Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has argued that George Russell was denied pole position for the Italian Grand Prix because Max Verstappen “got done over” him in the final moments of qualifying at Monza. Russell had looked set to fulfill his reputation as the session’s favourite, but his ultimate flying lap was disrupted when the Red Bull driver decelerated in front of both him and his teammate Kimi Antonelli, who was on a separate run to give Russell a slipstream. The Mercedes strategy involved sending the championship‑leading Antonelli out ahead of Russell so that the British driver could benefit from a tow.
Antonelli was serving a penalty for exceeding his allocated engine components for the season and was destined to start from the back of the grid regardless of his qualifying time, making his role purely tactical. By positioning a fast car in front, Mercedes hoped to maximise Russell’s straight‑line speed on the high‑speed Monza circuit. Russell managed to improve his time and briefly set the fastest lap, only to see Alpine’s Pierre Gasly snatch pole in a stunning upset that will be remembered as one of the most surprising qualifying results in recent Formula 1 history.
When Sky Sports F1 asked Wolff whether anything had gone wrong for his driver, the team boss replied: “Yes, at the end he got done over by Max in the final run when launching the lap. It was just too close, and that compromised the lap time and ultimately cost us pole.” At Monza, a clean slipstream can be decisive because the circuit’s long straights reward any extra aerodynamic boost.
Verstappen, after losing contact with the McLarens ahead, tried to create a tow for himself by slowing down in front of the next car. As he braked before the final corner, Antonelli overtook the Red Bull, while Russell stayed directly behind both cars.
The proximity to the leading car for the whole lap can be a double‑edged sword: while a tow can shave tenths off a lap, being too close can also disturb the airflow and reduce down‑force, something Russell felt happened in this case. Russell described the incident: “We had a bit of a mess with Verstappen entering the lap. He wanted the tow, Kimi was there as well, and I did my lap a second and a half behind Max, which wasn’t ideal.” When asked if Mercedes could have avoided the situation, Russell answered, “I think not.
Everything looked fine until we hit Parabolica, Max just slammed on the brakes and didn’t want to be the lead car. You can’t control what other drivers do. Kimi gave me the slipstream perfectly on the first run, but Max’s move made it difficult for Kimi to know what to do as well.
In hindsight maybe we shouldn’t have tried that, but we wanted to give it everything.” Despite the disappointment, Russell remains confident about his chances to close the 59‑point gap to Antonelli in the drivers’ championship. He told Sky Sports F1, “I’m feeling good. The key is a clean start and a clean first lap.
If I’m in the top three or four after the opening laps, I still have a solid shot at victory. That’s the aim.” Verstappen did not comment directly on the Monza incident, but he did acknowledge that his own qualifying performance had been hampered by a mechanical issue that made the car behave like a “kangaroo” over the bumps.
He explained, “Something failed again on the car as soon as I went out for qualifying. It’s an issue we’ve seen more often this year and it costs lap time in the low‑speed sections where the car starts jumping around a lot more than it should. The car isn’t compliant on the kerbs anymore.” He added that the car felt much better in the final practice session, saying, “I was actually very happy with the car in FP3 because we took a big step forward from yesterday. The car was in a much better window, and overall I think today it was in a much better window.” However, he lamented that without ride‑control, the bouncing made consistency impossible: “When you have no ride control and the car is just jumping around like a kangaroo, you can’t be consistent.
It’s a shame not to optimise our performance.” Verstappen qualified sixth but will start fifth after Oscar Piastri received a grid‑penalty for impeding. He concluded with a pragmatic view of the race ahead: “We need to be able to change whatever the part is, because otherwise it’s going to be quite tough to race like that.” The weekend schedule includes an F3 feature race at 7:10 am, an F2 feature at 8:40 am, a Porsche Supercup race at 10:40 am, followed by the Italian Grand Prix build‑up and the main race at 2 pm on Sky Sports F1. The race will be streamed live via NOW, with no contract required and the option to cancel at any time.