The McLaren drivers were not surprised Max Verstappen was able to beat them to pole position for the Italian Grand Prix.
Verstappen claimed his fifth pole position of the year at Monza, tying McLaren’s Oscar Piastri for the most so far this season. Lando Norris has four.
Norris came closest to beating him, ending up less than a tenth of a second behind the Red Bull driver. Although Verstappen hasn’t won a race since the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in May, Norris said it was no surprise to see him on pole this weekend.
“No, Max has been quick all weekend and it’s never a surprise with Max,” said Norris. Verstappen was quickest on soft tyres at all three stages during qualifying.
Norris came close to being eliminated in Q2 before rebounding to join Verstappen on the first row of the grid.
“It was quite a session for me,” said Norris, “just up and down and too many mistakes here and there. But to pull it all together on the last lap – I was pretty happy with [second].”
Piastri had the better run of the two McLaren drivers at the start of Q3 but only made a slight improvement on his last run. He said he hadn’t been entirely comfortable in the car during the session and wasn’t surprised to see Verstappen come out on top.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“Turn one was a little bit average but the rest of the lap all felt pretty tidy,” he said. “I feel like I executed a pretty good session, built up to it a little bit at the start and found my feet.
“But it’s just been incredibly tight this weekend. Max and Red Bull looked quick this weekend, to be honest a lot of teams looked quick.
“It’s not been quite as comfortable for us so the result’s not a big surprise. But obviously I would have loved to be a little bit further up.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
