Valtteri Bottas leads Mercedes one-two in qualifying in Monza

Valtteri Bottas will start the second Formula 1 sprint qualifying race from pole position after the Finn led the qualifying on Friday evening.

the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team locked the first row in Monza National Circuit when Bottas was leading Lewis Hamilton by 0.096 seconds, with championship leader Max Verstappen third, more than four tenths of a second back.

Q1 – Usual suspects fall in the middle of Monza traffic

Monza has traditionally been plagued by traffic in qualifying in recent years, and that was also evident in the opening segment on Friday. Both Verstappen and Pierre Gasly had to abandon laps after they hit the traffic in the chicanes Della Roggia resp.

George Russell, fresh from the news that he will run for Mercedes in 2022, initially believed he was out in the first quarter, but the Williams races Driver got a reprieve Yuki Tsunoda had deleted a lap time due to track restrictions. This meant that the Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda Driver was knocked out of the meeting.

Also eliminated was the second Williams from Nicholas Latifi, with the Canadian for the sprint qualifying on Saturday, just before Tsunoda, from 16. Mick Schumacher will start in eighteenth in the lead for both of them Uralkali Haas F1 Team Cars.

Robert Kubica, replace again Kimi Raikkonen this weekend in Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN Team, was only able to take nineteenth place, ahead of the second Haas of Nikita Mazepin.

Hamilton led the session with a time of 1: 20.543, just ahead of teammate Bottas and McLaren F1 team‘S Lando Norris.

Q2 – Aston Martin and the Alpine Battle

Former Scuderia Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel couldn’t make it into Q3 with the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula 1 team Racer ended up in eleventh place in Q2, just ahead of his teammate Lance walk, a podium in Monza in 2020.

They were also on the wrong side of the cut-off Alpine F1 team Driver, with Fernando Alonso only displace teammates Esteban Ocon. After taking a breather in Q1, Russell couldn’t find the pace to challenge Q3 and will start 15th.

Hamilton once again found his way to the top of the timesheet, with the seven-time world champion setting a best time of 1: 19.936 ahead of Bottas and Norris.

Q3 – Bottas grabs pole despite giving Hamilton a tow

The two around Monza are among the strongest on the Formula 1 calendar and it was no surprise that the two leading teams used the drivers who weren’t fighting for the championship to help the drivers who help them.

Sergio Perez be allowed Red Bull Racing Team-mate Verstappen used his tow rope successfully, so that the Dutchman was able to qualify in third place on the grid, his best qualifying position of all time in Monza. However, the towing did not work so well at Mercedes!

Bottas was a man on a mission on Friday, with the Finn putting together a lap of 1: 19.555 that Hamilton, despite being towed by his teammate, failed to achieve. The Brit finished second, 0.096 seconds back, but will be happy to be ahead of his rival in the championship.

Norris finished fourth for McLaren, just 0.006 seconds ahead of his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, while Pierre Gasly followed the two Red Bulls for his final flying lap and finished sixth on the grid for AlphaTauri.

Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc will share the fourth row for the sprint qualifying race on Saturday, while Pérez and the impressive Antonio Giovinazzi from Alfa Romeo will complete the top ten. It was the second weekend in a row that Giovinazzi made it into Q3 while battling for his future in Formula 1.

Result of qualification for the Italian Grand Prix