Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari on pole position for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix to the delight of the Monza crowd.
Leclerc pulled out all the stops with his final run at the Temple of Speed to send the Tifosi wild, with Max Verstappen having to settle for second.
Verstappen will likely line up in fourth, with the world champion among nine of 20 drivers punished for exceeding their number of allocated engine parts.
Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton qualified third, fourth and fifth respectively, but the trio also face grid sanctions. Hamilton will start from the back after taking on his fourth engine of the season – one more than he is allowed.
George Russell finished sixth but takes advantage of those above being penalised to join Leclerc on the front row. Lando Norris qualified seventh but is set to start third in his McLaren once the grid penalties are applied.
"It’s amazing, it wasn’t an easy qualifying session. I knew there was quite a bit of potential in the car," sad a thrilled Leclerc.
"I knew in this last lap I had to put everything together and I managed to do it. Very happy with the lap, very happy with the performance, the feeling with the car is amazing.
"I just took much more risks, it was the last lap, I knew I had to find a lot of performance there and it worked out."
Hamilton’s yellow 44 on the side of his Mercedes has been turned to black in honour of the Queen, with a plethora of tributes being paid up and down the paddock to the long-serving monarch.
A one-minute silence was staged ahead of practice on Friday, with another to follow on the grid in the moments before Sunday’s race. The Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, will be present for the formalities.
Mattarella, and the majority of the 125,000 fans expected for race day, will be rooting for a Ferrari win with Leclerc out to stop Verstappen’s run of four consecutive victories.
Verstappen is on course to secure his second world title in as many seasons – possibly as early as the next round in Singapore – after winning 10 of the 15 rounds staged so far.
But Leclerc, 109 points behind the Red Bull driver, will be out to restore pride in a season in which Ferrari – through mistakes by man and machine – have failed to deliver upon early promise.
The presence of John Elkann, the CEO of Ferrari, will intensify pressure on the team from Maranello, but Leclerc’s superb lap and Verstappen’s penalty will hand the Monegasque a head-start.
Red Bull’s Verstappen, subjected to a handful of boos by the partisan Italian crowd, said: “Over one lap it may not be the best, but for tomorrow, it can be quite strong.
“It was a good lap, I enjoyed it, and it will be an interesting battle tomorrow. I have to stay out of trouble at the beginning and then work my way forward.”
Nyck de Vries was handed his race debut at the 11th hour after London-born Alex Albon was ruled out for the rest of the weekend with appendicitis.
De Vries, 27, has taken part in three practice sessions this year, most recently with Aston Martin here on Friday.
And the Dutch driver performed commendably on his qualifying debut, qualifying ahead of Nicholas Latifi in the other Williams.
De Vries finished 13th, three places above Latifi, and he will be propelled up the starting order once the grid sanctions are applied.
The Cairo Statement
1: Commit to countering all types of terrorism and extremism in all their manifestations
2: Denounce violence and the rhetoric of hatred
3: Adhere to the full compliance with the Riyadh accord of 2014 and the subsequent meeting and executive procedures approved in 2014 by the GCC
4: Comply with all recommendations of the Summit between the US and Muslim countries held in May 2017 in Saudi Arabia.
5: Refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of countries and of supporting rogue entities.
6: Carry out the responsibility of all the countries with the international community to counter all manifestations of extremism and terrorism that threaten international peace and security
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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%3Cp%3EThe%20UAE%20will%20host%20Scotland%20for%20a%20three-match%20T20I%20series%20at%20the%20Dubai%20International%20Stadium%20next%20month.%3Cbr%3EThe%20two%20sides%20will%20start%20their%20Cricket%20World%20Cup%20League%202%20campaigns%20with%20a%20tri-series%20also%20involving%20Canada%2C%20starting%20on%20January%2029.%3Cbr%3EThat%20series%20will%20be%20followed%20by%20a%20bilateral%20T20%20series%20on%20March%2011%2C%2013%20and%2014.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
