Monza Quali: Charles on Pole at home

Charles Leclerc delighted the Tifosi to secure a home F1 pole position for Ferrari at Monza.

Charles left it until his last lap of Q3 to seal his second pole at Monza.

Eighth Pole for Charles in 2022

Leclerc posted a 1m20.161s to edge out runaway championship leader Max Verstappen by 0.145s. Howver the Red Bull driver will drop five places for using too many engine parts.

Leclerc will be the only driver to start where he qualified due to a litany of grid penalties. He will be joined on the front row by Mercedes’ George Russell. 

Russell ended up sixth-fastest behind Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton. But penalties for Verstappen (second), Carlos Sainz (third), Sergio (fourth) and Hamilton will see the Briton move up four places. 

Sainz and Hamilton, who are both carrying back-of-the-grid penalties, will start from 18th and 19th respectively. Red Bull’s Perez is set to be demoted to 10th.

McLaren pair Lando and Daniel, who were seventh and eighth, are due to line up from third and fourth. They will be ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso. 

De Vries impresses on debut 

Nyck de Vries qualified 13th on his F1 debut and outpaced Williams teammate Nicholas Latifi despite only finding out he was driving just before final practice on Saturday morning, when Alex Albon was ruled out with appendicitis. 

The Dutchman, who won the 2020-2021 Formula E title, will start from eighth ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou and Perez as a result of the penalties for drivers ahead of him. 

If this weekend turns out to be an addition for de Vries, who is understood to be in the running for the second Williams seat next season, it couldn’t have got off to a much better start. 

In contrast, Williams regular Nicholas Latifi was eliminated in Q1, though he will start just outside the top-10 in 11th when all the grid penalties are applied. 

Monza Starting Grid : Charles on Pole and Max P7