Charles Leclerc put Ferrari on pole position for their home Italian Formula One Grand Prix at Monza on Saturday, with George Russell joining him on the front row for Mercedes.
Red Bull’s runaway championship leader Max Verstappen was second fastest in qualifying but will drop down the grid for Sunday’s race due to a five-place penalty.
“It’s amazing, it wasn’t an easy qualifying session. I knew there was quite a bit of potential in the car,” Leclerc said afterwards.
“I knew in this last lap in Q3 I had to put everything together and I managed to do it, very happy with the lap, very happy with the performance, the feeling with the car is amazing and I really hope we can do just like 2019 tomorrow.
“I just took much more risks, it was the last lap, I knew I had to find a lot of performance there and it worked out.”
World champion Verstappen said: “It was close but we chose to go for a little bit more downforce here and over one lap, it’s maybe not the best but for tomorrow I think it can be quite strong – and also knowing that we have to start a bit back.
“I think all in all, it was still a good lap; I enjoyed it, the whole weekend so far and it will be an interesting battle tomorrow.”
On his race strategy: “Just trying to stay out of trouble at the beginning and I’ll just work my way forward.”
