kubica took an early bath

Q2 – Both Alpines and Aston Martins are eliminated as Hamilton again as the fastest

The big surprise after the opening gambit in Q2 was the speed – or lack of it – of the Red Bulls, with Verstappen P6 after the first few runs, 0.774 seconds behind Hamilton’s early attempt of 1: 19.936 seconds when Perez took P10, 1.210 seconds behind – both cops with work.

2019 Monza winner Leclerc, who discovered a problem with his SF21 in Q1, complained loudly about his car’s engine brake, which seemed to undermine his confidence in his prancing horse.

As the drivers began their final efforts in the segment, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel narrowly hit Hamilton in the pit lane when he was released from his garage.

READ MORE: Alpine and Aston Martin each fined € 5,000 after a close pit lane battle in Monza qualifying

Italy GP qualification 2021: Unsafe causes chaos in the pit lane in Monza

However, after the drivers got themselves in order, Hamilton and Bottas couldn’t improve from their first few runs on used soft tires, but were still fast enough to lead the session to 0.293 seconds closed by Hamilton on his last run) than Ricciardo finished fifth.

Fernando Alonso was the only driver who had not yet set a lap time to go into the final Q2 runs after making a mistake in Turn 1 on his first attempt. But neither the Spaniard nor his alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon were able to get out of Q3, Alonso and Ocon ended up in P13 and P14 respectively.

READ MORE: Sainz welcomes Ferrari advances after double Q3 at Monza as Leclerc is frustrated with powertrain problem

The Aston Martins had been quick in FP1, but couldn’t get into Q3 either. Vettel finished P11, one place ahead of Lance Stroll – who was fourth fastest in the morning session – when Russell finished P15.

Ferrari, meanwhile, avenged its double failure to reach Q3 from 2020, with Sainz and Leclerc finishing the last part of qualifying in eighth and ninth place, ahead of Perez – Leclerc seemed to be able to circumvent his problems.

Gasly and Giovinazzi were the other two drivers who made it.

KO: Vettel, Stroll, Alonso, Ocon, Russell

Stroll couldn’t carry his FP1 form into qualifying

Q3 – Bottas amazes with fastest time as Mercedes dominates

In the first few laps of Q3, Verstappen saw a lot more in the races, Hamilton down the gauntlet again with a 1: 19.949 second, but Verstappen was just 0.017 seconds behind P2 as Norris claimed P3, just 0.065 seconds behind Hamilton.

Bottas, meanwhile, was behind Ricciardo in P5 and was half a second behind after he came out of the second chicane a little wildly and kissed the gravel.

However, when the drivers drove their final laps through Monza, Bottas was in inspired form and drove purple times in the first two sectors before crossing the finish line in 1: 19.555 minutes to take provisional pole.

READ MORE: Hamilton praises outgoing teammate Bottas after conceding Finn’s Monza qualifier

He had even towed his teammate Hamilton – but although the seven-time Monza polesitter improved to 1: 19.651 minutes, he was still 0.096s behind Bottas, who may have uttered a few words “whoever likes it” in his concerns… ”in his Helm after news of his departure to Alfa Romeo for 2022, when he was fastest in qualifying for the first time since Portimao.

The Red Bulls had no answer to the Mercedes

Verstappen ultimately couldn’t improve on his second lap, but had done enough in his first run to finish third on the grid for Saturday’s F1 sprint – even though he was just 0.411 seconds behind Bottas – Verstappen ahead of the impressive Norris, the Fourth while Ricciardo was frustrated to be just 0.006 seconds behind his teammate as he finished fifth.

READ MORE: Verstappen says it would be “unrealistic” to have hoped for more than P3 in Monza qualifying

As in Zandvoort, Gasly beat both Ferraris and finished sixth, Sainz ahead of Leclerc in seventh and eighth, Perez only ninth in the second Red Bull, while Giovinazzi rounded off the top 10 after his second Q3 appearance in a row.

So the fight to get the sprint back on Saturday looks wonderful. But will Verstappen from P3 on the grid get aggressive to try to disrupt the Mercedes? Or save your firepower for the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday? Visit Formula1.com to find out.

Bottas was the fastest in qualifying for the first time since the Portuguese Grand Prix

The key quote

“This qualifying lap was nice. It feels so good when you do a nice lap and I made it to the end and I ended up towing a bit too, so it was a lot of fun, I was enjoying it.

“I feel good, I feel relaxed and everything is prepared for the future. Of course, yes, very happy with the team today; the car was so good and of course there will be new, exciting things for me in the next year and i’m looking forward to it. But for now, focus on tomorrow’s sprint race. Starting from the beginning, of course, in the expectation of getting the maximum number of points tomorrow and then doing our best on Sunday. ”- Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes

What’s next?

After qualifying, the teams and drivers have a training session left on Saturday morning before tackling the second F1 sprint – the winner of this competition takes pole for the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday.