What the teams said – Qualifying in Italy

Red Bull

Verstappen always looked in the mix here and can never be discounted when it comes to one lap pace. He was quick from the off in Qualifying, regularly mixing it right at the front. But come Q3, the Dutchman was incredibly fast and he grabbed his fifth pole position of the year by 0.077s, which is a fairly large margin considering how tight the gaps were on Saturday. Tsunoda did well in making Q3 with relative ease, but once there seemed to suffer some sort of power issue. As such he appeared to spend some of the session towing his team mate, but he will inherit a place for the race when Hamilton’s penalty is applied.

Max Verstappen, 1st, 1:18.792

“It was a great day for us and good to be so competitive here at this track. To get pole here is big: we need to celebrate these successes and it was a confidence boost for sure. It is always tough round here and you have to really commit with low downforce and hit the apex perfectly. It is great to get the fastest lap but I never look at these kind of stats as it depends on so many different factors. There is new tarmac which helps and in every session we got a little bit better, which is what we wanted. The car was in a better window and I had a lot more confidence to go for it and attack the corners. Tomorrow, of course, the win is always the target. The McLarens are pretty strong so it will be tough to beat them, but if the feeling of the tyres are better then who knows, we might be able to.”

Yuki Tsunoda, 10th, 1:19.519

“Reaching Q3 was exactly what I wanted to achieve today and I am happy to see the progress that we are making race by race which resulted in winning points at Zandvoort last weekend. It was a shame that I was first to take to the track in Q3 and had to lead the pack, as traditionally Monza is a track that needs slipstream. I would like to congratulate the team overall this weekend and Max for putting it on pole, it has not been easy in general but I felt the strength of the adaptation that everyone in the garage has shown. I feel like I demonstrated consistency in Q3 and was only a tenth behind Max which is positive. Since the upgrade brought to Spa we have been making progress but the balance definitely still feels a bit messy. Tomorrow won’t be easy and our one lap pace wasn’t beautiful but I am feeling confident.”

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal

“If you look back to where we were here last year as a team, it was a very difficult weekend, so big credit to the team because they have done such a good job of trying to get to the bottom of what went wrong. We worked to find out what limited us on this track and came here with some answers. Then you add the Max magic to that. It has been a very solid weekend so far, Friday was strong but still nobody took that to be good enough and Max, Yuki and their teams have been chasing the next thousandth, and the next thousandth after that.

“There were quite a few cars capable of taking pole today and everyone was in a very small gap, but from Friday Max really guided us on what he needed to extract more from the car. Well done to him because he was untouchable and drove an incredible lap. Yuki has had another good weekend so far, and to see him into Q3 again shows the progress he is making in the car. He missed out with track position on his final run, but he’s in the mix to fight for good points on Sunday.

“It will be a race that goes down to the smallest details, and we will fight very hard. The McLaren advantage tends to increase as the race goes on, and while we have been in front of them a number of times, they have often shown more pace. So, we are working every weekend to try to reduce that deficit and tomorrow will be another answer as to our progress in this area, as four or five cars could be racing for a win.”

McLaren

Norris topped FP3 and went into Qualifying as the favourite for pole. But his session went awry – a mistake on his first run in Q2 left him without a lap time, and on his second run he was running out of time to get a lap in. He did just enough to get to Q3, and once there his first run was not spectacular. With it all to do, his last flying run was better, just not good enough to beat Verstappen. But he is at least ahead of his team mate, Piastri, who always looked a tenth off here this weekend. But third is not a bad place to start in Monza, and the Australian will have a tow down to Turn 1.

Oscar Piastri, 3rd, 1:18.982

“Qualifying was a close one today. I felt like I executed a pretty good session and built up my pace well. Overall, I am still feeling confident for tomorrow, and whilst it wasn’t where I wanted to be starting, it just proves how incredibly tight it has been this weekend. A lot of teams look quick, but we have good race pace, and there are so many factors at play here, so I am sure we can go forward.”

