Formula 1 Live Ticker: Sensational Pole for Alpine and McLaren Penalty

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Things had been moving forward recently, but today Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll ended up again in P21 and P22. The Honda engine simply has too little power for the engine track in Monza.

To make matters worse, Alonso could not drive at the end of Q1. “The engine did not start, so we had a problem with the drivetrain. I don’t know if it’s the combustion engine, the battery, or whatever,” the Spaniard reports.

He believes that otherwise he would have “probably” at least beaten the Cadillacs. But more would probably not have been possible anyway. “We knew that this track, along with Vegas, would be the worst for us,” says Alonso.

Meanwhile, teammate Lance Stroll celebrated an “anniversary.” As the first driver in Formula 1 history, he was eliminated in Q1 for the 100th time …

For himself, it was about nothing today; he only helped his teammate. He reports: “It’s obviously a very strange feeling. I had to fulfill my task, namely to help George. I did my best to help as well as possible.”

“He was a good team player in Zandvoort,” he says about Russell, and here he did his job. “I did what the team asked of me. I’m glad it worked,” says Antonelli.

“If it is possible for us, we help each other, especially in such a situation. I had nothing to gain,” he recalls. Still, it is of course a bit strange that he helped his closest rival in the drivers’ championship with this.

The Dutchman has now spoken in more detail about his problems today and explained on Sky: “As soon as I went out on track in qualifying, something broke again on the car.”

“We know about this and it happens more often during the year, but it simply costs us lap time at low speeds, where the car bounces much more than it should,” he reports.

Because actually he was “very satisfied” with the car before. The Red Bull was “in a much better window” in FP3 than yesterday. But that was over with the problem.

“If you have no control and the car just bounces around like a kangaroo, you can’t deliver consistent performance,” he shrugs and explains that this must be fixed before the race.

“We have to be able to replace the affected part, otherwise it will be quite difficult to run such a race,” says Verstappen.

Due to Piastri’s penalty, he will start tomorrow from P5.

Breaking News: Oscar Piastri loses his third starting position. He must drop three places on the grid. More details coming soon with us.

The Ferrari team principal somewhat relativizes the Scuderia’s performance on Sky and explains: “We expected to have problems in Monza.” Because the layout does not suit their package.

“If someone had told me this morning that we would be a tenth behind Russell, I would have taken it,” Vasseur clarifies. He also comments on the problem mentioned by Leclerc.

“In Q2 we were a bit panicked because we had a battery problem on the outlap,” Vasseur reveals. Because of this, they did not start the lap with full power.

That explains the weak performance in Q2 and why it was better again in Q3.

P4 and P5 were certainly not what the Tifosi had hoped for today. “We had many problems in the background that we had to take care of,” Charles Leclerc reports somewhat cryptically on Sky.

“I don’t think pole position was possible, but a place further up would probably have been achievable, and we have to work on getting the best out of everything. We didn’t succeed today,” says Leclerc.

Teammate Lewis Hamilton adds: “It was definitely very, very tough. The car felt really good in practice.” Q1 was still fine, but in Q2 the pace suddenly disappeared.

“And then the execution in Q3 was of course pretty bad. In the end, I ended up in the middle of nowhere, all alone,” says Hamilton, who had no slipstream on his first run.

Because of this, he lost his rhythm, which is why the second run in Q3 was not optimal either. “It was not a bad lap,” he clarifies. But with a clean qualifying, it could have been better.

The world champion says after P9 on Sky that he “just had bad luck” in qualifying. “It was not a bad qualifying considering the problems we had with the brakes today and the lack of slipstream.”

“Everyone tried to get a good slipstream, and I had none in either the first or second run [in Q3]. So I was just unlucky, nothing more,” he shrugs.

“My lap was not bad, but not the best either. There were certainly things I could have improved, but most of the lap time I lost today was simply because I didn’t get a good slipstream.”

