Winners and losers from the 2024 Italian Grand Prix qualifying

Lando Norris has taken pole position ahead of the 2024 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, serving up a big upset to a Ferrari-hungry home crowd — but there was plenty to delve into during this session.

These are our winners and losers for the 2024 Italian Grand Prix qualifying.

Winners and losers from the 2024 Italian Grand Prix qualifying

Winner: Lando Norris

Another pole position for Lando Norris ! We’ll talk about the impressive pace of the McLaren below, but Norris himself has turned into an impressively quick team leader for the team.

So impressive, in fact, that he apologized to his team after the session for failing to set a faster time, not realizing that he was the fastest man in the field — and that he’d topped his pole-setting time with an even faster time.

Now, all Norris has to do is overcome the mental block that seems to have repeatedly tarnished his ability to leap quickly from the pole position — and to avoid colliding with his teammate like he did last year.

Loser: Max Verstappen

Everything that could go wrong for Max Verstappen did go wrong today, starting in the pit lane. In two different sessions, Verstappen was lucky to miss being struck by two different cars — a McLaren first, then a Ferrari — as those cars pulled from their garages. While that should be a “loss” for both the teams that failed to note Verstappen trundling down the pit lane, it very well may have put Verstappen on edge.

Worse, the Dutch driver simply couldn’t find any speed behind the wheel of his RB20 — a car that has slowly eroded pace-wise since the start of 2024. And to add insult to injury, his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez dipped a tire in the gravel just in front of Verstappen, forcing Max to drive through a distracting cloud of dust.

A P7 start isn’t the end of the world for Verstappen, but it’ll make for a challenging uphill battle at a track notorious for challenging overtaking.

Winner: McLaren

Perhaps the biggest storyline of 2024 has been the slow evolution of McLaren developing what has now consistently become the fastest car on the Formula 1 grid. With a front-row lockout at the Italian Grand Prix, the papaya machines are expected to be the class of the field.

It also places the Woking-based team into perfect position to carve away more footing at the gap separating McLaren from Red Bull in the World Constructors’ Championship.

It’ll be the first front-row lockout at Monza for McLaren since 2012 — a formidable life-age ago.

Loser: Ferrari

Both Ferrari drivers will start in the top five for the Italian Grand Prix, but that’s far from what they would have wanted at their home race.

Speaking to media after the session, Charles Leclerc lamented the fact that it appeared as if his Ferrari simply couldn’t find the footing it needed to be competitive on its home turf, being outqualified by both McLarens and the Mercedes of George Russell.

It’s a difficult proposition for a team that brought fresh upgrades in hopes of being competitive at its home race.

More from the Italian Grand Prix:

👉 Five big Italian GP questions: Ferrari’s home chances, Williams’ Colapinto conundrum and more

👉 Italian Grand Prix data: The joker in the McLaren vs Mercedes battle revealed

Winner: George Russell

This weekend, it was clear that pole position would go to a driver from McLaren or Ferrari, but Mercedes’ pace has been particularly questionable all season long. The Brackley team is on the upswing in this latter part of the year, though, and that has largely come down to strong performances from George Russell.

Russell offered a big shock in Q3 by outperforming the fast Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc, taking third position.

That being said, both Mercedes drivers have reported that their seats have been uncomfortably hot this weekend in practice and qualifying. The issue hasn’t cleared up since it first appeared on Friday in FP1; on race day, it might become unbearable as the field runs consistent laps.

Loser: Sauber

Sauber drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were the slowest drivers on the Formula 1 grid, coming in two seconds behind polesitter Lando Norris.

While this lack of pace isn’t particularly shocking, it is growing more concerning. There appears to be something fundamentally amiss with the green machines, and it was only made worse when a local yellow brought out by Kevin Magnussen ruined both of their flying laps.

Both drivers stated to the media after qualifying that they felt their qualifying position was ultimately not representative of the actual pace of their car, but they’ll have an uphill battle proving that on Sunday.

Winner: Franco Colapinto

Brand-new Williams hire Franco Colapinto may not have made it out of Q1, but the Argentine racer has plenty to be proud of in his debut F1 qualifying performance. A P18 start is on par with what outgoing Logan Sargeant would have scored — but Colapinto showed his skill almost immediately by catching his car before it could lose control after he touched a kerb.

No, Colapinto didn’t knock anyone’s socks off with a shockingly great starting position, but he did manage to debut ahead of both Sauber drivers.

Loser: Kevin Magnussen

It’s been a difficult all-around year for Kevin Magnussen, and qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix was another messy on-track run for the Danish driver. As he pushed to set a faster lap, Magnussen ran wide into the gravel and lost pace, then proceeded to drive deeper into the gravel at the Parabolica.

The move brought out a local yellow flag, thus ruining the final flying laps of the drivers behind him, and Magnussen drove back out of the trap and onto the track, covering the track in gravel and delaying the start of Q2.

Yes, Magnussen had already set a fast enough lap to stick his car into Q2, but the absurd error only serves to highlight what has been a truly difficult year for the Haas driver.

He qualified in 13th place for the Italian Grand Prix starting grid.

Read next: Italian GP: Lando Norris grabs pole position with Max Verstappen only P7 in qualifying