Max Verstappen Takes Monza Pole With Fastest Lap In F1's 75-Year History
Verstappen put his Red Bull just ahead of both McLarens
Max Verstappen has done a lot in his Formula 1 career, and he just added the fastest single lap in F1 history to his list of accolades.
Formula 1 is at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix, and qualifying for this race is always really interesting. "The Temple of Speed," as it's known, hosts Ferrari's home race, and it's the lowest downforce track on the calendar. This means that teams strip away as much downforce as they can from their cars to increase straight-line speed.
On top of this, getting a good tow from another car can make or break a session if a team doesn't do a good job of getting their drivers out on track in the right spot.
Red Bull's 4-time world champ finished P4 in Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 3, so it appeared that Red Bull might have the pace to compete for pole.
In Q3, Verstappen was on provisional pole ahead of the final flying laps. McLaren's Lando Norris then took that top spot from him, leading to some celebrations at McLaren.
However, Verstappen wasn't far behind and took pole back from Norris and did so with the fastest lap by average speed in the series' 75-year history.
Verstappen's lap time of 1:18.792 around the 5.793 km (3.6 miles) circuit equates to an average speed of 264.68 kph or around 164.46 mph.
That is fast.
Unfortunately for Red Bull, Verstappen's teammate Yuki Tsunoda will start down in P9 (after qualifying P10). This puts them at a strategic disadvantage to the McLarens, which will start behind Verstappen in P2 and P3, and we should expect solid race pace from them as we have all season.
Behind them, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton qualified in P4 and P5, respectively; however, Hamilton must serve a five-place grid penalty he was assessed during the previous race weekend in Zandvoort and will start in P10.