Penalised Bottas fastest in Friday F1 qualifying at Monza

Valtteri Bottas will start Formula 1’s second-ever sprint race from the front after edging out his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.096s to top qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix.

Bottas will have to start Sunday’s race from the back of the grid after taking a brand new power unit, but he’ll start the Monza sprint race from pole position alongside Hamilton.

Just 0.065s separated Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris heading into the final Q3 runs, with Bottas fifth behind Daniel Ricciardo.

Bottas, who will lose his Mercedes seat to George Russell, delivered on his final Q3 lap to go fastest in qualifying for only the second time this season.

F1 championship leader Max Verstappen was third-fastest but fell to over four tenths behind the Mercedes duo after a scruffy final lap.

He narrowly beat the McLaren duo led by Norris to third place, while Pierre Gasly was sixth fastest for AlphaTauri.

Carlos Sainz was the lead Ferrari in Q3 in seventh place ahead of Charles Leclerc, who reported engine braking woes throughout the qualifying hour.

The top 10 was completed by Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull and Antonio Giovinazzi, who made his second successive Q3 appearance for Alfa Romeo.

The two title contenders had to survive a lairy moment in the pits during Q2 as the Aston Martins were released right into the path of Hamilton, with Verstappen closely behind. The incident will be investigated after the session.

There was no repeat of Lance Stroll’s previous Monza qualifying heroics as he and his Aston Martin team-mate Sebastian Vettel were denied a place in Q3 in the dying moments of Q2. Vettel pipped Stroll to 11th place on the sprint race grid.

Russell escaped a first Q1 exit of the 2021 season when Yuki Tsunoda had his fastest lap deleted for track limits in the dying moments of the session – dropping him into the bottom five and promoting Russell to 15th after the 2022 Mercedes driver believed his qualifying was over.

Russell was the slowest driver in Q2, qualifying in 15th place behind the Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.

Russell’s Williams team-mate Nicholas Latifi was just 0.035s slower than Russell but was eliminated in 16th place, ahead of Tsunoda.

Mick Schumacher was able to pip Alfa Romeo stand-in Robert Kubica to 18th place on the grid for the sprint race, while Nikita Mazepin was slowest of the 20 drivers and will face a post-session investigation for impeding Kubica.

Qualifying Results