McLaren mighty at Monza, lockout front row with Norris pole, Piastri P2; Russell P3 ahead of both Ferraris; Verstappen a shock P7

A week after taking the win at Zandvoort, Lando Norris and McLaren’s surge continued during Saturday qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix at the Temple of Speed, Autodromo Nazionale Monza. On a beautiful day in Northern Italy at this fatstest of F1 circuits, Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri set an untouchable pace in Q3, with Norris taking pole over Piastri by nine-tenths of a second. McLaren is proving to be the primary challenger for both the Constructors’ and Drivers’ titles, something that was hard to envision earlier in the season when Max Verstappen and his Red Bull were laying waste to the entire Formula 1 field with ease. That all changed in Round 6, when Norris took the win in Miami and since then, the overall momentum has swung decidedly away from Red Bull and towards McLaren. As if to put an exclamation point on that fact, Red Bull were completely flummoxed by their lack of pace here in Italy, which saw them stumble to rather a lowly P7 qualifying effort for Verstappen and a P8 by struggling teammate Sergio Perez. It will be fascinating to see if Red Bull can somehow find a way to recover overnight and be able to work their way to the front come race day. But with the sheer amount of teams that look faster than them here, it certainly doesn’t look like that will happen tomorrow.

Looking like perhaps the fastest team overall heading into Q3, things did not exactly work out for mighty Mercedes when the fastest laps were set in Q3. While George Russell was able to vault himself up to P3 on the grid with a fine final effort, teammate Lewis Hamilton left a lot on the table and only qualified in P6, leaving the English seven-time champ furious with himself after the session. Russell did relegate the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to P4 and P5 respectively despite the ardent support of the always enthusiastic tifosi in the stands for the fabled Scuderia’s home race. The Williams of Alexander Albon in P9 and the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg in P10 rounded out the top ten qualifiers on the day.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Italian GP:

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9 am Eastern here in the States. Can Red Bull and Max Verstappen get back in the fight with so many other teams looking much faster than them here at Monza? Will McLaren hold off the desperate to win Ferraris at their home track in front of the fanatical tifosi? Is it possible for Mercedes to reclaim the pace advantage they had going into Q3 and pull the upset? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!