Lewis Hamilton says he doesn’t know where Red Bull’s pace came from to allow Max Verstappen to challenge Mercedes in Friday’s qualifying session at the Italian Grand Prix. Qualifying on Friday sets the starting order for Saturday’s Sprint — an 18-lap race that will then deliver the grid for the grand prix — and Mercedes looked the class of the field throughout. However, on the first runs in Q3 Hamilton was on provisional pole by just 0.017s over Verstappen, and although he extended that advantage to 0.3s on the final lap, with Valtteri Bottas even quicker, Hamilton was surprised by Red Bull’s performance.
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