Mercedes lock out front row in tame Monza qualifying - Hamilton leads the way ahead of his teammate and Williams
Published by Christine
The sun shone over the Italian Monza circuit as qualifying began. Romain Grosjean was left in the garage until the dying minutes of the first session after a fluid leak, and he dropped out - as did Pastor Maldonado whose Lotus developed a gearbox problem. In the second session, the main focus was on Kimi Räikkönen who made a couple of mistakes through the chicanes on two of his flying laps. The Finn ended up qualifying 12th.
Daniil Kvyat was just ahead of him in 11th but the Toro Rosso driver will drop back ten places. Toro Rosso became the first team to have a driver use their sixth engine of the season, which automatically generates the grid drop.
Into the top ten and it was very much team by team, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Nico Rosberg on the front row and Valtteri Bottas ahead of Felipe Massa on the second. McLaren did well to secure the third row, with Kevin Magnussen pipping Jenson Button at the very last minute. Red Bull were down in 8th and 9th, with Sebastian Vettel ahead of Daniel Ricciardo.
