Max Verstappen upstaged the McLaren drivers to snatch pole position for Formula 1's 2025 Italian Grand Prix, but he wasn't the only one to impress at Monza.
Here's our pick of the standout performances and major flops from Italian GP qualifying.
Loser - Racing Bulls (16th and 20th)
Nothing does hero-to-zero stories like F1. Just six days on, Isack Hadjar's first F1 podium feels like a distant memory, as Racing Bulls suffered a double Q1 elimination - Hadjar's first in his rookie season.
This was never likely to be the team's best track but Hadjar was a top 10 threat in practice so to lose both him and Liam Lawson in the first part of qualifying is a big disappointment.
Hadjar complained about all sorts after a messy end to the session, including lots of traffic and suspected damage after going wide at Lesmo 2, while Lawson understeered into the gravel at the first Lesmo on his crucial final lap. - Scott Mitchell-Malm
Winner - Lando Norris (2nd)
That was quite the save. Lando Norris could easily have been starting this race 11th, and with no one to blame but himself for making a mess of Q2. Or seventh after that conservative first Q3 lap.
Considering he’d topped two of the three practice sessions, Norris made heavy weather of getting to second on the grid.
In the end though his route to that result doesn’t matter. The fact that he got there does - ahead of his main title rival and with only a car that’s likely to have worse race pace (albeit with a formidable obstacle of a driver in it) in front.
Norris dug very deep when he had to (twice) and showed plenty of the kind of grit he’ll need to prolong this title fight. - Matt Beer
Loser - Ferrari (4th & 10th after penalty)
Far better than some of Ferrari’s 2025 lows yet not the home heroics that practice pace and some of the laps earlier in qualifying hinted at.
Lewis Hamilton was always going to be in salvage mode given his penalty, and 10th is a lot better than it could have been. And Charles Leclerc is in the right place to give McLaren some first lap headaches.
But ultimately it was Verstappen who pulled off the heroic shock on a day when Ferrari really wanted to be in that role. - MB
Winner - Gabriel Bortoleto (7th)
The balance of power has definitely swung within Sauber. Gabriel Bortoleto's Q3 exploits returned after the team's limp Zandvoort, with this his fourth top 10 start in six races.
This has been an extremely well put together weekend by Bortoleto, who was on the fringes of the top 10 on Friday but has leapt forward very well on Saturday.
He had team-mate Nico Hulkenberg at arm's length in Friday practice, Q1 and Q2 - and qualifying eighth (seventh after Hamilton's grid penalty is applied), the lead 'Class B' car behind the top four teams, is as good as it could have been. - SMM
Loser - Williams (13th and 14th)
Having a car in the top three in Friday practice was supposedly genuine from Williams, so neither car making the top 10 on the grid makes for a missed opportunity.
Once again, concerns about tyre preparation and out-lap management dominated their qualifying.
There was a lot of communication about using new or used tyres in each run and Alex Albon even risked Q1 elimination doing all of the first segment on just one set of softs.
All the worrying didn't help. Albon started his final Q2 run late after being called onto the weighbridge, which robbed him of the clear out-lap he was urging for.
He was then convinced he hadn't got "the same tyre" as his second run - which Albon had ruined at the first corner by running deep - while Carlos Sainz felt the tyres just went away in the second half of the lap. - SMM
Winner - Max Verstappen (1st)
Max Verstappen is fully in ‘I’m not going to win this championship but don’t anyone forget I’m probably still the best driver on this grid’ mode now.
That spectacular solo lap at the end of Q3 with an extremely trimmed-out wing set-up that he’d only committed to right at the end of final practice made sure this was more than a ‘towed to pole’ scenario, as it was even quicker than he’d managed in Red Bull team-mate Yuki Tsunoda’s slipstream earlier.
Hanging on well enough to win feels like a tall order, but it’s going to be fun to watch him try. - MB
Winner - Franco Colapinto (18th)
Franco Colapinto has had better qualifying results this season, and will probably have better ones before it ends, but this was a rare case of a 'good' 18th place - a position drivers will not usually celebrate, but Colapinto should be pleased with.
Colapinto was only half a second from the fastest time, so tight is the field spread now, and he inflicted a legitimate qualifying defeat on Pierre Gasly.
Across both sides of the summer break Colapinto has put together a run of form that suggests he is finally on top of the one-lap deficit that was so badly hampering his Alpine stint.
Given Colapinto had to sit out FP1, that makes this performance even more impressive. - SMM
Loser - Nico Hulkenberg (12th)
While his team-mate continues to go from strength to strength in his rookie season, Nico Hulkenberg was a decent but unremarkable 12th at Monza.
In isolation, marking that up as a 'loss' seems a little harsh but there's a wider, more worrying trend here for Hulk.
While he has been there to bank Sauber's biggest results, including his breakthrough podium at Silverstone, he is still yet to make Q3 this season.
And, despite Hulkenberg historically being one of F1's strongest qualifiers, there is a very good argument to be made that Bortoleto has now established himself as Sauber's quickest driver. - SMM
Winner - Fernando Alonso (8th)
Given Aston Martin has long since struggled with aerodynamic efficiency in this ruleset, the low-downforce demands and long straights of Monza have never been friendly.
Just ask Lance Stroll, knocked out in Q1 yet again, and for the third year in a row at this track.
Not so Fernando Alonso.
He has been fighting gravity in the AMR25 all weekend and to make it all the way to Q3 - and nip ahead of the second Red Bull with a great tow at the start of his final lap - is much more surprising than Aston Martin's recent form would suggest. - SMM
