Vettel records Ferrari’s first ever Q1 exit at Monza

Jamie Woodhouse
Sebastian-Vettel-PA

Sebastian Vettel never held talks over a Mercedes drive with Toto Wolff.

The Monza qualifying farce returned for 2020, and Sebastian Vettel was an early casualty for Ferrari, recording their first ever Monza Q1 exit.

Drivers found themselves in a tight group as they searched for a tow down the main straight to set up the best start for their final flying laps.

But in scenes more common on race day the drivers squabbled down into Turn 1, causing everyone to lose time rather than gain it.

Vettel complained that the Alfa Romeos had overtaken him on the way to the line, and coming out of the opening chicane Vettel was also held up by the Williams of George Russell.

The end result was Vettel finishing the session all the way down in P17, and that Q1 exit was the first for Ferrari at their home race of Monza.

Venting his frustration over team radio, Vettel said: “What a mess. Why did the Alfas have to overtake everybody?

“F**k this sh*t.”

Vettel’s team-mate Charles Leclerc avoided the chaos and was able to improve to P9 and progress to Q2.

Ex-F1 driver Jenson Button was shocked by the Q1 chaos, saying that “all respect has gone” between the competitors.

Vettel said back in the paddock: “The plan was to get a clean lap. That didn’t work out. Too many at the same place. Everyone started to overtake each other which resulted into chaos. I think we should have gone out later.

“The problem is that there were too many cars in the same place on the circuit, then they started overtaking and it was a mess. We came out of the pits at the wrong time, I couldn’t do anything different…”

 

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