F1 Paddock Notebook - Italian GP Saturday

Recapping all of the additional news and notes following qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Crash.net F1 Digital Editor Luke Smith brings you his paddock notebook.

- Kimi Raikkonen snapped a 15-month drought without a pole position after charging to top spot in qualifying at Monza on Saturday, marking his first qualifying success since last year’s Monaco Grand Prix. It was only his second pole since France 2008.

- This was Ferrari’s first pole at Monza since Fernando Alonso topped qualifying in 2010, as well being its first front row lock-out since 2000 as Sebastian Vettel qualified P2 on the grid.

- Raikkonen became the fifth different pole-sitter of the year, which stands as the most in any season since 2013 when seven different drivers took pole.

- At 38, Raikkonen is also the oldest pole-sitter in 24 years, since Nigel Mansell grabbed pole in Australia in 1994 at the age of 41.

- It was notably the fastest ever lap in F1 history as Raikkonen broke Juan Pablo Montoya’s record from the 2004 race at Monza. Raikkonen’s lap of 1m19.119s came in at an average speed of 263.587 km/h, or 163.7 mph.

- Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were left to lock out the second row of the grid for Mercedes in P3 and P4 respectively. While Hamilton sat on provisional pole before the final runs, Bottas was never in serious contention for pole. A setup change before FP3 gave the Finn a dip in performance before he moved back to his Friday setup.

- Max Verstappen took on the new C-spec Renault engine ahead of Saturday’s running, but still finished a distant 1.5 seconds off pole. The Red Bull driver said the result was as expected, adding he is ready for a lonely race on Sunday unless incidents bunch the field up, the team seemingly marooned as being third-fastest. Teammate Daniel Ricciardo did not run in Q2 due to his power unit penalty.

- Ricciardo has ran with the C-spec engine all weekend, and said after qualifying he could note a decent performance gain, estimating a gain of around two-tenths of a second. "I believe it still wasn’t optimized on that one lap, but already it felt it kind of torquier," he said. "It keeps going a bit, and pulls a bit harder towards the corner. So it seemed encouraging."

- Carlos Sainz Jr. celebrated his 24th birthday with an impressive run to P7, finishing just behind Romain Grosjean of Haas. Sainz was the only Renault to reach Q3 after Nico Hulkenberg did not run in Q2 as a result of his grid penalty.

- Grosjean was also left to lead Haas’ charge following Kevin Magnussen’s Q2 drop-out, with the Dane losing his final lap after a run-in with Fernando Alonso at Turn 1. Both drivers were adjudged to have impeded one another, prompting the stewards to give no penalty. Magnussen was quick to slam Alonso after the session, claiming the McLaren driver laughed in his face following the incident.

- With Magnussen and Alonso losing their final runs, both Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll benefitted by reaching Q3 for Toro Rosso and Williams respectively. Gasly compared his lap to his stunning charge to P6 on the grid in Bahrain earlier this year, while Stroll said he was “going nuts in my helmet” after giving Williams its first Q3 appearance of the year.

- Sergio Perez and Force India were caught out by the flurry of improvements in Q1 as they stayed in the pits in the closing minutes of the session, only to be shuffled out in P16 by 0.001 seconds. Charles Leclerc of Sauber was another surprise drop-out, finishing a further 0.001 seconds behind in 17th.

- Brendon Hartley was left frustrated after qualifying 18th for Toro Rosso, finishing only one-tenth of a second off teammate Gasly - who would go on to reach Q3 - in the opening session. Hartley claimed to have lost 0.15 seconds at Turn 1 alone.

- The fine margins in Q1 saw just 0.535 seconds cover Esteban Ocon in P7 and Stoffel Vandoorne in P20. Vandoorne struggled to his seventh consecutive Q1 drop-out.

- Kimi Raikkonen was presented the Pirelli Pole Position award by Mick Schumacher, the son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher. Raikkonen’s last pole at Monza came at the expense of Schumacher Sr., beating him by just two-thousandths of a second for McLaren.

- Sauber broke curfew on Friday night in order to rebuild Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber following his FP2 crash, with a new chassis being required. It marked the first time this season the team had broke curfew.

- Lewis Hamilton, Lance Stroll, Brendon Hartley, Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso all have new gearboxes for this event. All are within the regulations, though, meaning no penalties will be triggered.