Another installment of the new regime: Friday’s qualifying dominated by Mercedes

Experiment – part two. After the British Grand Prix, we’ll see the continuation of the new racing regime at Monza in Italy. After the opening practice session, we’ve now had Friday’s qualifying, which was dominated by the Mercedes. The McLaren drivers also had a great result.

The new regime – part two. That’s a safe way to describe the race weekend in Italy at the historic Monza circuit. An unusual start to a race weekend for Formula One fans.

Yes, the drivers took to the track for the first time in the familiar opening practice session on Friday. But a few hours later, qualifying followed, not FP2. And it was this qualifying session that determined the order for Saturday’s qualifying sprint. This, in turn, decides the riders’ starting positions for Sunday’s main race.

This, if there are still fans who are not familiar with the new format schedule, is where the new racing regime lies. Fans of F2 or F3 will already be familiar with this race weekend format, but for the F1 world it is completely new from this season.

As for the actual qualifying session on Friday, however, we’re all familiar with its progression – Q1, Q2 and Q3.

The first part of qualifying did not bring any significantly surprising results. Nikita Mazepin will start the qualifying sprint from the last place behind Robert Kubica and Mick Schumacher.

Júki Cunoda, whose time of 1:21.711 was deleted due to exceeding the track limits at the Parabolica corner, will start from seventeenth place on Saturday. He was originally in fifteenth place, which secured him a place in Q2.

The Williams-riding Canadian Nicholas Latifi did not qualify for the second part of the qualifying. His teammate George Russell did not make it to Q3 from the middle segment, as did both Aston Martin and Alpine drivers.

Antonio Giovinazzi in an Alfa Romeo made it to Q3 and that was also his best. He can be found in tenth place in the results behind Sergio Pérez. The thirty-one-year-old Red Bull driver did not fare well in qualifying overall.

The Ferrari drivers will start from grid slots 7 (Carlos Sainz) and 8 (Charles Leclerc). The Italian team from Maranello is running its home race here, and especially on Sunday, thanks to the tifosi, we can look forward to a literally hellish atmosphere.

Sixth in the final standings is Pierre Gasly in the Alpha Tauri monopost, which is also at Monza in its home environment. After all, the stable’s headquarters in Faenza is only a few dozen minutes’ drive from the race circuit!

A great performance during the race weekend so far has been put in by the McLaren drivers – Daniel Ricciardo (5th) had his last quick attempt wiped out, otherwise he would have been in position number 3. Lando Norris had the fourth fastest qualifying attempt of all.

Third place goes to Max Verstappen ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with Valtteri Bottas taking the top spot! However, the Finnish driver changed three components – ICE, TC and MGU-H. The rules are clear in this context – Bottas will start from the very back of the grid on Sunday.

Saturday’s sprint is not considered a race, but a qualifying session. The penalty for the swap and the significant intervention in the set-up of the monoposto is intended for the start of the race.

Source: F1 Live