Lando Norris pipped McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri to pole position at the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, ensuring the Woking-based outfit locked out the front row for Sunday’s race.
Norris’ effort of 1:19.327s bettered Piastri by a margin of 0.109s with Mercedes’ Geroge Russell qualifying third.
The Ferrari pairing headed out onto the track to rapturous applause in Q1 in the grandstand opposite the pit garages which continued as Charles Leclerc went fastest.
However, Carlos Sainz was unable to post a representative banker time as the Spaniard got out of shape when he endured a wide moment into the gravel at Lesmo 2.
Leclerc wouldn’t remain at the top long, though, as Lando Norris went over a tenth quicker to demote the lead Ferrari to second position, with Max Verstappen in third.
Lewis Hamilton topped the second and third practice sessions, but Mercedes was unable to demote that top three as George Russell headed his team-mate in fourth.
Sainz was relegated to last place once the remaining drivers put in their lap times, but he improved on his second attempt to move second behind team-mate Leclerc.
Sergio Perez was aiming to build on a promising weekend in Zandvoort last time out, though the Mexican was second last and in the drop zone with 10 minutes to go.
Along with Perez, Williams debutant Franco Colapinto, RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and the two Saubers – Valtteri Bottas heading Zhou Guanyu – made up the bottom five spots.
Perez would put in an improvement to climb to ninth, albeit behind Williams’ Alex Albon, whose team-mate Colapinto ruined his hopes when he went wide at Lesmo 2.
The RB duo were battling to avoid a premature elimination and Tsunoda went above Daniel Ricciardo until the Australian responded to relegate his team-mate to 16th.
Tsunoda was 0.043s behind Ricciardo in the sister RB, but that was enough to put him out. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also endured an underwhelming outing in 17th.
Colapinto rued that crucial error on his last timed effort as he remained in 18th spot, with Bottas heading Zhou as Sauber brought up the rear in the opening segment.
The wait to Q2 was prolonged as the marshalls had to clear up the gravel that Colapinto’s Williams had deposited in the middle sector when he had his wide moment.
Once the second stage commenced, Ferrari again commanded the nascent exchanges as Sainz and then soon after Leclerc went quickest into the low 1:20s region.
However, the two Ferrari drivers had been on scrubbed rubber and that meant Verstappen and the two McLarens had no trouble in demoting the duo down the order.
Norris held the upper hand over team-mate Piastri as McLaren occupied the top two places, but Hamilton then delivered on his earlier promise to record a 1:19.641s.
But although Ferrari crossed the line to embark clean laps on new Softs, Sainz was unable to go higher than third, as Leclerc rued balance issues as he went seventh.
Along with the usual suspects in the leading quartet, Alex Albon in the Williams and Nico Hulkenberg in the Haas both produced good enough laps to progress to Q3.
At their expense came Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, Ricciardo’s RB, Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas car and the two Alpines, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.
Piastri produced the original benchmark time until team-mate Norris went a marginal 0.035s quicker with a 1:19.401 as McLaren bookmarked a provisional front-row.
Behind, Russell led team-mate Hamilton as Mercedes were third and fourth, with Ferrari and Red Bull resigned to being on the third and fourth row with one run to go.
Verstappen encountered a small correction at Lesmo 2 which compromised his run and meant he couldn’t go higher than seventh, while Norris improved his lap time.
That was enough to clinch Norris pole as Piastri could not improve. Nevertheless, McLaren retained the front row as neither Ferrari nor Mercedes could eclipse them.
Still, Russell’s Mercedes was best of the rest, pipping the Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Sainz who rounded out the top five positions.
Hamilton was unable to join his team-mate on the second row, instead qualifying sixth, ahead of Verstappen and Perez, signifying Red Bull’s troubles with its RB20.
With the top four teams locking out the top eight positions in qualifying, it was left to Albon and Hulkenberg to duke it out over ninth and 10th fastest with the spoils going to the Anglo-Thai Williams driver.
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