“It’s a very good surprise today, considering where we come from,” Leclerc said, alluding to the Italian team’s struggles in qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps last month as the army of Ferrari fans celebrated a success at home. .
“We didn’t expect to fight for pole position here. There is a special motivation for this weekend and it’s great that we managed to do a good job today,” he said.
The “pole” was the eighth of the season for the Monegasque and the first from France in July, and it took place with the presence of the president of Ferrari, John Elkann. The last time Leclerc and Ferrari started from pole at Monza was in 2019 and he won that weekend.
The leader of the Formula One world championship, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, who leads Leclerc by 109 points with seven races to go and is chasing his fifth consecutive victory, was second fastest in qualifying, but will fall back on the grid at Sunday due to a five-place penalty.
The Dutch driver was convinced that he would start seventh, but others calculated that he could be fourth.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Russell’s teammate, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, qualified third, fourth and fifth respectively, but all have significant penalties.
Russell was only sixth in qualifying and Lando Norris will start third for McLaren after finishing seventh.
“I think for tomorrow it can be quite strong and also knowing that we have to start a bit behind,” said Verstappen, who has won 10 of the 15 races this season. “Overall it was a good lap and I enjoyed it. I think it will be an interesting day tomorrow.”
Sainz, Hamilton and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda all have penalties and will start from the back of the grid.
“It’s going to be difficult tomorrow because the DRS (drag reduction system) doesn’t make a big difference, it’s quite small and there could be a lot of people on a DRS train,” said Hamilton. “So it could be quite a frustrating day. I’ll try to be positive going into the race though.”
Source: Ambito
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