Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took pole for the Italian Grand Prix after topping the times in qualifying at Monza while Daniel Ricciardo is “filled with optimism” after a promising result.
Leclerc finished 0.145 seconds ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen after posting his fastest lap on his final shot around the Temple of Speed to claim his eighth pole of the season.
Reigning champion Verstappen had already been handed a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race for exceeding his engine allocation.
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The Red Bull driver is hunting his first ever win at Monza as he tries to extend his 109-point lead from Leclerc and teammate Sergio Perez at the top of the drivers’ standings.
George Russell, who posted the sixth fastest time in qualifying for Mercedes, will start alongside Leclerc on the front row due to further grid penalties to Carlos Sainz, Perez and Lewis Hamilton.
A total of nine drivers have been knocked down the grid, with Sainz and seven-time champion Hamilton starting at the back alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
The second row includes McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ricciardo, who was “happy” with how the qualifying session panned out.
“I am happy with the session,” said Ricciardo.
“I think Q3, it was a bit of handful through the second sector, even the first actually. It wasn’t completely hooked up and to be honest my lap in Q2 I was kind of like on the limit with trying to get everything out of it. It’s obviously been hard for me to really feel comfortable on the limit of this car.
“I didn’t feel like I was so far a top-10 car, so it was nice to put a few laps together in quali. I can see the pole-sitter, that’s a nice feeling, been a while since I’ve been towards that end of the grid and nice to do it back here, of course, where last year there were some good memories. I am really filled with optimism.”
Nick de Vries made it into Q2 in his F1 qualifying debut after stepping in for Alex Albon at the last minute.
Williams driver Albon, 26, had to abandon the GP on Saturday after being diagnosed with appendicitis.
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STARTING GRID
1st: Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
2nd: George Russell (Mercedes)
3rd: Lando Norris (McLaren)
4th: Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
5th: Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
6th: Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
7th: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
8th: Nyck de Vries (Williams)
9th: Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)
10th: Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
11th: Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
12th: Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
13th: Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
14th: Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
15th: Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
16th: Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
17th: Mick Schumacher (Haas)
18th: Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
19th: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
20th: Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
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