Bittersweet qualifying for Red Bull duo

Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were both pleased with their qualifying performances, but they were ultimately in vain given their respective engine grid penalties.

Verstappen qualified P2 at a very wet Monza, once again rising to the occasion once the heavens opened, but is due to start P14 on Sunday after taking on new engine parts.

"It was quite a good qualifying, everything was working well," said Verstappen.

"In Q3 I was maybe not as happy as I was in Q1 and Q2, I was sliding round more, especially in the last sector.

"The final lap was really okay, I heard I was on pole, my engineer was telling me sector times and I said, 'Stop, just tell me what Lewis is doing', and he was going purple.

"At the end of the day, to be second here with the package we have means we did a very good job, it was nice again to drive in the wet."

Ricciardo, meanwhile, was not happy with the lack of grip in the opening stages of qualifying but was happy to make a good recovery to P3, which has converted to P17 after engine penalties were taken into effect.

"In Q1 and Q2 I was nowhere; if you heard my radio, I wasn't too impressed with the level of grip," he said.

"I was struggling with everything, it just felt like the tyres… it was as if we didn't have blankets on, they were cold and slippery.

"We got into Q3, so we were not nowhere, but normally for our competitiveness in the wet we were just struggling.

"In Q3 on extremes on the out lap I had a lot more grip than Q1 and Q2, it was a different car in Q3, I think we topped it, [but] Lewis and Max came through with a charge at the end.

"It was alright in the end, a good recovery, and it's nice to be up here on the Saturday, [but] obviously we're a bit way back tomorrow."