Lando Norris, 2nd, 1:18.869

“That was quite a session for me. It was quite up and down but I’m happy to put it together so well on the final lap, and am satisfied with P2 on the grid tomorrow – it’s not a bad position to have off the line, and we knew Max would be quick today. Of course, I’d rather be in front of everybody, it’ll be tough to get past Max, and there are very fast cars behind. It’s a long race, a lot can happen, but Sunday is usually our strength, so I’m excited.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

“Today’s tight Qualifying result was not unexpected considering the level of competition we expect in Formula 1. At the same time, P2 and P3 are good starting positions for tomorrow at a circuit we knew was going to be more challenging for us. It was not the most comfortable Qualifying session. In Q2, we needed the last lap for Lando to make it into Q3, which shows the impact of a small mistake in Formula 1 at the moment. Historically, Monza often produces an exciting race for the fans, with many factors at play. We are in a good position and we are confident we can make progress to maximise the result for the team.”

Ferrari

Ferrari were right in the fight for pole at their home race, with both drivers impressing. Leclerc even briefly had provisional pole after the first runs, sending the Tifosi wild. In the end he was pipped by Verstappen, before the two McLaren cars improved on their second runs. But from fourth, Leclerc can certainly make a run for the podium, if not better. Hamilton was right there too in fifth, but he will start from P10 after his grid penalty earned last weekend is applied.

Charles Leclerc, 4th, 1:19.007

"I’m very happy with my lap in Q3 and P4 was the maximum result we could extract from our car today. We had a really good race here last year, so I’ll do my best to reproduce that, not just because standing on the podium in Monza is an incredible feeling, but also for our tifosi who have given us so much support around the track all weekend. It’s going to be very tough to do, and so far, Red Bull and McLaren have had the upper hand, but we will give our all to make something special happen in the race."

Lewis Hamilton, 5th, 1;19.124

"It's been a positive weekend overall and, without the penalty, today's result would have been satisfying. The team has worked tirelessly and the tifosi have made every day so special with their energy, which has been pushing me on even more. Starting from P10 won't be easy and strategy will be key, but we've shown good pace over the long runs and this is a track where overtaking is possible. We'll work hard tonight and hopefully deliver a result that makes the tifosi proud."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"Fourth on the grid turned out to be a good place to start last year, but today we did not do it on purpose! You can always think you had the potential to do better but it was so, so close, so tight between P1 and P15. I am happy with the way the team has worked so far this weekend. We knew that a key factor this afternoon was to prepare the tyres well on the out lap and this was more important than getting one car to give the other a tow. So we take this P4 and see what we can do, knowing that our long run pace was good yesterday. It’s a very long run down to turn 1, so let’s see where we are after that in what is a long race, where tyre degradation will be a factor. Lewis will have to start P10 but he has similar pace to Charles. We have good top speed because we have been quite aggressive in our choice of downforce level, but as usual in Monza you have to decide on the compromise between being quick on the straights or through the corners. Tomorrow, everything is still possible."

Mercedes

Russell and Antonelli both came out on mediums in Q1. The rookie needed to switch to the softs but Russell did not, actually topping the segment on the yellow-walled tyre. As such he wanted the mediums again for Q3, saying he felt more comfortable on that tyre. But in the end, he ran the softs, and came in sixth which is where Mercedes seem to belong. Antonelli did well considering how much running he missed yesterday to make Q3, and backed his team mate up with seventh. Both will inherit a place courtesy of Hamilton’s penalty.

George Russell, 6th, 1:19.157

“We come away from today slightly disappointed with where we qualified. There was a miscommunication as to what tyre to run in Q3 but ultimately, we didn’t do the job in that final segment. We were fastest in Q1 on the medium and Kimi was second quickest in Q2 on the soft, so we know that there was likely more that we could have achieved than P6 and P7 in the final order. With grid penalties applied, we start P5 tomorrow so let’s see what we can do. With the low downforce wings that everyone runs, it is hard to overtake here. Ferrari look very quick in a straight-line too and we have Charles starting just in front of us. We will therefore need to take any opportunities that come our way if we are able to move forward. I hope we can make progress.”

Kimi Antonelli, 7th, 1:19.200

“That is a much better result than we have managed to achieve in Qualifying recently. I had to rebuild my speed having lost track time in FP2 so to be starting near the front again is a good result. We can therefore be pleased with how today went, even if we know that there was likely more performance there. My last lap wasn’t my best so I think we could have been starting higher up but I am still happy with how our session unfolded. The field is very tight, and we have a slight top line speed disadvantage to Ferrari this weekend due to set-up choices. We know overtaking is already difficult here so it may be a challenge to make much progress from P6. That said, our race pace has looked useful, and we can hopefully use that to good effect on Sunday to gain positions and come away with a strong result.”

