Norris beats Piastri to claim Monza pole in thrilling qualifying

Lando Norris secured another pole position in the brutally closely-matched Monza qualifying, heading a McLaren one-two F1technical’s lead journalist Balázs Szabo reports from the Monza circuit.

Q1: Perez in danger

As expected, the opening qualifying session provided a closely matched action, with the tiniest of margins separating the field.

Sergio Perez found himself in danger as the session neared its conclusion, but the Mexican got through into Q2 with a late push lap.

Lando Norris set the pace in the opening session with a time of 1m19.911s. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ended the session second.

Oscar Piastri was slightly off the pace after his first hot lap, but he rejoined the track in the final stages of Q1 to work his way up to P3.

Carlos Sainz

Knocked out: Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll, Franco Colapinto, Zhou Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas.

Q2: Alonso knocked out

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in the second qualifying session, setting a time of 1m19.641s.

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris finished second and third respectively but both were within a tenth of a second of Hamilton’s benchmark.

Knocked out: Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen,

Q3: Ferrari fight back

Lando Norris set the fastest lap of the weekend with a time of 1m19.327s on his second hot lap to head a McLaren one-two from his team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Depsite losing valuable track time on Friday, George Russell secured third place, having been only a tenth shy of Norris’ benchmark.

Ferrari looked slightly off the pace in Q2, but they got their act together when it really mattered. Charles Leclerc ended up fourth fastest, from his team-mate Carlos Sainz, with both only a temth of a second slower than pole-sitter Norris.

Lewis Hamilton topped the second and third practice and Q2 as well, but he had to contend with P6 on the grid.

Championship leader Max Verstappen only managed a seventh spot on the grid, with his team-mate Sergio Perez following him in P8.

Alexander Albon took ninth for Williams, with Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg bringing up the rear of the top ten.