• Source:JND
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Italian Grand Prix: Max Verstappen produced a memorable performance as he reminded the world of his brilliance on Saturday at Monza, creating an all-time record of the fastest lap in F1 history to snatch pole position for the Italian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull champion came up with an incredible and historic final effort of 1:18.792, averaging 264.681kph, to edge McLaren rival Lando Norris by just 0.077 seconds. In doing so, he eclipsed the previous record of 1:18.887, set by Lewis Hamilton in 2020, also at the famed Temple of Speed.

"Yes, guys! That's unbelievable. A really good job. It worked out. It's all good," exclaimed Verstappen over the team radio. Notably, it was the 45th pole of the four-times champion's career, fifth of the campaign and first since Silverstone in July.

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Verstappen, however, has managed to convert only one of this season's poles into victory so far. "I think that final lap was pretty decent," Verstappen told reporters later. "To get a pole here for us is big. It's not always been a good track for us, especially last year was quite a bit of a disaster."

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Norris's final lap of 1:18.869 was also inside Hamilton's old record. "Max has been quick all weekend, and it's never a surprise with Max," said Norris, who was also slower than Verstappen in the first two parts of qualifying and was very close to missing out in the second phase before moving up to fifth.

"It was quite a session from me, up and down and too many mistakes here and there. But to put it together on the last lap, I was pretty happy with P2 (second)."

Oscar Piastri finished third and 0.113 seconds slower than Norris, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, last year's winner at his team's home race, completing the second row.

The much-awaited race on Sunday is going to be another big battle between Piastri and Norris, who is 34 points behind the Australian after the agony of mechanical retirement at last weekend's Dutch Grand Prix.

Piastri went on to mention that this had been a tough lap.

"The result is not a big surprise, but obviously we would have loved to have been a little bit further up," said the winner of seven races so far this year. Interestingly, McLaren has won the last five and has had seven one-two finishes so far.