2015 ITALIAN GP: HAMILTON FASTEST AGAIN, ANOTHER POLE

Mercedes AMG driver Lewis Hamilton has set pole for the Italian Grand Prix, considerably quicker than his pole time last year of 1:24.109. Hamilton dominated the action in qualifying, setting fastest time in every session at Monza this Saturday. Along with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, he was the only driver in the top 10 of the grid to use just three sets of new soft tyres during qualifying. All the others used four sets, with Hamilton claiming his 11th pole position of the season.

Qualifying at Monza was run in completely dry conditions following some rain in the morning, with ambient temperatures in the region of 26 degrees centigrade and track temperatures peaking at 41 degrees. Mercedes and Ferrari were the only teams to get through Q1 using the medium tyres only, which in free practice were around 1.2 seconds per lap slower than the soft compound around Monza: the fastest track of the year.

From Q2 onwards, all the teams stuck with the soft compound, which the majority of competitors will start the race on tomorrow. A one-stop strategy is expected for most drivers, although a two-stopper is possible as well. With quite a long time loss in the pit lane at Monza, a multiple-stop strategy would favour only the fastest cars, which are able to make up for lost track position by overtaking. However, with the reduced downforce at Monza minimising the effect of the DRS system, overtaking is not necessarily straightforward.

2015 ITALIAN GRAND PRIX - QUALIFYING

 P.     DRIVER             TEAM          TIME        GAP 
 1. Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes AMG   1:23.397
 2. Kimi Raikkonen      Ferrari        1:23.631  +  0.234
 3. Sebastijan Vettel   Ferrari        1:23.685  +  0.288
 4. Nico Rosberg        Mercedes AMG   1:23.703  +  0.306
 5. Felipe Massa        Williams       1:23.940  +  0.543
 6. Valtteri Bottas     Williams       1:24.127  +  0.730
 7. Sergio Perez        Force India    1:24.626  +  1.229
 8. Romain Grosjean     Lotus          1:25.054  +  1.657
 9. Nico Hulkeneberg    Force India    1:25.317  +  1.920
10. Marcus Ericsson     Sauber         1:26.214  +  2.827
    Q2 Fastest time: Lewis Hamilton 1:23.383             
11. Pastor Maldonado    Lotus          1:24.525  +  1.142
12. Felipe Nasr         Sauber         1:24.898  +  1.515
13. Carklos Sainz JR.   Toro Rosso     1:25.618  +  2.235
14. Daniil Kvyat        Red Bull       1:25.796  +  2.413
15. Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull          no time set
    Q1 Fastest time: Lewis Hamilton 1:24.251               
16. Jenson Button       McLaren        1:26.058  +  1.807
17. Fernando Alonso     McLaren        1:26.154  +  1.903
18. Will Stevens        Manor          1:27.731  +  3.480
19. Roberto Merhi       Manor          1:27.912  +  3.661
20. Max Verstappen      Toro Rosso        no time set
    107% time: 1:30.148

* 2014 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG - 1:24.109