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

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

Expert Ralf Schumacher says about the scene in 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 was possible for Mercedes, “but Max of course did it very cleverly, letting everyone run up before the last corner.”

As a result, Russell “just hung on Max’s gearbox the whole lap,” explains the team boss. So he ultimately lost time behind Verstappen.

Ferrari was a disappointment with P4 and P5, but Wolff still has the red cars on the 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 in 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 still faces a possible 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 that 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 will beat you in qualifying.’ And now we are here, and he is 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.

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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 the end of qualifying, it continues here with the voices from Saturday.

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

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

Read more Ralf Schumacher: Colapinto extension for Briatore a «No-Brainer»

Juan Pablo Montoya advises Ferrari against already committing to Lewis Hamilton in the championship. The gap is not big enough yet, and the season is still too long, says the former Formula 1 driver on F1 TV.

However, today Leclerc will have to help Hamilton because the order at Ferrari stipulates that the record world champion has the choice in qualifying today whether to go on track before or after Leclerc.

And because of the slipstream, he will of course let Leclerc go first.

We have already heard Karun Chandhok’s opinion; now Martin Brundle explained on Sky: “There is supposedly a tacit agreement that you do not overtake in the last corner [before starting a fast lap].”

Verstappen reciprocated for that. “Max said: ‘Wherever you brake, I will brake a little later.’ But he made it through the corner while Lewis had to back off.”

The situation started with “Lewis overtaking him in the last corner.”

The complete scene from FP3 (including background and radio of both drivers) is now also available here again in video:

Good news from a German perspective: Oliver Goethe just finished third on the podium in the Formula 2 sprint race. The win went to Mercedes development driver Joshua Dürksen.

Not much has changed in the championship. None of the top 3 made it to the podium. Nikola Tsolov made at least a small step towards the title with P5.

By the way: The race stewards will not review the scene between Verstappen and Hamilton again. Expert Karun Chandhok also thinks this is right. On Sky he says: “That’s fun and good entertainment.”

“The truth is that Verstappen was not happy that Hamilton sneaked past him in the last corner, and he thought: ‘I don’t care if I don’t get my lap done – you won’t get yours either.'”

That’s why he overtook Hamilton again on the inside in Turn 1.

Cadillac has to pay 30,000 euros because the CDS (“Clutch Disengagement System”) on Colton Herta’s car did not work after its failure yesterday in FP1. A hefty penalty, of which 25,000 euros are suspended for one year.

A similar case already occurred this year with the Racing Bulls – with the same penalty.

At the very end of FP3, the two old rivals almost collided in Turn 1. Both accused each other. The scene is available here again in video:

Read more Moreira fights for a place in the Honda factory team: «I do my job well»

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