McLaren lock out the front row as they continue their charge for the constructors championship, with Redbull down in seventh and eighth for Verstappen and Perez.
Quali 1
The first part of qualifying saw most of the top teams refuse to show their hands and true speed, several drivers struggled with grip throughout the session with Sainz and Piastri both having moments throughout the session.
Williams new driver Franco Colapinto running wide, the Williams driver did well to save the car, however the trip across the gravel ended his chances to move into Q2.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri will be heading to the stewards after a clear unsafe release led to Redbull’s Max Verstappen having to take avoiding action.
Yuki Tsunoda will start the Italian GP in 16th after his teammate, Danny Ricciardo stole his Quali 2 appearance at the death, a good showing for the Australian.
Lance Stroll and Aston Martin continue to struggle with the Canadian only managing a poor 17th, a disappointing result for Lance, especially as the car seemed to have the pace during practice to qualify further up the grid.
Quali 2
After a short delay to sort out the gravel over the track, the second quali session was underway. It was pretty clear that this would be a quali for McLaren to lose, they just seemed to have a tenth over the rest of the field.
What was not clear was exactly how far back Redbull are!
With the session not really throwing up any real surprises, Alonso, Ricciardo, Magnussen, Gasly and Ocon were all eliminated.
There were some smiles in the HAAS garage, as Nico Hulkenberg sneaked into the top 10 with an impressive lap to take 10th.
The Hunt for Pole
Following the plot from the previous 2 sessions it looks like it was McLarens front row to lose, the session pretty much followed the script, with Lando Norris taking pole over Oscar Piastri.
The race for the other positions were up for grabs with Mercedes, Ferrari and Redbull are in the hunt.
The biggest surprise was the lack of overall pace for the Redbull pair, who struggled with a “peaky” car and could only manage 7th for Max and 8th for Perez.
As the second ticked down it looked as though the second row was heading towards a Ferrari lockout, however this was spoilt by the Mercedes of George Russell, who fired the Mercedes into third ahead of Leclerc and Sainz you will start fourth and fifth respectively.
Lewis Hamilton would take sixth, in a slightly disappointing session for the 7-time Champion.
The final positions were filled by Albon in the Williams and Hulkenberg in the HAAS, both did well to get into the top ten, however they just didn’t have the pace to trouble the cars in front.
An Impressive McLaren front row has set the stage for what should be an enthralling race tomorrow, is this a changing of the guard and can Lando mount a sustained challenge for the Drivers Championship? Who would have thought this season would turn out to be this exciting.