ROME (AFP) - Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took pole position at the Italian Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Cheered by the enthusiastic tifosi, Leclerc beat world championship leader Max Verstappen of Red Bull by 0.145 seconds.
Verstappen, who is one of nine drivers to have a grid penalty, will be demoted to seventh place on the grid.
Mercedes driver George Russell, who qualified sixth fastest, will start second ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, who qualified third, fourth and fifth, all drop down the grid with larger penalties than Verstappen.
Sainz and Hamilton will start 18th and 19th after penalties for using too many engine parts sent them to the back of the grid.
Perez, with a lesser penalty for taking fewer new engine components, will start 13th.
Leclerc’s pole is Ferrari’s first at their home race since the Monegasque managed the feat in 2019.
Then, Leclerc went on to hold off Hamilton to win the race, and this year he may well face the same struggle with Verstappen, who is widely expected to move up quickly from his starting slot, as he has done so many times this year already.
Verstappen won in Hungary from 10th on the grid, and in Belgium from 14th.
Leclerc said: “It’s amazing. It wasn’t an easy qualifying session. I knew there was quite a bit of potential in the car but I didn’t manage to put everything together, and on the last lap I managed to do it.
“The car has been feeling great all weekend and I really hope I can finish like in 2019.”
Verstappen, who is 109 points clear of Leclerc and on course to win a second title within the next two or three races, said: “The lap was pretty decent, just the first sector we seemed to be a little bit slow - a bit of straight-line speed, a bit of not finding the grip. But the rest of the lap felt pretty strong.
On the prospect of Verstappen winning, Russell said: “You’d have to be pretty stupid to bet against it. He just has to keep his nose clean in the first few laps and he will cruise to victory. We’ll be trying to finish ahead of Charles. That will be an exciting race.”
Mercedes were in the fight for both pole and victory in the Netherlands a week ago, but qualified more than 1.5secs off the pace at Monza, where the track’s high-speed characteristics do not suit their car.