Formula 1 in Italy
Record qualification from Verstappen: World Champion Foppt McLaren
Updated on 06.09.2025 – 5:20 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The qualification for the traditional race in Monza becomes a hot fight for first place. In the end, the world champion prevails – in a dramatic finish. A young star, on the other hand, experiences a bitter disappointment.
A signal to McLaren’s overwhelming competition: Max Verstappen has secured the pole position at the Grand Prix of Italy. The Red Bull driver and reigning world champion prevailed in the qualifying of Monza on Saturday with the fastest time and starts at the traditional race on Sunday (from 3 p.m. in the live ticker at T-online).
Even more: With 1: 18: 792 minutes, the Dutch set up a new route record on his last qualifying round and displaced McLaren-Rival Lando Norris in second place. Third was Norris’ World Cup-leading teammate Oscar Piatri, who leads 34 points in front of Norris in the classification.
The only German in the driver’s field did his best: Nico Hülkenberg drove to twelve in clean-his second best qualification result of the season.
A surprise driver of the past week, on the other hand, experienced a bitter disappointment: Isack Hadjar was already out in the first qualifying section. At the Netherlands’ Grand Prix, the young RB driver had sensationally finished third.
“It was tight, we actually lacked a bit before qualifying, but we made a few more important changes,” said Verstappen: “Let’s see what is possible, so far the race has always been a little more difficult than qualifying.”
Only in places four and five did the Ferrari pilots Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton sort themselves. Based on a five-placed penalty from the previous race weekend, Hamilton will only start from tenth.
Lecler in particular had previously worked like a candidate for the pole position in the training sessions, but this went to Verstappen, which, as is so often the case, increased from unity. He conquered the first place in a Grand Prix for the 45th time – in this statistics he exceeded the previous record at Red Bull Racing, which Sebastian Vettel had held.