Italian GP Quali : Ferrari not in Top 10
Ferrari has not made it to the top 10 at their home race in Monza, for the first time since 1984.
Ferrari troubles show no sign of waning. In the latest humiliation they failed to qualify in the top 10 ( Q3) for the first time since 1984. Sebastian Vettel could not even come out of Q1, finishing P17. Charles LeClerc doing slightly better but failing to get into Q1. He is P13. Tifosi would be certainly disappointed. Expectations were low this year but not even getting into top 10 at their home race is a new low. Both the drivers must be hoping to do better tomorrow for the race.
Mercedes ahead even without the party mode
Other teams would have expected things to turn around after FIA banned the party mode. Not so much for the supremely consistent Mercedes team. Lewis Hamilton broke the track record – twice – and took the pole position. Valtteri was 0.069s behind Lewis and will start from the front grid. To avoid the shenanigans that happened in Q3 last year, Mercedes took a different approach. They went ahead with both their drivers much before the Q3 session end ensuring they get their final runs in.
Expect both the Mercedes drivers to finish on the podium tomorrow, given their speed and reliability.
McLaren had a great session. Carlos P3, Lando P6
Renault power was expected to do well here but it came as a surprise that it was McLaren which took the honors. McLaren looked good in the practice session and they converted their good form into track positions. Lando drove well, finishing P6. But it was Carlos who pushed all the way through to snatch his career best P3 position. Even Carlos was surprised with the result, as he was expecting Renault to do much better. He admitted that it will be difficult to hold P3 position in the race.
Racing Point : Their stock is up again
Having the 2019 Mercedes, Racing Point is expected to be third in the constructors, after Mercedes and Red Bull. They fared disappointingly at Spa and one wondered where all the performance has gone.
Well they seemed to have got their mojo back. Sergio Perez had a fantastic run, finishing P4. He is certainly a contender for the podium tomorrow, if he can keep Max behind him. Lance managed a decent P8.
Red Bull couldn’t do much
With the party mode ban, everyone was expecting Honda power to do better and compete with Mercedes power. That did not happen, at least here in Monza. Max unusually looked a bit out of touch. He will be starting from the second row in P5. Albon struggled both in Q1 and Q2. He barely scraped through and managed to get P9. Red Bull will be hoping that their race pace is much better than the Quali pace.
Renault : Where is the power?
After a fantastic race at Spa everyone had high hopes from Renault. They have traditionally done well at this track. Daniel especially looked very confident in the practice sessions. He managed P7 and will be hoping to do better in the race tomorrow. Ocon was disappointing, managing just P12, behind the two Alpha Tauris. Well at least he was ahead of the two Ferrari.
Gasly and Kvyat did well, managing P10 and P11. Kvyat will have the tire choice and he possibly will be on a different strategy than Gasly. Gasly is in good touch recently and expect him to do well in the race.
Kimi did well in his Alpha Romeo with P14, behind Charles. Magnussen and Grosjean could only manage P15 and P16 respectively.
The two Williams drivers would be a bit disappointed as they will occupy the last row in the grid. This is the last race for the Williams family members Sir Frank and Claire. Let’s hope that the race ends on a high ( relatively) for the Williams family.
Can Ferrari do better in the race?
Ferrari performance will be on top of everyone’s mind tomorrow. Tifosi certainly would be expecting more. We hope at least one Ferrari to finish in top 10.
Final Qualifying classification of the Italian GP
Here are all the highlights.