Predictably, qualifying for the Italian GP at Monza was a tale of two teams at the opposing end of the Formula 1 grid. On one side you had the flying six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton who dominated the qualifying session with the fastest lap time in the history for Formula 1 based on an average speed of the car across the lap and on the other side you had the struggling Ferrari duo of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc who could only manage P17 and P13 respectively, on what is Scuderia Ferrari's home race. This also meant that it was the first time since 1984, Ferrari didn't have a car in the top 10 at the track.
Charles Leclerc had his lap cancelled in Q1 for passing the white line but managed to make it to P2 unlike his teammate
Sebastian Vettel, who is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season got stuck in a traffic jam in the Q1 session and couldn't even manage to post a time which slotted the Scarlett car in the top 15. This was the first time that a Ferrari didn't make it to Q2 at Monza. His younger teammate fared better at P13 with him managing to qualify for the Q2, but couldn't go much beyond as he was limited with the crippling lack of straight-line speed on a track that's dubbed the "temple of speed".
Hamilton who posted a time of 1min18.887s went on to surpass Kimi Raikkonen's pole time set ironically in the Ferrari back in 2018. Hamilton's time was even more impressive in Q1 as he didn't get the benefit of a tow from his teammate. In fact, he followed the field and got some tow from there. This time also came with the backdrop of the reduction in engine modes after a technical ruling that banned the Mercedes party mode for qualifying.
"It was not too bad," said pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton. "Fantastic performance from the team today, just in terms of timing, when they put us out on the track. It was not the easiest - you saw how close it was between us all, so it really demanded a clean lap and I think I got that on both, so I'm generally really happy with the actual laps I did," said Lewis Hamilton after the qualifying session.
Valtteri Bottas starts second in the Italian GP at Monza, 0.69s off from Hamilton's pole-setting time
Bottas rounded off the front row with a time just 0.069 seconds from Hamilton's. McLaren's Carlos Sainz Jr did well to qualify third at a track that will be his home next year when he joins Ferrari. Sergio Perez in the pink Racing Point was fourth while Max Verstappen in the Red Bull only managed fifth indicating that the Renault and Mercedes powered cars had an advantage over not just the Ferrari powered cars but also Honda.
The Honda-powered cars fared slightly better as Alex Albon managed ninth in the Red Bull, and the pair of Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat managed tenth and eleventh in the AlphaTauri.
For Ferrari power, this was a torrid session. Leclerc was the fastest of the lot at P13, followed by Kimi Raikkonen in the Alfa Romeo in P14, and Kevin Magnussen in the Haas in P15. Magnussen's teammate Romain Grosjean managed P16 and Antonio Giovianazzi managed P18 behind Vettel being the slowest of the Ferrari powered cars.
2020 Formula 1 Italian GP Qualifying Times:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes - 1m18.887s
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes - +0.069s
3 Carlos Sainz McLaren - +0.808s
4 Sergio Perez Racing Point - +0.833s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull - +0.908s
6 Lando Norris McLaren - + 0.933s
7 Daniel Ricciardo Renault - +0.977s
8 Lance Stroll Racing Point - +1.162s
9 Alex Albon Red Bull - +1.203s
10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri - +1.290s
11 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri - 1m20.169s
12 Esteban Ocon Renault - 1m20.234s
13 Charles Leclerc Ferrari - 1m20.273s
14 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing - 1m20.926s
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas - 1m21.573s
16 Romain Grosjean Haas - 1m21.139s
17 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari - 1m21.151s
18 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing - 1m21.206s
19 George Russell Williams - 1m21.587s
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams - 1m21.717s
