Verstappen without a chance

Marko on the Red Bull disaster: “It’s a mystery to us”

Helmut Marko cannot explain the performance in qualifying.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Lando Norris has secured pole position for the Italian Grand Prix ahead of his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri and clearly outpaced Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen. Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko is faced with a conundrum. 

While the Red Bull driver was 0.695 seconds behind in seventh place on the grid in Monza on Saturday, McLaren secured the front row of the grid for Sunday's race (15:00) in a thrilling battle with Mercedes and Ferrari.

For Norris, it was the fifth pole position of his career and the third time in the last four races that the 24-year-old Briton has started from the front of the grid. In the drivers' championship, Zandvoort winner Norris is still 70 points behind Verstappen, who has been winless for five Grand Prix weekends. 

Norris expects an exciting battle
"My lap wasn't great. I'm a bit surprised, but also very happy," said Norris, who could bring excitement back into the championship battle. He is not expecting an easy Grand Prix. "There are a lot of question marks, but also a lot of tension," Norris emphasized with regard to tire wear. "It's going to be a close fight, everything is so close and that's so exciting for Formula 1. We've been waiting a long time for this competition," added Russell with satisfaction.

Lando Norris wants to further close the gap to Verstappen on Sunday.

(Bild: AFP/APA/John THYS)

This puts McLaren in an ideal position to move closer to the Austrian-British team in the constructors' championship, where they are currently 30 points behind Red Bull. Verstappen, however, who won in 2022 and 2023 at the gates of Milan, has a race to catch up. "I had no grip at all on this set of tires, shocking," Verstappen radioed after his first attempt in Q3, in the second attempt he received help from teammate Sergio Perez, who was only just slower in eighth place (+0.735).

Newcomer pays the price
Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko had no explanation for the drop in performance. "What happened there is a mystery to us. Both laps were not good, the car behaved completely differently," said the 81-year-old Styrian on ORF. "Apart from the wing settings, we can't change anything anyway and can only hope that this situation doesn't occur again in the race."

Williams debutant Franco Colapinto, who replaces the sacked US American Logan Sargeant for the remaining nine races of the season, had to make do with 18th place on the grid after a spin in the last fast attempt. "It's part of the development, I still have a lot of things to work on. The race will be a nice practice session with lots of laps in a row to understand the tires better," said the 21-year-old Argentinian.