Red Bull’s Max Verstappen snatched pole position in a fiercely close Qualifying for 2025 Italian Grand Prix.
Verstappen saved his best until the last two Qualifying segments to ultimately deny Lando Norris by 0.077 seconds as last season’s title rivals secured front-row starts at the Temple of Speed.
Oscar Piastri qualified third ahead of 2024 winner, Charles Leclerc in a dramatic Qualifying session where the entire field were split by under one second in each segment.
FP3
A quiet start to FP3 saw Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, and Isack Hadjar just do installation laps before Pierre Gasly laid down 1m 23.965 as an initial benchmark on the hard tyre.
Gasly’s Alpine teammate. Franco Colapinto briefly lowered the benchmark before Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda took control at the top of the timesheet with two fliers to lower the benchmark time to 1m 20.775.
Max Verstappen soon dominated the rest of the opening half hour as he set 1m 20.040 on the soft tyre as the field ran a mix of all three tyre compounds, as the Dutchman’s time left him top from Charles Leclerc by 0.014 with 20 minutes gone in the session.
Verstappen further lowered the benchmark time to 1m 19.688 in the 26th minute to put himself top at the halfway mark of the session.
Once attention turned to the soft-tyre qualifying simulations, Verstappen struggled initially to find time whilst Norris unleashed his true pace in a quiet session for the Brit, as he produced 1m 19.331 to go fastest in the 44th minute from Piastri.
Nobody could match Norris’ fastest lap time as Leclerc left it to the checkered flag to fall 0.021s shy in second ahead of Piastri, Verstappen and George Russell, as just 0.973s split the entire field heading into Qualifying.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m 19.331 |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.021 |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.165 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.167 |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.184 |
| 6 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | + 0.227 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.267 |
| 8 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | + 0.272 |
| 9 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | + 0.365 |
| 10 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.389 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | + 0.406 |
| 12 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.530 |
| 13 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 0.576 |
| 14 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | + 0.703 |
| 15 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | + 0.728 |
| 16 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | + 0.801 |
| 17 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 0.878 |
| 18 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.916 |
| 19 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.916 |
| 20 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | + 0.973 |
Qualifying
Q1
Ocon was first out of the pits and laid 1m 21.055 as an initial benchmark time but Hulkenberg managed to go even quicker with 1m 19.950 barely a minute later.
Once everyone set their first Q1 lap times, Norris headed the order on 1m 19.611 whilst the elimination zone comprised of; Bearman, Stroll, Ocon, Albon and Sainz.
Track evolution however saw Russell on the medium tyres go quickest with 1m 19.414 in the 11th minute to displace Norris, whilst only Ocon stayed in the bottom five in 19th position ahead of Lawson but behind Gasly, Antonelli and Colapinto in 16-18th positions as 0.865s split the field.
Once the checkered flag fell, Hadjar was eliminated in 16th and missed out on Q2 by 0.080s to Albon as he suffered his first F1 Q1 elimination, whilst Stroll qualified 17th ahead of Colapinto who outqualified Gasly on the fifth anniversary of the latter’s maiden F1 victory around Monza in 2020.
Lawson qualified last after he aborted his final flier due to a mistake which forced him to exceed track limits.
Q2
After a three-minute delay for track sweeping, Sainz was first out on track to provide a tow for Albon but the Spaniard set the initial benchmark of 1m 20.239 ahead of Albon by 1.181s, after the Thai driver got understeer mid-corner through Ascari.
Verstappen shortly afterwards displaced Sainz with 1m 19.140 to head the timesheet from Russell and Piastri.
Norris meanwhile aborted his flying lap after a steering lockup upon entry into Variante del Rettifilo which left him last once everyone else did their first lap times, with Alonso 11th ahead of; Ocon, Albon and Hulkenberg.
McLaren sent Norris back out in the gap and the Brit set 1m 19.451 to put himself seventh and dropped Bearman into the bottom five in 11th position.
At the checkered flag, Bearman narrowly missed out on Q3 by 0.013s to Tsunoda but outqualified Hulkenberg, Sainz, Albon and Ocon as just 0.567s split the top 15.
Q3
Piastri was first out on track for the first Q3 runs but Piastri got stuck in a Mercedes sandwich as Antonelli joined just in front of him and Russell behind the Brit.
That sandwich allowed Piastri to set 1m 19.056 as the benchmark time whilst Norris went 0.377s slower due to Piastri having benefitted from the tow of both Mercedes’ drivers.
Leclerc however was able to find enough slipstream and space to go quicker by 0.049s but Verstappen benefitted from Tsunoda’s tow to set 1m 18.923 as the provisional pole time, which put him top from Leclerc, Piastri, Hamilton, Russell, Bortoleto, Norris, Antonelli, Tsunoda and Alonso.
As the checkered flag fell, Verstappen once again utilised Tsunoda’s tow to snatch pole with 1m 18.792 to deny Norris by 0.077s and set the fastest lap in F1 history at 164.484mph, as Piastri qualified third ahead of Leclerc.
Hamilton qualified fifth but a five-place grid penalty from Zandvoort means that he will start 10th for the race, as Russell, Antonelli, Bortoleto, Alonso and Tsunoda were consequently promoted a position.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 18.792 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.077 |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.190 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.215 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.332 |
| 6 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.365 |
| 7 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | + 0.408 |
| 8 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | + 0.598 |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.632 |
| 10 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | + 0.727 |
| 11 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | 1m 19.446 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | + 0.052 |
| 13 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 0.082 |
| 14 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.137 |
| 15 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | + 0.261 |
| 16 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | 1m 19.917 |
| 17 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.031 |
| 18 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | + 0.075 |
| 19 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.186 |
| 20 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | + 0.362 |
Leave a Reply