Luke’s Weekend Take – Italian GP 2024

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Norris Secures Pole at Monza: Can McLaren Triumph at the Italian GP?

Monza 2

After a short week we find ourselves back into the action, this time in Italy for Round 16 at the Temple of Speed for the Italian GP at Monza. We Return here after a great race last time out in Zandvoort.

This week we start by mentioning that the track has been resurfaced and the first chicane has been widened a bit and the angle for the corner slightly changed. Ferrari, the home team also bring a substantial upgrade package in the hopes to perform quite well in front of their home crowd. Ferrari also have special race suits and merch as they go in all black with yellow sponsors mimicking the look of Carbon Fibre with the shirts and race suits and the driver numbers on the car has also been changed to Carbon Fibre. Carlos Sainz takes a new Power Unit for his car as well but will not be taking any penalties given that the Power Unit is one of his allowed allocation.

The big news to talk about this weekend is that Logan Sargeant has been let go by Williams and Franco Colapinto will be replacing him for the remainder of the 2024 season. This news came out on Thursday ahead of any practices and it wasn’t that much of a shock given Sargeant’s performance this season so far. It is worth noting that Colapinto will only be driving for this season only given that Williams already have both their seats filled for next year, it will however give him some experience in F1 and also allow him to show other teams as well as Williams so that he could have a future beyond this season.

Looking into FP1 now we see Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes driving instead of George Russell for the free practice. While drivers were getting to grips with the grip level of the newly resurfaced track, we do see a few drivers going straight over the chicane at Turn 1 as everyone is looking to find the perfect braking point for the corner. Antonelli on his first flying lap we see him go top of the leaderboard which is quite refreshing to see a rookie being able to perform straight away. However Antonelli seems to have gotten too confident as on his 2nd timed lap, we see him lose the car at the last corner also named Parabolica similar to the incident the Safety Car had on Thursday during a speed test, yes, the Safety Car was in the barriers on Thursday which is quite a rarity. Antonelli unfortunately ends his session very early as his car seems to go into the corner fine but mid corner the rear snaps and it was a bit too quick for him to properly react and goes straight into the barriers.

The session was Red Flagged until the car was recovered, and the barriers fixed and when the session went green, we see drivers back on track to get back into testing in order to get as much data as possible ahead of the race on Sunday. Mid way through the session we hear Charles Leclerc come on the radio saying that the car is quite tricky to drive which is not the best thing you want to hear after you bring upgrades to a weekend. However they will just have to work on it in order to find the right setup for them. Antonelli wasn’t the only one who had moments in the last corner as we see Carlos Sainz with 20 minutes to go have a little moment, Nico Hulkenberg had the same with 15 minutes left on the clock and finally Sergio Perez also had a bit of a snap with 10 minutes to go. Colapinto had quite a big moment in the closing seconds as we see the yellow flag waved as he goes wide onto the gravel but luckily, he keeps it out of the barriers. Esteban Ocon also had a bit of a spin on Turn 1 as he took too much kerb and bounced his car around but again no damage. At the end of the session we see Max Verstappen topping the leaderboard followed by Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.

Ahead of FP2 we get the news that Haas and Kevin Magnussen get a €7,500 fine for impeding in FP1. FP2 kicks off and we also get news from Red Bull that between the sessions the team decided to take precautionary measures and change Perez’s gearbox as there were some issues that cropped up while Mercedes have been working very hard to get the car repaired and ready for George Russell to go out in FP2 after Antonelli’s crash in FP1. Midway through the session we get another Red Flag as we see Magnussen go nose first into the barriers at the 2nd Lesmo corner as he carries a bit too much speed into it and spins and then goes into the barriers.

After the Red Flag was cleared up, most drivers started running their race simulations to see how the tyres acted on longer stints and with a heavier car. Nothing major happened for the rest of the session however we do hear Russell come on the radio thanking his team for getting the car ready in time and he also reported that his seat was feeling quite hot. At the end of FP2 it was Lewis Hamilton on top followed by Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz.

McLaren Leads the Charge in Qualifying as Norris Grabs Pole at the Temple of Speed

Heading now into the Saturday sessions and we had some more big news as despite the crash on Friday, Andrea Kimi Antonelli was confirmed as a full time driver for the 2025 season replacing Lewis Hamilton. FP3 to start with has been fairly straight forward 20 minutes in most teams were just going through their run plans with no disruptions with only a couple drivers dipping their rear tyres into the gravel at the 2nd Lesmo corner. 22 minutes left to go, and Ferrari are 1-2 with Sainz leading the charge by 0.102 seconds to his teammate Leclerc with Alex Albon in 3rd and Russell and Hamilton in 4th and 5th, however the Mercedes were still only on the medium tyres and only 2-3 tenths off Sainz.

The issues with the seat was still there for Russell as he was on the radio again complaining about it, it seems this is due the car running quite low as later on we also hear Hamilton complain about the seat being hot. Final moments of FP3 and drivers are running their qualifying sims and Red Bull are not in the Top 5 in the closing minutes. With Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari looking strong. At the end we also see Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez noted down to the Stewards for failing to follow the race directors instructions when rejoining the track. In FP3 we see Lewis Hamilton once more top the charts followed by George Russell and Charlese Leclerc forming the top 3. At the end of the session we also see Kevin Magnussen stop on the track as he gets an urgent radio message from his engineer to stop on track, when we cut to his car audio the engine was not sounding healthy at all.

Onto the final session which is qualifying and in Q1 it was surprisingly going all well with the one incident in the pits as we see Oscar Piastri have an unsafe release and nearly crash with Max Verstappen. This was noted down and, in the end, McLaren got fined €10,000 fine for this. At the end of Q1 we see Yellow Flags as well as Kevin Magnussen goes wide in the last corner and goes on the gravel, he was able to keep it out the barriers but given that most drivers were gearing up for one final push lap, the short yellow flag would have hindered them as they wouldn’t be able to go for a push lap. At the end of Q1 we end up losing Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll, Franco Colapinto, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, Colapinto was unlucky as on his final push lap he wend slightly wide in the 2nd Lesmo which lost him a chunk of time.

Due to Magnussen’s untimely trip top the gravel, Q2 was delayed a bit so that the gravel is cleared up from the track. After the 1st runs in Q2 we see Lewis Hamilton fastest followed by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, with Fernando Alonso, Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo in the bottom 5. Also worth noting that Ferrari did their initial run on used softs so their time wouldn’t have been representative. After the 2nd runs in Q2 we do see Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon eliminated from qualifying.

And here we go the final showdown for pole of the Italian GP is on, after the first runs the order was Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen, Nico Hulkenberg and Alex Albon. The main callout here was Verstappen as he was out in 8th place. After the final runs we see Lando Norris securing Pole, followed by Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Alexs Albon and Nico Hulkenberg will form the Top 10 for tomorrow’s race.

Who do you think will come out on top tomorrow in the race? Seems like Norris has got a chance to close in some more on the drivers championship with Max starting in 7th. Will Norris be able to get a good start and hold the lead into Turn 1 or will Piastri or Russell come spoil the fun? Tune in tomorrow to find out.

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