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

“We were hoping for more today than P5 and P6. Our Qualifying session started well with George topping Q1 and having both cars in the top four in Q2. Unfortunately, our competitors improved much more in Q3 relative to ourselves and that meant we slipped back on the grid. There was definitely more performance in the car than we showed on those last laps so that is ultimately a frustrating end to our day. Some of our rivals have opted to set up their cars to have less downforce and therefore be able to defend better on the straights tomorrow. That will make our ability to progress forward harder. We have shown good race pace though and we will see how everything plays out; if we can make that pace count then we can hopefully look to come away with a solid points haul.”

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

“As we expected, today’s Qualifying was incredibly close across the whole field. Under one second covered the field in Q1 and gaining even one tenth would have impacted our starting positions considerably. We are disappointed by finding ourselves starting on the third row as our pace looked more competitive than that in the first two segments of the session. Sadly, our competitors improved more than ourselves in Q3; George suffered some snaps of oversteer in Turn 11 on both of his laps and Kimi felt a lack of rear grip and therefore confidence on his one new soft tyre run. We know overtaking is a challenge here so, despite having solid race pace, making progress won’t be straightforward. Degradation looks low so the default is clearly a one-stop for the whole field. We will see what opportunities we can create though and do our best to bring home the best result possible. We are in a tight fight for second in the Constructors’ so any points we can gain on our competitors will be very beneficial.”

Kick Sauber

Kick Sauber found some pace overnight after tweaking their set-ups, and Bortoleto put that to good use to be one of just two midfield cars to make Q3. He even got the better of his manager Alonso too, just to make Qualifying a little bit sweeter. That is his third Q3 in the last four races, and the fourth race in a row where he has out-qualified his team mate. But Hulkenberg is in P12, and could well fight his way into the points tomorrow.

Nico Hulkenberg, 12th, 1:19.498

“Qualifying today just wasn’t good enough on my part. In Q2, I didn’t execute the first run properly, which meant I didn’t have a banker lap before the second attempt. That left me with only one shot, so I couldn’t take the usual risks and had to leave a bit of margin to make sure we secured a competitive time. Looking ahead to tomorrow, the car feels quick and we’re in a good place, so it’s all still to play for with the field as tight as ever. I feel confident in the car, so let’s see what we can do in the race.”

Gabriel Bortoleto, 8th, 1:19.390

“I’m really happy with our performance today and to have made it back in Q3. The last lap wasn’t ideal, and I feel like I left a little bit on the table there, but it’s still a strong position to start from. The car felt good today, our pace is there, and I think tomorrow has the potential to be an interesting one. Looking at the grid, there’s a few top teams ahead of us, but I’m feeling quite confident we can put up a decent fight and see what’s possible in the race.”

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal

“Today was an encouraging qualifying performance from the team. In Q1, the gap between P1 and P20 was just eight tenths of a second – which shows how incredibly close the field is this year. Both cars progressed cleanly into Q2, and Gabriel carried that pace all the way through to Q3 with a rock-solid performance. Even without the luxury of two new tyre runs, it was a tremendous result that sees him start from P7 after Hamilton’s penalty. Nico narrowly missed out on Q3 by just six hundredths of a second, only a tenth and a half behind Gabriel. It underlines once again how fine the margins are that make the difference. We’ll take the momentum from today into the race tomorrow, with both drivers well placed to fight for valuable points for the team.”

Aston Martin

Aston Martin did not look to be the pick of the midfield at Monza, nor did Alonso sound particularly confident ahead of the weekend that this track would suit their car. But he found a good turn of pace when it mattered, to be one of just two midfield cars to make Q3 along with his protegee Bortoleto. Starting eighth, Alonso is in a good position to try and score for the third straight race. But Stroll could not extract the same speed as his team mate, and tumbled out in Q1 for the sixth time in the last seven Grands Prix.

Fernando Alonso, 9th, 1:19.424

"I am happy as we weren’t expecting to be in Q3 here in Monza. I think the car was much better in Qualifying and the team managed the session well with good tyre preparation and traffic management, which can always be a challenge here. It’s not a secret that we are slower on the straights, but we are starting in the top ten tomorrow, so we can be a little more optimistic for the race and let's see if we can fight for some points."

Lance Stroll, 17th, 1:19.948

"We came to Monza with expectations that this weekend was going to be challenging for us, because this track doesn't suit our car so much. We did what we could in Qualifying, but it’s just so tight across the whole grid so P17 was the maximum that was in it for us today. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow and hope for some opportunities we can capitalise on."

Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer

"It was an incredibly tight and competitive Qualifying today in Monza with very fine margins. The field is very close here and Lance was unfortunate to be eliminated in Q1. The team did a good job of tyre preparation and traffic management, and Fernando did well to make it to P8. The atmosphere is one we all love here in Monza, and we will fight hard tomorrow to secure points."

Haas

Haas were off the pace in practice, but they found something when it mattered to get both cars out of Q1. Ocon could not continue to extract much pace, winding up 15th, but Bearman came agonisingly close to making the top 10. In the end he was knocked out by Norris, which is no disgrace. But starting 11th, Bearman has a good opportunity to fight for points at Monza.

Esteban Ocon, 15th, 1:19.707

“It’s been a disappointing session overall. In Q1, it was a bit tricky as we didn’t have the right track position. In Q2 we didn’t maximise the whole lap, and the car just felt worse than in Q1. We struggled with front under rotation, front locking, and quite a lot of understeer in high-speed. Overall, it felt like a balance I had earlier in the year, so we need to work out what went wrong and hopefully tomorrow it won’t be the case. It won’t be easy – it will be tough into Turn 1 and 2 – but we’ll fight hard like we usually do.”

Oliver Bearman, 11th, 1:19.446

“I’m feeling pretty good. I’m happy with my lap, even though of course there’s always a little bit of time to be found when you look at it, but I was giving it everything out there. It’s more annoying to miss Q3 by such a small margin compared to a massive one, so that’s a shame, but it shows the good work we’ve been doing in the practice sessions because I didn’t expect to be fighting for Q3 today. We improved the car a lot yesterday so that’s great, and with regard to tomorrow, I have a good feeling also about that as the car felt great on high fuel.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

"I think FP3 was a bit difficult, it wasn’t great. In qualifying though, I was happy with how we communicated and operated. With Ollie in P11, just losing out on getting into Q3 by one hundredth is a bit tough, but that’s where the competition is. Esteban struggled a bit more with the balance, so we need to look into that but considering we knew Monza wouldn’t be our strongest track, the fact we delivered P11 is something we should be happy with.”

Williams

Williams didn’t look quite as quick as in Friday practice, but they still appeared to be the class of the midfield. And yet, it all went wrong in Qualifying. Both drivers made mistakes on their first runs in Q1, and that left them under pressure as the clock ticked down. Although they made Q2, both came out early before the track had evolved on used tyres. Those lap times were not good enough, and coming back out left them in traffic and unable to stick a decent lap time in. Getting no cars into Q3 was far from ideal at a track Williams believed really suited the car.

Alex Albon, 14th, 1:19.583

"It's a frustrating result, as it's the same issue of getting the tyres to work. We tried absolutely everything this weekend, so we need to go back to the drawing board. We have a good car here, which you see in Free Practice when we can do some more things with outlaps and cool laps, but our issues come in Qualifying when it matters. Carlos showed in Q1 a glimpse of our true pace and where I think we belong. It will be a one-stop here, so we’ll need clean air and to be careful with degradation. As easy as this track looks to overtake, it's actually quite difficult and the DRS train is usually an issue here. We're not where we want to be but tomorrow, we will work together and see what we can do."

Carlos Sainz, 13th, 1:19.528

"We expected today to be a lot more challenging. We’ve been struggling all season with our single lap pace on the Soft compound, being very tricky to get them into the optimum window and feeling like every push lap is different from each other. However, I have faith on our race pace, and I will give absolutely everything out there to get into the points. Let’s race!"

James Vowles, Team Principal

"It is great to see the sport so healthy, with less than four tenths separating 15 cars in Q2. We had shown in Q1 that we can get the tyres to work but it’s not the same as everyone else, and I think today we didn’t quite get the programme right. Even then I think we had the pace to just about get into Q3, but not much more, which is different to how we have been over the rest of the weekend. We now go into the race swinging; we don’t have much to lose, and we have a fast car from Friday, so let’s use that to the best of our ability and get some points to our name."

Racing Bulls

Racing Bulls were another team to flatter to deceive at Monza. They looked quick in practice, but it all went wrong at the start of Qualifying. Lawson made a mistake on his last run, ran wide and abandoned the lap to exit in P20. While Hadjar, who was looking like a Q3 contender, also dropped out. He was frustrated at being baulked by Sainz, and implied he will be taking a new power unit and a pit lane start for tomorrow’s race.

