Lando Norris has Italian GP pole in his sights again as Lewis Hamilton calls for 'more juice'

Lando Norris goes into qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix as the man to beat for the second successive weekend after setting the leading time in practice at Monza.

The Briton, who was quickest in all three practice sessions for the Dutch Grand Prix a week ago, but lost out on pole to McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri in Q3, finished with a lap of 1:19.331s.

Championship leader Piastri, who holds a 34-point lead over Norris following the Briton's late retirement at Zandvoort, was third quickest, but 0.165s adrift as the Australian was ousted from second position on the timesheet by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

The Monégasque finished just 0.021s behind Norris, to bring the Tifosi to their feet. Team-mate Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, was left calling for "more juice" from his SF25 - as Leclerc found - as the seven-time F1 champion was only seventh quickest.

Interestingly, the two McLaren drivers ran different front-wing specifications, with Norris' a higher downforce version compared to Piastri, providing him with greater performance through the chicanes, whilst losing out a little on the straights.

Leclerc leaves it late

Under clear blue skies, and with track temperature hitting 40 degrees Celsius, it was not until eight minutes in the session that the first timed lap was set by Alpine's Pierre Gasly, fresh from signing a new contract extension with the team, with a 1:23.965s on the hard tyres.

Naturally, it was only a marker and a time that was quickly lowered, initially by team-mate Franco Colapinto, and then Yuki Tsunoda in his Red Bull, with a 1:21.876s, although it remained quiet on track for the minutes that followed.

As the track action started to intensify, there were early errors from Hamilton, with a right-front lock-up into the first chicane, and Piastri soon after with an oversteer out of it.

They were not the only ones, however, as Williams' Carlos Sainz and Ollie Bearman for Haas were forced to cut across the gravel at the same chicane. Sainz suggested there was a tailwind that had played its part, and he was correct given the northerly direction of the light breeze blowing.

After 20 minutes, the three drivers at the top of the timesheet were all on different compounds, spearheaded by Red Bull's Max Verstappen on the softs with a 1:20.040s, followed by Hamilton on mediums, three-tenths adrift, and then Tsunoda on hards, just over a further tenth back.

On Pirelli's yellow-striped mediums, Leclerc split Verstappen and Hamilton, finishing 0.014s down on the Dutchman.

Unwinding again, however, Verstappen improved to 1:19.688s, as did Hamilton with a 1:20.064s, 0.010s behind Leclerc.

McLaren, meanwhile, opted for hard-tyre running early on, with Piastri and Norris eighth and 16th respectively by the halfway stage.

On another medium run, Hamilton purpled the first sector, and although he lost out in the middle, he still managed to post his first sub-80-second lap this weekend with a 1:19.929s.

With 18 minutes remaining, it was time for the qualifying simulation runs, and Norris immediately went fastest with a 1:19.331s, that proved to be the leader, and that after a slow first sector, followed by Piastri, but a quarter of a second down.

With confidence high after becoming the fifth youngest driver to score a podium last weekend, Isack Hadjar was third quickest early on, just under three-tenths behind Norris.

With 10 minutes remaining, Verstappen jumped to P2, but he was still 0.182s adrift of Norris, who failed to improve on his second run, finishing 0.161s slower.

The Ferrari fans had to wait until the closing minutes for Leclerc and Hamilton to emerge on the softs, and the first flyer from the former saw him make a mistake out of the second Lesmo, doing enough to avoid losing the car.

At a point when Piastri grabbed the second fastest time, 0.165s behind Norris, Hamilton set the sixth best lap of the session, only to drop a place courtesy of Leclerc's late run that elevated him from 11th to second.

Behind the top three, Verstappen had to settle for fourth, and ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Gabriel Bortoleto in his Sauber, followed by Hamilton and Hadjar.

Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli was ninth quickest, a third of a second down, with Williams' Alex Albon completing the top 10.

Haas' Esteban Ocon was the slowest with a time that meant all 20 drivers were within a second.