Having long styled itself the “pinnacle of motorsport”, Formula One somehow contrived instead to reach a positively unedifying nadir during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc delighted the tifosi by taking pole but he did so not with the dramatic theatrical flourish Monza deserves but rather by being the quickest driver in what was ultimately an ignominious farce. Yet there was little to amuse here in what was also condemned as worryingly dangerous.
Leclerc’s pole, his first at Ferrari’s home race, was a moment for the 21-year-old to relish. Celebrating the 90th edition of the Italian Grand Prix and the 90th anniversary of the formation of Ferrari in 1929, what the fans wanted most was a red car on pole.
They seemed happy enough to have it, albeit perplexed that it had happened in an anticlimactic manner in which the fastest racing cars in the world vied with one another to go as slowly as possible. With some brinkmanship the final nine drivers, waiting until the last possible moment to go out, then jockeyed for track position until it was too late and only Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who was seventh, crossed the line in time to begin their final hot laps. The first times the leaders had set all stood and Lewis Hamilton was second for Mercedes, with his teammate Valtteri Bottas in third and Sebastian Vettel in fourth for Ferrari.
The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, summed it up cause and effect with admirable pith: “The problem was everyone wants a slipstream and nobody wants to go first … And then everyone looks like idiots,” he said.
In qualifying on the high-speed, low-downforce Monza, gaining a tow by slipstreaming the car in front is vital, worth almost three-tenths a lap. It has always been thus but efforts to ensure a tow reached a low point this year.
On the first hot laps in Q3, Vettel led the pack out, but even then drivers were vying for places, while Leclerc, several cars back and using the slipstream, set the quickest time. His 1min 19.307sec was three-hundredths up on Hamilton in second and a tenth clear of his teammate.
It was the second runs that mattered, when the track would have been at its fastest, and on the warm-up to that final lap the pack subsequently crawled around with no one wanting to suffer the disadvantage of being in front and punching a hole in the air. They were driving extremely slowly and switching position to dangerous effect and then realised too late the clock had counted out.
Several drivers, including Leclerc and Vettel, complained that it had been the McLaren of Sainz and the Renault of Nico Hülkenberg that had been driving two abreast and prevented the field from passing them in time. On the out laps for F3 qualifying on Friday, 17 drivers were given penalties for driving unnecessarily slowly and the FIA immediately announced an investigation into the final lap, and both drivers, as well as Force India’s Lance Stroll, were summoned to the stewards.
They were issued with only reprimands, however, rather than grid penalties. All three cited in their defence that other drivers were similarly driving slowly. The stewards’ decision to an extent accepts that this was a collective problem across the top 10, with the exception of Kimi Räikkönen, who had crashed out on his first run in Q3. The stewards’ statement did, however, in every case state that action needed to be taken to prevent a recurrence. “The stewards strongly recommend that the FIA expedite a solution to this type of situation,” read their verdict for all three drivers.
Leclerc had been set to give Vettel a tow on the final lap and the German was unhappy at what had happened. He had been waving his arms on track to try to get the cars in front out of the way. Leclerc was pleased with his place but acknowledged the session had turned into a shambles.
“The whole qualifying was a big mess with all the slipstreaming and trying to have the best one. But I’m very happy with this pole position,” he said. “Situations like what happened after the second corner shouldn’t happen. There are two cars side by side going at 20kph and we couldn’t pass them.”
The warm-up laps had been similar on the high-speed Spa at the last round, where Hamilton was critical that it could have been dangerous. An opinion he reiterated here.
“Everyone was slowing right down, and also blocking the way, so you couldn’t really get through. It was pretty dangerous,” he said. “I almost crashed a couple of times, trying to stay out of the way, guys braking ahead of me, and people coming past me. It was like trying to avoid carnage all of the time.”
He also expressed his concern that the situation is likely to occur again . He said: “There is going to be an issue, in places where you particularly need a tow. It won’t be until someone crashes that they’ll change it, most likely.”
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly will all start at the rear of the grid having taken new engines and powerunit components. Worryingly for Verstappen, however, he failed to set a time as he reported a loss of power on his only flying lap. He finished in 20th place, Norris in 14th and Gasly in 15th.
The Renault’s of Daniel Ricciardo and Hülkenberg were in fifth and sixth with Alexander Albon in eighth for Red Bull. Räikkönen was in 10th for Alfa Romeo and Lance Stroll in ninth for Racing Point.
Antonio Giovinazzi was in 11th for Alfa Romeo in front of the Haas of Kevin Magnussen. Daniil Kvyat was in 13th for Toro Rosso.
Romain Grosjean was in 16th for Haas in front of Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez, who had a mechanical failure. George Russell and Robert Kubica were in 18th and 19th for Williams
