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Hello and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by me, Ben Hocking, reviewing the Italian Grand Prix qualifying session that has just finished.

Oh boy, I do love me an Italian Grand Prix qualifying. I think it's right up there with one of the best Saturdays that we get throughout the season.

Maybe Max Verstappen agrees with me because he has taken pole position for tomorrow's race.

Oh, and he set a best lap ever in the history of F1 as well, just to add that in there as well.

But the result is the most important thing here.

That's what he's achieved, pole position ahead of the two McLarence, Lando Norris in second, Oscar Piastri in third.

A little bit of a Noah's arc emerging behind Max Verstappen, as we've got both Ferraris'

Fourth and Fifth, although they won't stay there due to Lewis Hamilton's penalty,

and George Russell and Kimmy Antonelli and the Mercedes sixth and seventh.

But plenty more going on outside of the top ten as well.

But we'll start right at the top because that lap from Max Verstappen deserves adulation.

And that's exactly what it's going to get on this episode.

We saw, I think going into this qualifying session, the McLaren's haven't been vulnerable

many times so far this year.

And hey, they've ended up with a second and third place finish, so it's far from a disaster

for them.

But I think we felt going into this session that it wasn't going to be as routine as it has

been recently for that papaya duo.

We've seen with some of the high-down force tracks, particularly Zambort last time out,

and we've had it earlier on in the season as well.

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