Monza, with its long straights and limited corners, is a track that is always going to reward the sheer power of Mercedes and so it proved from the start, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg exchanging quickest times.
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Hamilton joins two true F1 greats with five pole positions at Monza – Juan Manuel Fangio and Ayrton Senna.
A helpless looking Rosberg was reduced to head-shaking amazement.
He added: “The problem was Lewis had his best qualifying for some time”.
Hamilton himself demonstrated his maturity with a well-judged series of early laps as he went top of the times for Mercedes ahead of Rosberg until Vettel took second after half an hour.
“We are further behind than we were past year”, he said.
The world champion has won three of the last four Italian Grand Prix races, and he loves the battles that occur at Monza each season.
“I am obviously very happy”, he said.
“I came with my A-game today, and that last lap felt incredible”. “So I’m very proud of that”.
“I had a decent weekend so far and did some decent laps, but not quick enough”.
“Although I got the most from the package today, there’s still more to find in the vehicle that I hope we can tap into in the race”.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen placed third and fourth, respectively, and also flip-flopped spots from the morning. It proved well beyond his rivals.
“The vehicle felt pretty good during P1 but we need to work on the balance of the auto overnight as the one lap pace didn’t feel 100% during P2”, he added.
No-one could get near them all weekend and Ferrari were left breathless despite the introduction of their final engine performance upgrade for the season.
“It’s no use putting sweeteners on the stuff, the vehicle isn’t there and I don’t think we developed it. I think we started well in Australia, I think that we failed in developing the auto during the season which is due to a variety of reasons”. Here are the odds to win this race.
Mercedes seem to have a huge advantage over Ferrari, who have a smaller but clear edge over Williams and Red Bull. Jolyon Palmer out-qualified his team mate but it was two Renaults out in Q1.
Esteban Ocon’s Manor auto stopped at the first chicane in Q1 and Kevin Magnussen’s Renault was again all over the track, as both were eliminated early on.
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Former Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso was seventh for McLaren ahead of Valtteri Bottas of Williams with Romain Grosjean of Haas and Jenson Button, in the second McLaren, completing the top ten.
