Sainz beats Verstappen to Italian GP pole as F1 stewards make penalty decision

02 September 2023 , 15:01

1337 0

Carlos Sainz upset Max Verstappen to take Italian Grand Prix pole and send the Monza crowd into hysterics – and avoided a penalty despite an investigation from the Formula 1 stewards.

Ferrari showed great pace in practice with Sainz topping the timesheets in two of the three sessions. And the Scuderia repeated the trick when it mattered as the Spaniard went quickest in Q3 to knock Verstappen off his perch.

There was a risk Sainz could lose top spot as he was accused of ignoring the race director's instruction to meet a minimum lap time when on a slow lap to avoid congestion on track. But the stewards confirmed that there would be no further investigation and a fairytale Monza pole was secure.

Verstappen was quick enough for second but will have the other Ferrari on his tail at the start of Sunday's race. Charles Leclerc was blown away by the reception he received on the grid and expressed his pride despite being slightly annoyed that his Ferrari was not the one on pole.

Monza was another test site for a new qualifying format which forced all drivers to use certain tyre compounds in different parts of the session. It meant they all suited up with hard tyres, creating a warm-up challenge on the toughest compound of the weekend.

Sebastian Vettel warns of looming F1 ban and is "very worried about the future"

But it was a doddle for Liam Lawson, taking part in his first full F1 weekend as Daniel Ricciardo continues his recovery from a broken hand. He reached Q2 along with AlphaTauri team-mate Yuki Tsunoda with brilliant laps each, while Logan Sargeant also made it through as he and Williams team-mate Alex Albon showed great pace.

It was less enjoyable for those at Alpine who say both drivers failed to make it out of the bottom five. Lance Stroll will also be disappointed to be dead last of the 20-strong field, while Kevin Magnussen and Zhou Guanyu were the other two who did not reach Q2.

Carlos Sainz salutes the Monza crowd after taking Italian GP pole for Ferrari (Getty Images)

The Ferraris were comfortably through to avoid an embarrassing Q1 exit at their own race, but may have landed themselves in hot water. Both were placed under investigation, accused of going too slow on their warm-up laps, and could face a grid drop after the session if found guilty.

They both made it through to the top 10, but it was the end of the line to the other Italy-based team on track. AlphaTauri lost both Tsunoda and Lawson in Q2, while Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas and Sargeant were also in the bottom five in that mini-session.

In the first Q3 runs, the two Ferrari drivers went quickest overall with Verstappen only third fastest ahead of George Russell. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were slowest of those in the top 10 in their first attempts at a flying lap, while Alex Albon beat both of them and also the two McLarens and Sergio Perez to go fifth fastest.

Perez ended up leapfrogging the Williams to start fifth with Albon one place behind. Oscar Piastri, Hamilton, Lando Norris and Alonso rounded off the top 10 in that order.