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52 Sport maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 SEPTEMBER 2015 FORMULA 1 Lewis Hamilton beats Ferraris to Monza pole Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton will start the Formula 1 Gran Premio d'Italia 2015 from pole position after beating Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by just over two-tenths of a second in qualifying at Monza yesterday. It was Hamilton's seventh consecutive pole and his 11th of the season RAIKKONEN edged Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel by just five-hundredths of a second, with the second Mercedes of Nico Rosberg - handicapped by having to revert to an old-spec engine after a problem in FP3 - fourth. The Williams of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas will form the third row, followed by the Force India of Sergio Perez and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean. Nico Hulkenberg was hit by technical woes in the second Force India and finished ninth, with Sauber's Marcus Ericsson - under inves- tigation for allegedly blocking Hulkenberg in Q1 - completing the top ten. Q1 began with Hamilton, on the medium tyres, easily head- ing team mate Rosberg by 0.358s, with 1m 24.251s to the German's 1m 24.602s. Elsewhere there was minor drama at the end of the segment as Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso parted company with its engine cover just moments af- ter leaving the pits for his first lap of the session. The Dutchman's mechanics, battling technical problems on the STR10, had al- ready lost their race against time to get Verstappen out for a f lying lap, and he was the only driver not to get a time on the board - meaning he failed to reach Q2 for the first time in his brief F1 career. By then, Jenson Button had pipped McLaren team mate Fern- ando Alonso with 1m 26.058s to 1m 26.154s, but both failed to make the Q2 cut, as Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat squeaked through in 15th on 1m 25.742s. Team mate Ricciardo also only narrow- ly made it out of Q1, his crew on- ly completing at the last minute a post-FP3 engine change after his new unit from Friday failed. The Marussias of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi were closely matched on 1m 27.731s and 1m 27.912s, and were 18th and 19th. Having topped all three prac- tice sessions and Q1, Hamilton was again quickest in Q2, lapping in a superb 1m 23.383s. Everyone used softs, but there was huge excitement from the Tifosi when Vettel went second on 1m 23.757s and then Raikkonen beat that with 1m 23.577s. Rosberg was down in fourth on 1m 23.864s. Hulkenberg was 10th on 1m 24.510s, which left Pastor Mal- donado as the first to be knocked out, with 1m 24.525s for Lotus. Felipe Nasr also failed to make the cut for Sauber with 1m 24.898s, leaving Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz and Kvyat to do token laps of 1m 25.618s and 1m 25.796s apiece. Ricciardo chose not to run, com- pleting a nightmare session for the Red Bull branded cars. Q3 was thus set to be a Mer- cedes v Ferrari battle. Hamilton began by lapping in 1m 23.397s, but Vettel jumped to P2 with 1m 23.705s and with Raikkonen third on 1m 23.712s Rosberg found himself also be- hind Massa's Williams. The Bra- zilian lapped in 1m 23.940s to the German's 1m 23.942s. Despite setting new fastest times in the second and third sectors on his second run, Ham- ilton could not quite recover from a slightly slower first one, but his 1m 23.397s was good enough for pole. Vettel improved to 1m 23.685s, but was beaten to second when Raikkonen did 1m 23.631s. That left Rosberg fourth as he improved to 1m 23.703s, and Massa failed to go faster. Bottas was sixth in the other Williams on 1m 24.127s, from Pe- rez on 1m 24.626s in his sole run, then Grosjean was eighth with 1m 25.054s. Hulkenberg looked good initially, but stopped at the pit lane entry after recording 1m 25.317s as he reported a loss of power in the second VJM08. His time left him ninth, ahead of Ericsson on 1m 26.214s. Qualifying results - 2015 Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. L. Hamilton Mercedes 01:23.397 15 2. K. Raikkonen Ferrari 01:23.631 17 3. S. Vettel Ferrari 01:23.685 20 4. N. Rosberg Mercedes 01:23.703 19 5. F. Massa Williams 01:23.940 19 6. V. Bottas Williams 01:24.127 17 7. S. Perez Force India 01:24.626 19 8. R. Grosjean Lotus 01:25.054 19 9. N. Hulkenberg Force India 01:25.317 18 10. M. Ericsson Sauber 01:26.214 20 11. P. Maldonado Lotus 01:24.525 16 12. F. Nasr Sauber 01:24.898 15 13. C. Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso 01:25.618 10 14. D. Kvyat Red Bull 01:25.796 11 15. D. Ricciardo Red Bull no time 3 16. J. Button McLaren 01:26.058 7 17. F. Alonso McLaren 01:26.154 7 18. W. Stevens Manor 01:27.731 9 19. R. Merhi Manor 01:27.912 9 20. M. Verstappen Toro Rosso no time 1 Ericsson docked three places for impeding SAUBER driver Marcus Ericsson has been given a three-place penalty for the Italian Grand Prix, after he was found guilty of impeding in Satur- day's qualifying session. Ericsson, preparing for a hot lap, was seen hampering Force India rival Nico Hülkenberg through the high-speed Parabolica corner during the opening Q1 phase at Monza. Both drivers went on to reach Q3, Hülkenberg tak- ing ninth after losing power and stopping at the pit entry, and Ericsson placing 10th, having opted for just one timed run. Stewards announced that they would be investigating the incident at the end of qualifying and, after assess- ing television footage and da- ta, handed Ericsson a three- place drop. Ericsson will thus drop to 13th position for Sunday's race, in turn promoting Lo- tus driver Pastor Maldonado, team-mate Felipe Nasr and Manor Marussia's Will Ste- vens. Ericsson was also hit with two penalty points, raising his total to seven. Lewis Hamilton Marcus Ericsson