New Zealand driver Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls. Photo: FLORENT GOODEN / PHOTOSPORT
A qualification session to forget for New Zealand formula one driver Liam Lawson, ahead of the Italian Grand Prix overnight tonight.
Lawson was eliminated from the first session after he understeered at a corner and left the track.
He finished in last place.
"Yeah, it's a shame to get knocked out for something that silly.
"I picked up a little understeer and went off, so it's a shame," said Lawson.
The Kiwi driver won't start the race in last place though, with that honour being passed to his team mate Isack Hadjar, who will start from the pits, following Racing Bulls' announcement that they will be changing the power unit in his car.
Despite his issues, Lawson is ready to roll his sleeves up to try and salvage something come race time.
"Obviously there's overtaking here but it's not super easy especially when everyone's very close, but I'll try my best," he said.
Up ahead, it was landmark day for Lawson's former team mate Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who set the fastest lap in Formula One history to snatch pole position from McLaren's title contender Lando Norris.
Norris had gone top with a final flying lap but Verstappen pulled out a moment of magic to cross the line in one minute 18.792 seconds, 0.077 quicker and at an average speed of 264.681kph.
"Yes guys! That's unbelievable. A really good job. It worked out. It's all good," exclaimed Verstappen over the team radio.
It was the 45th pole of the four-times champion's career, fifth of the campaign and first since Silverstone in July.
He has, however, so far converted only one of this season's poles into victory in the face of McLaren domination.
"I think that final lap was pretty decent," Verstappen told reporters later. "To get pole here for us is big. It's not always been a good track for us, especially last year was quite a bit of a disaster."
The previous fastest lap of 1:18.887 was also set at the 'Temple of Speed' by seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton when he took pole for Mercedes in 2020 at an average 264.362kph.
Norris's final lap of 1:18.869 was also inside Hamilton's old record.
"Max has been quick all weekend and it's never a surprise with Max," said Norris, who was also slower than Verstappen in the first two parts of qualifying and looked in danger of missing the cut in the second phase before moving up to fifth.
"It was quite a session from me, up and down and too many mistakes here and there. But to put it together on the last lap, I was pretty happy with P2 (second)."
McLaren's Australian championship leader Oscar Piastri qualified third and 0.113 slower than Norris, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc - last year's winner at his team's home race - completing the second row.
Lewis Hamilton was fifth fastest for Ferrari but has a grid penalty carried over from last weekend's Dutch Grand Prix that drops him to 10th.
- Reuters
