As in the previous week in Spa Charles Leclerc also starts at the Ferrari home game in Monza, Italy from the front. The Monegasse relegated the two Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to second and third place. Behind him is Sebastian Vettel in the second Ferrari, who again team-internally only as a challenger in the Grand Prix of Italy on Sunday (15.10 clock, TV: RTL and Sky, Liveticker SPIEGEL) goes.
The third free practice in the morning had Vettel still won. A better placement in qualifying prevented not least the tactics: In the third qualifying section, the teams waited particularly long to bring a second fast lap on the track - too long.
So it was that in the end only Leclerc and McLaren driver Carlos Sainz jr. managed to cross the line before time ran out, while the rest of the field on the high-speed line loitered so extensively that no further attack on Leclerc's best time could be started. The reason: because the slipstream means an advantage, no one wanted to drive ahead. As the Formula 1 announced after qualifying, the curious finale will now be examined by the race stewards.
Max Verstappen was unable to intervene in the battle for the best seats. The current World Championship third for Team Red Bull received for the first time the most recent version of the Honda engine for the race in Monza. The Dutchman thus exceeds the maximum number of engine units allowed per season. The result: starting position 20 for Verstappen and the hope to start on Sunday a catch-up.
