QUALIFYING

“IT WAS NOT A TIDY LAP. I LOST TIME PRETTY MUCH EVERYWHERE” VETTEL

ONE OF THE MOST FRUSTRATING CERTAINTIES OF THE

2018 Formula 1 season was finally shattered at Monza, with Kimi Raikkonen taking his first pole position of the season. Time after time, Raikkonen has had underlying pace to challenge for pole but made errors or been too conservative at key moments in Q3. But at Monza, he made no such mistake to take pole by 0.161 seconds.

Two seconds before Raikkonen finished his lap, it seemed Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel had delivered the goods. He knocked first-run leader Lewis Hamilton off top spot with a lap of 1m19.280s and had started to celebrate over the radio when he was told Kimi had beaten him.

Later, Vettel blamed a scruffy lap and resisted any temptation to blame the team for what happened. He also confirmed that it was Ferrari’s standard procedure to alternate who runs first in qualifying, with it rightfully being Raikkonen’s turn. But Vettel did have a tow available from Lewis Hamilton – who had Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas ahead – that was squandered by dropping too far back late in the out-lap. He finished his flying lap six seconds behind, which was too far to capitalise.

“To be honest it was not a tidy lap,” said Vettel. “I lost a bit at the first chicane, second chicane, the Lesmos, pretty much a bit everywhere. The last sector was OK but not fantastic, so just not a good lap and not good enough.”

Despite that, the places where he lost time relative to Raikkonen – in the first and second sectors – suggested the tow did make all the difference.

Hamilton admitted that his second run wasn’t perfect, as he was 0.085s off his ideal lap, which would have been enough to split the Ferraris had he nailed it. Team-mate Bottas ended up 0.537s down. The lack of a proper tow held him back, although he set the fastest time in the middle sector that features the two Lesmos.

Max Verstappen was in no-man’s land between the top four and the rest, with the midfield pack led by Haas driver Romain Grosjean. In a tight session, Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll aced it in Q1 and Q2 to get into the top 10.

With Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg both carrying hefty grid penalties and not attempting to set a time in Q2, the big surprise of the session was Sergio Perez falling in

Q1, after the Racing Point Force India team misjudged the cut-off time and didn’t send him out for a second run.