Bottas will lead the sprint classification for the pole position of the Italian GP with Alonso 13th and Sainz 7th

Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas
Valtteri Bottas
EFE

Valtteri Bottas he finally manages to be the fastest in qualifying again this season … even if it was for sprint qualifying that will decide the starting grid for this Italian GP. The Finn, whose only pole of the year was in Portugal, was the fastest of the session this Friday afternoon, followed by his teammate Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in third position, in a session in which the traffic jam and the rebufos have been the protagonists.

In fact, in several pit exits of the cars, both sporting and physical misfortune was touched, since the rushed exits of the pilots were very close to causing several crashes and taking away an engineer.

In sports, Bottas, who from 2022 will race in Alfa Romeo, did his homework and will start from the most advanced position of the grid in search of a ‘pole’ that will be difficult to secure, since he carries a penalty for having ridden the 4th power unit. In this case, the FIA ​​has decided that this is applied in the race next Sunday.

Once again, the main winner of the session seems to have been Hamilton, who will start alongside his teammate, who will not finally be a stumbling block to start first on Sunday, especially at a circuit that has been benefiting Mercedes so much. . However, Verstappen has already shown that his car is not that far from the German arrows, despite falling within four tenths of them.

The Ferraris knew in advance that the Monza circuit was going to be a difficult circuit for them, despite having improved top speed on the straight, although not sufficiently. Thus, the seventh and eighth positions from which Sainz and Leclerc will start on Saturday’s sprint, respectively, is not to be despised. Good response from the Spaniard in his first appearance at the Italian GP since signing for Ferrari.

The opposite sensations were those that were experienced in McLaren with Norris 4th and Ricciardo 5th in the classification and with the impression that both in the sprint and in Sunday’s race the performance could be better and, why not, give some scare to Red Bull and Mercedes. The same with Gasly, who after winning last year at Monza, slipped his Alpha Tauri into sixth place.

Neither the Alpine nor the Aston Martin had a performance to remember, all four falling in Q2 behind a Giovinazzi who was 10th. Alonso, despite running eleven laps, did not drop below 1:21 and will have to settle for starting from 13th in qualifying on Saturday and will have to leave another new overtaking masterclass to get a good start in the race.

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