Qualifying for tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix was tight today. Mercedes have decided to take grid penalties for exceeding their engine component allocation for this year for Kimi Antonelli's car, so he's starting near the back in his home race. Liam Lawson is standing in again for Isack Hadjar at Red Bull, and he's also taking grid penalties. That meant that two of the top teams could use the car being penalized to give a tow to their other car.
In Q2, Oscar Piastri blocked Liam, which earned him a 3-place grid drop. Lewis Hamilton had been quick in practice and Q1, but scraped through to Q3 by a thousandth of a second. That must've been a relief as a Ferrari driver in Italy.
The real story of the day was Pierre Gasly getting his first pole position after nine years in F1. It's one of those occasions where the whole pit lane seem happy that an unexpected driver achieves something remarkable. His Alpine team are currently 6th of 11 teams, and he's just had his Monaco podium finish belatedly taken away after appeals from other teams. George Russell will start in second. He apparently lost a chess game to Pierre 15 minutes before qualifying and thought he'd beat him on the track. Oscar got third, but will start in sixth after his penalty, promoting the Ferraris to third and fourth.
You can see the qualifying highlights here. You can see what a six hundredths of a second difference looks like over a lap with the ghost car comparison of Pierre and George.
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HossC ·
