Italian GP: George Starts from P3 After Monza Qualifying Thriller

Safely through Q1 and Q2

Our duo went into qualifying with four sets of new Soft tyres. This meant that some sets had to be used for several runs.

In Q1, both drivers completed two runs on the same set of Soft tyres. In the first run, George and Lewis were 4^th and 5^th respectively. George was able to improve on the second run on the used Soft tyres and both drivers went into Q2 in 5^th and 7^th positions.

The performance in the first qualifying segment did not look as good as this morning's FP3, where Lewis and George set the two fastest times. The higher temperatures may have played a part. In Q1, the air temperature rose to 36°C and the track temperature to above 50°C. By Q3, the track temperature had dropped four degrees to 47°C.

The team took the same approach for Q2: two runs on a new set of Soft tyres. Lewis set the fastest time on his first run, with George in P5. Both went out for a second run on the same set of tyres to cover the track evolution, but were already safely through.

The team now has some time overnight to prepare for the race and work on strategy. The Italian Grand Prix will start as usual at 15:00 local time (14:00 BST).

Saturday at Monza began with positive news: The team confirmed its driver line-up for the 2025 season with Kimi Antonelli and George, and you can read what Kimi, George and Toto had to say about it here.

Lewis Hamilton

I am very disappointed with how today went. I think we could have been on the front-row, maybe even pole position. Unfortunately, I just didn’t do the job today. I lost one tenth and-a-half through turns one and two, and then one more tenth in the final corner. There is nobody else to blame but myself. Qualifying has been a weakness of mine recently, but I’ll keep trying to figure it out.

We have a good race car. That should give us confidence for tomorrow. The team has done an amazing job to get the W15 into a much better window than it was in Zandvoort. The car has been feeling so much better

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We knew it was going to be tight at the front today. It was therefore not unexpected that the field was so close at the end of Q3. Ferrari managed to get both of their cars into the 0.073s gap that was between Lewis and George. McLaren meanwhile have been quick at every track we’ve visited recently so it was no surprise to find that we couldn't quite match them. That is both frustrating and encouraging. The gap to P1 was just over one tenth of a second and pole position was within touching distance for both our drivers.

George is well placed lining up in P3. Our starts have been good recently and it's a long run to turn one. If we can get between the McLarens off the line, that will help our chances of a strong afternoon. Lewis has a bit of work to do starting from behind the Ferraris, but the degradation here looks set to be high. There could be plenty of opportunity to get into the fight at the front if that is the case. As we know, he is one of the best at tyre management so we can be excited as to what tomorrow may bring.