Norris on Italian GP pole with Verstappen seventh

Lando Norris led Oscar Piastri to a McLaren one-two in Italian Grand Prix qualifying, with title rival Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in seventh.

Norris’ second pole in a row – and fifth of his career – combined with Verstappen’s difficult session, was exactly what the Briton needed as he seeks to close the 70-point gap to the Dutchman in the championship.

George Russell took third for Mercedes, ahead of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz and team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Red Bull had Sergio Perez sacrifice his final lap to give Verstappen a tow on the run down to Parabolica on his final lap, in a vain attempt to vault up the grid.

But it succeeded only in getting Verstappen ahead of Perez, with the McLarens, Ferraris and Mercedes out of reach on another weekend of struggle for the world champions, who appear to have lost their way with their once-dominant car and are at risk of being overtaken in the constructors’ title race.

Perez, who had been faster than Verstappen on his first lap in final qualifying, ran wide at the second Lesmo corner, ruining his own lap before helping Verstappen.

Norris beat Piastri by just 0.035secs on his first lap in the top-10 shootout, and managed to improve his time on his second attempt despite not being happy with his lap, while Piastri did not. Norris ended up on pole by 0.109secs.

“To have a first and second when the field is as tight as it has been all weekend is a little bit of a surprise, but a nice one,” Norris said.

“My lap, it hurts me to say it, was not a great lap. My first one was. But still good enough for pole and still very happy.

“There are a lot of quick drivers behind in quick cars, so I am not expecting an easy race. Plenty of question marks but a lot of excitement, I’m sure.”

Russell, who was 0.113secs off pole, said: “A little bit better than I expected. It was a really tough session. Not too far behind the McLarens, they are so fast at the moment, I am super-happy with third.

“I think it’s going to be a tight battle, everyone is so close out there, so exciting for F1, everyone’s been waiting for this.”

Verstappen was complaining about a lack of grip for the entire session, at one point describing his car as “shocking”. He faces an uphill battle trying to limit the damage Norris could inflict in the race.

Russell’s performance was all the more impressive as he missed much of Friday practice after Mercedes 2025 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli crashed his car in the first session, meaning Russell only had half an hour’s worth of running in the second.

“A very up and down weekend,” Russell said. “Missed a lot of yesterday, which put me on the back foot, Q1 and Q2 were messy, didn’t feel good in the car. But managed to get it in the sweet spot in Q3. So pretty pleased with the result and it’s kind of exciting to see how close it was.”

Leclerc said he was “disappointed” to be as low as fourth – albeit only 0.134secs off pole – after Ferrari had looked on the pace throughout practice.

But that was nothing compared to Verstappen’s feelings.

The three-time champion was second quickest behind Hamilton in the second session but dropped away in the third, perplexed as to what had happened as he ended up 0.695secs from pole.

Verstappen said: “Q3 was very bad on both of my tyre sets. I just picked up a lot of understeer so I couldn’t attack any corners any more.

“I had to back it out a lot mid-corner and you lose a lot of lap time like that.

“Somehow in Q2 it wasn’t that bad. I did a 1:19.6 at that point and we were almost the quickest.

“We know our limitations and problems but at that point I think we had it fairly under control. But I went into Q3 and the balance was completely out, and I don’t really understand how that happened.”

Hamilton, who was just 0.073secs slower than Russell despite being three places behind him, was left berating himself as his qualifying struggles this season continued.

“I’m just not very good, simple as that,” he said. “I’m just not very good at qualifying. I can’t put a lap together and it’s unbelievably frustrating. I’ll keep working at it and that’s all I can do.”

Behind Perez, Williams’ Alex Albon and Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10, the German knocking Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin out in Q2 by just 0.01secs.