Lewis Hamilton stopped the rot of a season threatening to end in a war of words with an impressive pole position for the Italian Grand Prix.
It is seven races – Spain in May – since Hamilton was on the first slot on the Formula One grid but there was no jubilation or histrionics, even though he put Nico Rosberg, his team-mate, behind him. The post-qualifying press conference was a low-key affair, the tension between the Mercedes pair still evident in their body language.
Rosberg will start alongside Hamilton and all eyes will be directed at the first corner tomorrow as they stand on the brakes into the Variante del Rettifilo. Will they be close enough to risk another collision like the one in Belgium a fortnight ago that caused such a furore?
The pair were asked whether the words of the Mercedes management would be ringing in their ears as they went into battle. Hamilton’s answer was curt: “Won’t be ringing in my ears.”
Rosberg, who was forced to apologise for the incident in Spa, said nothing had changed. “The message has been clear and is the same,” Rosberg said. “The message is that we keep on racing.”
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So much rides on this Italian Grand Prix at one of the great cathedrals of motor racing. Monza, set in what was once royal parkland, is fast and furious and will be surrounded by some of the most passionate fans in F1. The scene is set and the drama could be intense.
Not if Hamilton has anything to do with it, though. He needs a clearly dominant performance here to close the 29-point gap to his team-mate in the world championship.
Pole position is only half the job, as Mercedes have proved to their cost of late. Rosberg was on pole at the last two races, Hungary and Belgium, yet Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo capitalised on a faltering Mercedes team to take consecutive victories.
Hamilton, meanwhile, has been sunk in a morass of breakdowns, fires and mishaps – you name it and it has probably happened to him of late, culminating in that incident in Belgium, which yielded second place for Rosberg and zilch for Hamilton.
The stakes are now so high in this contest that Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes Motorsport, perhaps foolishly surmised that one of his two drivers may have to be shown the exit if the team-mates cannot co-operate on the track. Wolff was rowing back on his comments by Friday evening, admitting that this was the worst-case scenario.
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Speculation abounds, though, that Hamilton will not stay with Mercedes if Rosberg wins the world championship. McLaren are hovering in the background and prepared to offer Hamilton a return to the team that groomed him for F1 if it all goes wrong with their German rivals.
Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen have been kept waiting to discover whether they have a future with McLaren, while Ron Dennis, the chief executive, scours the grid for a star name. Hamilton could be that unlikely and unexpected name in the frame.
“No one could have predicted the tension inside Mercedes … we can all imagine a range of scenarios that could see one of those drivers on the market by the end of the year,” Dennis said before qualifying. “We always have the best available drivers.”
There were caveats aplenty and assurances that Button and Magnussen may yet have another year together. There is also the background to Hamilton’s departure, which may prove a stumbling block to both sides. But McLaren are now waiting to discover whether a Hamilton return is feasible or even welcome.
Contract talks will be dispelled from Hamilton’s mind when he sets off from pole tomorrow. Rosberg is the immediate challenge, although he is likely to choose to drive a conservative race after events in Spa.
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The greatest threat may come from Valtteri Bottas, who starts from third alongside Felipe Massa, his Williams team-mate. The Williams cars are fast but have not yet converted speed into victory. Perhaps this is where it happens.
Victory is unlikely to fall to the home side, Ferrari. Fernando Alonso was only seventh quickest with Kimi Raikkonen failing to make the final qualifying session. He starts from 12th – not what was expected with Luca di Montezemolo, the Ferrari president, making his annual visit.
The flick of the hair and the presidential waves were lavish but the bearhug for Alonso spoke volumes about the president’s determination to hang on to the best thing about his team at the moment. They swayed like two drunks in a late-night bar, Di Montezemolo clinging on as though imploring his driver not to defect.
Yet the talk in the Monza paddock was not of Alonso leaving the Scuderia but of Di Montezemolo’s future and whether he any longer had one at the company he has transformed over the past two decades from lame Prancing Horse to magnificent thoroughbred.
Di Montezemolo, who was 67 last week, insisted that he is going nowhere and has told his board that he wants to stay for another three years.
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It seems hard to imagine F1 losing another of its great figureheads, yet the sparse Monza crowds and the lack of a Ferrari fighting for honours spoke volumes of the rapid - hopefully, temporary - fall from grace of one of Italy’s greatest sporting icons.
Qualifying times: 1 L Hamilton (GB, Mercedes) 1min 24.109sec; 2 N Rosberg (Ger, Mercedes) 1:24.383; 3 V Bottas (Fin, Williams) 1:24.697; 4 F Massa (Bra, Williams) 1:24.865; 5 K Magnussen (Den, McLaren) 1:25.314; 6 J Button (GB, McLaren) 1:25.379; 7 F Alonso (Sp, Ferrari) 1:25.430; 8 S Vettel (Ger, Red Bull) 1:25.436; 9 D Ricciardo (Aus, Red Bull) 1:25.709; 10 S Perez (Mex,Force India) 1:25.944; 11 D Kvyat (Rus, Toro Rosso) 1:26.070; 12 K Raikkonen (Fin, Ferrari) 1:26.110; 13 J-E Vergne (Fr,Toro Rosso) 1:26.157; 14 N Huelkenberg (Ger, Force India) 1:26.279; 15 A Sutil (Ger, Sauber) 1:26.588; 16 E Gutierrez (Mex, Sauber) 1:26.692; 17 P Maldonado (Ven, Lotus) 1:27.520; 18 R Grosjean (Fr, Lotus) 1:27.632; 19 K Kobayashi (Jap, Caterham) 1:27.671; 20 J Bianchi (Fr, Marussia) 1:27.738; 21 M Chilton (GB, Marussia) 1:28.247; 22 M Ericsson (Swe, Caterham) 1:28.562.