The weather forecast had predicted a rainy Saturday for Monza, but luckily the conditions were dry, as the qualifying kicked off. Everyone headed out on the red-walled super-softs. Ferrari showed flying pace right from the start. Sebastian made two flying laps, split by a cool-down lap, and made it on top of the timesheets. Teammate Kimi was only two tenths off his teammate's pace. After the first runs Hamilton, who was struggling especially in the final sector, was a massive half-a-second off Sebastian. Bottas seemed to be struggling with his performance even more, as the Finn was already eight tenths off pace. However, at the end of the session, Hamilton managed to slice the deficit in half on his second run. At this point I had a strong intuition saying, that the shootout for pole was going to be between the red-suited teammates. The most positive surprise of the first segment was the performance of Williams, as both Sirotkin and Stroll managed to make it through to Q2. Sirotkin was 11th and Stroll 13th, which was delightful variation, as in many previous races they have been the two slowest drivers on track. Force India's Perez made a shock exit from Q1, but only by one thousandth of a second! Out with the Mexican were the Sauber duo of Leclerc and Ericsson, Toro Rosso's Hartley and McLaren's Vandoorne. The battle to get through to Q2 was utterly hair-raising, as Sainz in 8th and Hartley in 18th were separated by just two tenths!
Red Bull's Ricciardo sat out the second session, as a series of engine component changes had triggered a hefty grid penalty for Sunday's race. This time the tyre strategy was very straight-forward; everyone came out on the softest compound. Hamilton is known for his magical skill to find extra speed, when it is needed, and the Briton proved this quality again at the Temple of Speed. He went fastest, but only for a short moment. Sebastian went wide at Parabolica, but he still managed to cut 13 thousandths of a second off Hamilton's time! Sebastian was the fastest man of the second session, followed by Hamilton and Kimi. Williams' Stroll continued his magnificent performance and made it 8th, making his way to Q3 for the first time this season. Haas' Magnussen and McLaren's Alonso, on the other hand, had a bizarre-looking squabble, as they battled for track position, which in turn ruined their final runs, and neither one of them made it Q3. In addition to Ricciardo, also Renault's Hulkenberg had been handed a grid penalty for engine element changes. Sirotkin didn't manage to match his teammate's performance, and the Russian was out of Q3.
Q3 offered an absolutely nail-biting finale. The 14-year-old track record by Montoya was first smashed by Hamilton, who took provisional pole after setting an outstanding lap. However, Kimi's final sector was absolutely magical, and the Iceman was only 0.069s down on the Briton. Sebastian was third after his first run, 0.1s down on Hamilton. Bottas was still struggling with his performance, and a half-a-second gap to his teammate definitely caught my eye. The second runs set up a true thriller. Hamilton improved his lap time on his second run, which meant smashing the track record again. Then came Sebastian, smashing it again. But then there came the on-flames-driving Iceman, who smashed the track record once more, making it on pole for the first time since the 2017 Monaco GP! Kimi's 1.19.119s-lap was the fastest lap in F1 history! Kimi is the oldest pole-setter since Nigel Mansell in 1994! Kimi's pole lap was absolutely phenomenal and sensational. For a moment Sebastian thought, that he had clinched pole, and he seemed quite flabbergasted when he was told on the team radio, that Kimi was on pole. However, this is Sebastian's very first front-row grid slot at Monza in his Ferrari career. Ferrari should have taken a front-row lock-out already at Spa last week, but now it finally came! Unbelievable but true, this is only Ferrari's first front-row lock-out at Monza since 2000. Also, Mercedes have led every lap of every Italian GP since the start of the current turbo hybrid era. So it's definitely breaking news, that Ferrari conquered the front row today.
Oh, I'm so overwhelmingly praising Ferrari for their phenomenal performance, that I was about to forget the rest of the top ten. Bottas made it an all-Mercedes second row, although the Finn was only a pale shadow of what he has used to be this season. Verstappen made it 5th for Red Bull, with Haas' Grosjean completing the third row. Renault's Sainz, Force India's Ocon, Toro Rosso's Gasly and Williams' Stroll rounded out the top ten.
I was so happy for Kimi's pole position! It was about time for the Iceman to be back on top! I hope Ferrari gives him a chance to win the race. A red 1-2 on their home soil would be something absolutely magical! But to finish first, first you have to finish... Forza Ferrari!
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