STRATEGY: Why might McLaren lose its usual race pace advantage at Monza?

F1 Grand Prix, GP Italy, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

Despise a tyre allocation from the softer end of Pirelli's six-compound range, tyres have shown very little degradation so far this weekend, which could witness McLaren lose its usual competitive advantage.

Max Verstappen will start from pole position to set off in pursuit his first win since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Lando Norris will line up on the first row alongside Verstappen, with his team-mate Oscar Piastri and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc set to form Row 2 on the grid at the Italian Grand Prix.

Reflecting on the qualifying session, Pirelli's Motorsport Director Mario Isola added: "It was again a very closely contested qualifying, with all 20 drivers lapping within just over eight tenths of a second in Q1, while the top ten in Q2 were separated by less than three tenths.

"The final runs in Q3 were thrilling, ending with yet another demonstration of Max Verstappen’s amazing talent. His pole is also significant, as the lap is the fastest ever recorded in Formula 1."

As for the tyres, Pirelli supplied three compound from the softer end of its six-compound range. The C5 tyre is serving as the Soft, the C4 as the Medium and the C3 as the Hard this weekend.

The Friday's practice sessions saw several drivers use one set of hard tyres. In the third free practice session, a further seven drivers - Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly – did at least one proper run on a set of Hards, while Hadjar and the two Aston Martin drivers scrubbed in a set of the C3.

This means Max Verstappen is the only driver to have saved both his sets of the hardest compound for tomorrow’s race.

In contrast, Hadjar has saved two sets of new Mediums, while the Mercedes duo of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell have two, even if they used a set in the first part of Q1, the only drivers to have used anything other than Softs in this session.

"In qualifying, we saw that the Soft was clearly the fastest compound, Isola continued. "Those like the Mercedes duo who ran the Medium were also competitive, indeed Russell was quickest in Q1 on the C4, but that was more down to him feeling more comfortable with a tyre that, while offering less performance, gave the driver more confidence.

"The C5 is a very quick compound but it is not easy to find its peak performance, as was proved by the fact it could produce excellent times even after one or two cool-down laps, or on a second run. This means that once it stabilised, the Soft might give the driver more confidence to push."

In terms of strategy, from the three hours of free practice, Pirelli has come to the conclusion that the Monza round will be a race with only one pit stop.

The Milan-based tyre manufacturer expects the Medium and Hard to be the compounds doing most of the work, offering the best compromise between performance and durability and, between the two there’s not much difference in terms of degradation.

However, the red-walled Soft could also find itself with an important role, especially for drivers able to lengthen the opening stint at least to lap 32, or on the other hand, if there’s a neutralisation towards the end of the race.