It was an interesting and unusual Q3 qualifying session at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza today, with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel taking P1 while Lewis Hamilton faltered in his quest for a 5th straight pole position.
Sebastian Vettel continued his dominance of the Monza weekend with his 40th pole position for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix. It was also Red Bull’s 50th pole.
Vettel, who won his first ever pole here in 2008 and repeated that success in 2011, finished ahead of his team-mate, Mark Webber, their 20th one-two on the grid.
Behind them, surprisingly, came Nico Hulkenberg for Sauber, and they were followed by the Ferrari pair of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, with Nico Rosberg in sixth place.
However, the shock of the day was Lewis Hamilton’s failure to qualify for the top-10 shootout for the first time since 2010. He was held by his old rival Adrian Sutil and will start down in 12th.
“I drove like an idiot,” Hamilton said. “I just didn’t drive well. I was cooking in Q1. I’ll do whatever I can from wherever I am but it’s going to be tough.”
In a tight Q1 out went Max Chilton, Jules Bianchi, Charles Pic, Giedo van der Garde, Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Gutiérrez.
But it was in Q2 that F1’s blue blood was spilled, with Kimi Raikkonen joining Hamilton in the drop zone, along with Romain Grosjean, Pastor Maldonado and the Force India pair of Paul di Resta and Sutil.
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