Regarding his brake problem, he says: “It’s just that the brakes behave differently than expected. […] You want to be able to predict everything very well, you want to feel everything very well, and when one brake works and the other doesn’t, it’s just terrible.”

“You have no confidence and it’s very easy for a tire to lock up. That’s no excuse for why it didn’t go well today, but it certainly didn’t help,” says Norris.

The Dutchman has never really been happy in the car since yesterday. After P6 in qualifying, he reports on Sky that “something different” was always wrong. “Something always happens on the rear axle all year,” he explains.

“Now it happened again in qualifying and that cost lap time. That’s of course a shame because I think in FP3 the balance of the car was not bad. But something always goes wrong and that’s a shame.”

Overall, they just have “many problems this year,” says Verstappen.

Read more Sensation in Monza qualifying: Pierre Gasly takes slipstream pole!

Expert Ralf Schumacher says about the scene at turn 1 on Sky: “Actually, that has to be a [penalty]. […] It was not quite clean. You always have to imagine it the other way around. As a driver, you never like to be blocked.”

“Accordingly, it should be consistent and the race control should do something about it,” says Schumacher.

Unlike Oscar Piastri, it looks different for George Russell. Toto Wolff explains on Sky that pole position would have been possible for Mercedes, “but Max of course did it very cleverly, letting everyone run up before the last corner.”

Because of this, Russell “simply stuck to Max’s gearbox the whole lap,” explains the team principal. That’s how he ultimately lost time behind Verstappen.

Ferrari was a disappointment with P4 and P5, but Wolff still has the red cars on his radar for the race. “The two Ferraris are very close behind us,” he warns.

“I don’t know if Piastri will get a penalty for the impeding. It would be better if not,” says Wolff. Otherwise, Leclerc and Hamilton would be in the second row directly behind Russell.

His third place was also a small surprise, and he admits: “I don’t think I was fast enough to get pole position.” In the end, he was 0.180 seconds short.

“The first lap felt pretty good,” he reports. But on the second, he was right at the front of the queue, had no slipstream, and braked too late directly at turn 1.

“That was it for the session, but it’s good to have at least achieved a decent result. It’s been a while, so I’m happy with that,” says Piastri.

However, he may still face a penalty.

Steve Nielsen can hardly believe it himself and explains on Sky: “We were always confident that we would do well here – good enough to get into Q3. But honestly, we are a bit faster than we thought.”

“Here it mainly depends on driving in the slipstream. We managed that every time. The drivers made no mistakes, and the overall package just fit perfectly,” he is pleased.

“As you can imagine, we had a difficult weekend, which started with the decision from Monaco. All the more beautiful to come back in such a positive way,” says Nielsen.

For the Frenchman, it is the first pole of his career. And that of all places in Monza, where he also took his only Formula 1 victory so far. “From the first lap in Q1, I felt very comfortable in the car,” he reports.

“I tried to gain a little time in every single session, and it felt like a very good lap,” he says about his pole lap.

George Russell reveals with a grin: “About 15 minutes before qualifying, we finished a game of chess, and he beat me.”

“Then I said, ‘Well, I think I’ll beat you in qualifying.’ And now we’re here, and he’s already ahead of me again,” laughs the Mercedes driver.

Nevertheless, he emphasizes that he is of course “disappointed” to have missed pole. “Pierre and Alpine were super fast,” he admits.

Oscar Piastri finished P3 in qualifying but still has to answer to the race stewards. He clearly blocked Liam Lawson once at turn 1 in Q2. This could cause trouble for McLaren and him.

The hearing takes place at 17:40, and you will find out the verdict later here with us.

Report

Result

Starting grid

In ten minutes, qualifying begins in Monza, and we will first move the action back to our session ticker. So there is a short break here; after qualifying ends, we will continue here with the voices from Saturday.

And if you want to know how to watch the Italian race live this weekend, you can find out here!

One more breaking news quickly: Liam Lawson also got a new engine; he will also have to start from the back tomorrow.

Read more Formula 1 Live Ticker: Sensational Pole for Alpine and McLaren Investigation