Charles Leclerc took pole position on Saturday (September 10) and will serve as the hero for the Ferrari tifosi on home soil for the prancing horse for the Italian Grand Prix at Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.
Leclerc’s eighth pole of the season is the most for a Ferrari driver in a season since Michael Schumacher’s legendary 2004 season. Although Max Verstappen is almost unreachable in driver championship standings and Red Bull is much the same in constructor championship standings, it was imperative for Ferrari and Leclerc to at least perform this weekend in their home grand prix and that has been the case so far.
“It’s amazing,” Leclerc started in the post-qualifying interview with F1 Media as the Ferrari faithful cheered in the background. “It wasn’t an easy qualifying session, I knew that there was quite a bit of potential in the car. But we needed to put everything together, I knew in this last lap in Q3 I had to put everything together and I managed to do it. Very happy with the lap, very happy with the performance. It’s been a great weekend […] I hope we can do just like [our 2019 Monza win] tomorrow.”
Nine drivers out of the 20 drivers in the field will take grid penalties, including Verstappen (-5), Sergio Perez (-10) and Carlos Sainz (back-of-grid). The penalties are mainly for various engine or gearbox replacements, although in the case of Yuki Tsunoda, part of his back-of-grid penalty is due to recording his fifth reprimand of the season last weekend at the Netherlands, and due to not slowing for yellow flags in FP2 on Friday, (Sept. 9).
Before penalties, Verstappen qualified second and Sainz was third. Perez was fourth and Lewis Hamilton was fifth, but both will have penalties to serve.
George Russell qualified sixth and the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, one year after their surprise 1-2 finish at the Monza Circuit, qualified in seventh and eighth. Rounding out the top ten were Pierre Gasly in ninth and Fernando Alonso in tenth.
Q2
There were no incidents in this session. Esteban Ocon qualified 11th but was both the first car eliminated and will start 14th after a grid penalty is served. Valtteri Bottas qualified 12th, followed by Nyck de Vries (subbing for Alex Albon), Zhou Guanyu and Tsunoda.
Q1
There were no incidents in this session. Nicholas Latifi qualified 16th and was the first car eliminated from the session, followed by Sebastian Vettel, Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher.
F1 Qualifying Results for the Italian Grand Prix
The starting lineup after all grid penalties are applied:
| Position | Driver | Team |
| 1st | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari |
| 2nd | George Russell | Mercedes |
| 3rd | Lando Norris | McLaren |
| 4th | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren |
| 5th | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri |
| 6th | Fernando Alonso | Alpine |
| 7th | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
| 8th | Nyck de Vries | Williams |
| 9th | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo |
| 10th | Nicholas Latifi | Williams |
| 11th | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin |
| 12th | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin |
| 13th | Sergio Perez | Red Bull |
| 14th | Esteban Ocon | Alpine |
| 15th | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo |
| 16th | Kevin Magnussen | Haas |
| 17th | Mick Schumacher | Haas |
| 18th | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari |
| 19th | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes |
| 20th | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri |
The 2022 Italian Grand Prix will be broadcast on Sunday (Sept. 11) by Sky Sports through ESPN2. Lights out will come at 9 a.m. ET.
About the author
Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021. He moved on to Formula 1, IndyCar, and SRX coverage for the site, while still putting a toe in the water from time-to-time back into the NASCAR pool.
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