Isack Hadjar, 16th, 1:19.917

"It was a frustrating Qualifying session for us. Carlos was out there on used tyres and I felt like he was fighting hard to find the right track position. I still don’t know what he was doing, but my outlap was compromised, which was followed by a mistake I made in my push lap. Overall though, our car is very fast around here. I was really happy with the feeling I had this morning in FP3 and during my first run in Q1, but starting last means that we’re going to have a challenging race. We’ll try our best to make a great recovery tomorrow.”

Liam Lawson, 20th, 1:20.279

"A really disappointing session. Our lap was compromised when I picked up dirty air and had understeer through the middle of Turn 6, which caused me to run off track. It’s a shame because the car has been very quick all weekend. We had a few issues, but the guys in the garage worked hard and got everything sorted in time for Qualifying. This track isn’t straightforward, but there are overtaking opportunities. Starting from where I am, there are a lot of cars to get through, it’s going to be tough, but I’ll try my best to move forward.”

Tim Goss, Chief Technical Officer

“Today was a mixed day, which ultimately disappointed. The car balance was reasonable after FP3 but we knew that with some setup changes we could improve high speed braking stability, along with the balance in both the low speed chicanes and longer high speed corners. The car changes were a success and we came through confident that we had a car that could put us into Q3. After the first new tyre run in Q1, both drivers were placed comfortably above the cut. But the second runs were both compromised; Isack with traffic, and Liam having to abort after running wide. Unfortunately, it’s so tight these days that any issues are not forgiven and both cars missed out. We know fundamentally, there’s performance in the car and we aim to demonstrate this in the race tomorrow.”

Alpine

Alpine have struggled for pace here all weekend, so it was no real surprise that both cars exited in Q1. Colapinto got the better of his team mate, to the tune of just over a tenth. It is five years since Gasly won this race, but even making the points looks a tall order for the team tomorrow. But the good news for the Frenchman is that he has signed a contract extension to stay at Alpine a little while longer.

Pierre Gasly, 19th, 1:20.103

“We always knew this would be a difficult session for us with our car not too well suited for this track. What is encouraging is that we closed the gap to the cars in front of us since Practice, so I felt we did a good job there to make improvements and still be in the mix. I had some traffic on my last run, it cost me a little bit, but still probably not enough to reach Q2. Again, it will be tight tomorrow and in any scenario, we will always put up a fight and give it our all. It has been a day of big news for me as I have extended my contract at the team until the end of the 2028 season. I have confidence and optimism for the future and it is great to be able to announce it here on the five-year anniversary of my first Formula One win.”

Franco Colapinto, 18th, 1:19.992

“It was tricky for us this afternoon. Monza is a circuit which probably does not work well for our car and that has been clear all weekend. Personally, I felt like the laps were good, I am feeling happier in the car at the moment, but we are just lacking some speed to put ourselves any further up the grid. We will work on a strategy for tomorrow and aim to maximise our end result. It will not be a straightforward one but we will do our best to move forwards and round off the European part of the season in the best possible way.”

Pirelli

Mario Isola, Motorsport Director

“Once again a very closely contested qualifying, with all 20 drivers lapping within just over eight tenths of a second in Q1, while the top ten in Q2 were separated by less than three tenths. The final runs in Q3 were thrilling, ending with yet another demonstration of Max Verstappen’s amazing talent. His pole is also significant, as the lap is the fastest ever recorded in Formula 1.

"In qualifying, we saw that the Soft was clearly the fastest compound. Those like the Mercedes duo who ran the Medium were also competitive, indeed Russell was quickest in Q1 on the C4, but that was more down to him feeling more comfortable with a tyre that, while offering less performance, gave the driver more confidence. The C5 is a very quick compound but it is not easy to find its peak performance, as was proved by the fact it could produce excellent times even after one or two cool-down laps, or on a second run. This means that once it stabilised, the Soft might give the driver more confidence to push.

“In terms of strategy, from the three hours of free practice it’s clear to see that this will be a race with only one pit stop. Medium and Hard should be the compounds doing most of the work, offering the best compromise between performance and durability and, between the two there’s not much difference in terms of degradation. Having said that, the Soft could find itself with an important role, especially for drivers able to lengthen the opening stint at least to lap 32, or on the other hand, if there’s a neutralisation towards the end of the race.”