Snatched at the finish
George Russell came close to securing that pole position at Monza that he so desired and for which he was considered the absolute favorite, but in the end he suffered a stunning snatch by Pierre Gasly, who took the pole position from him by a few thousandths with a masterful last lap at the end of Q3. Securing pole at ‘Antonelli’s home’, especially with his teammate forced to start from the back of the grid, would have been a significant emotional boost for #63 of Mercedes, who tomorrow in the race will perhaps play his last chance to stay on the World Championship train.
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Predictable problem
Interviewed by Sky Sport F1 after qualifying, Russell tried to hide his frustration for missing out on pole position, appealing to the fact that at Monza starting from first on the grid is much less decisive than elsewhere: “I expected the session to be slightly more straightforward – Russell admitted – but we kept having wheel lock-ups. We had the feeling it could happen in qualifying, but we didn’t want to change the setup too much. Sometimes, even if something works well at that precise moment, you have to evolve it to go faster in qualifying. Maybe it was a small mistake on our part“.
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“In any case – the British driver continued – Pierre did a great job, he was exceptional and for us starting from second place is still a great position to win. Does the race scenario change? No. Honestly, on a circuit like this qualifying position is not as important as elsewhere. To overtake, this will be one of the easiest circuits of the season, so you need to have the pace and my goal will be to stay in the top 3-4 positions at the end of the first lap. Then I will do my race and that will be enough to fight for the win“.
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