Gasly Claims His First Formula 1 Pole Position at the Italian Grand Prix

Franco Colapinto placed the second Alpine car among the top eight, a result that, with penalties applied to other drivers, left him in seventh place on the final grid. For McLaren, Piastri's penalty also affected Lando Norris's starting position, as he finished ninth in the original qualifying order and will start eighth on Sunday.

Kimi Antonelli qualified among the top seven but will start from the back of the grid due to a component change on his power unit. Antonelli arrives at his home race as the championship leader with a comfortable margin over Russell, and it was precisely he who gave a tow to his teammate on the lap that set Mercedes' provisional pole before Gasly's final run.

Photo By Alpine

Gasly had lost his place among the top three at the Monaco Grand Prix just days earlier, when the FIA International Court of Appeal upheld the penalty he had received in that race. Seven days later came the first pole of his career, at the same circuit where he won his only Formula 1 race in 2020, when he was driving for what was then AlphaTauri. Gasly summed it up as the end of a nine-year pursuit of this position.

For the championship, Antonelli starting from the back gives Russell an opportunity to cut into the 59-point lead his teammate holds over him. Monza offers several slipstream zones for overtaking, and holding the lead at the start will be just the first objective for Gasly and Alpine.

Photo By Alpine

The Italian Grand Prix runs this Sunday over 53 laps of the 5.793-kilometer Autodromo Nazionale Monza circuit, totaling just over 306 kilometers of racing.

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	driver	team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:22.612	1:22.077	1:21.786
2	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:22.779	1:22.161	1:21.846
3	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:22.924	1:22.017	1:21.966
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:22.902	1:22.509	1:22.004
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	1:22.847	1:22.516	1:22.011
6	3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:22.631	1:22.188	1:22.070
7	12	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	1:22.758	1:21.882	1:22.093
8	43	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	1:22.662	1:22.400	1:22.220
9	1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:22.659	1:22.067	1:22.256
10	41	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	1:22.727	1:22.345	1:22.286
11	5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	1:22.946	1:22.517
12	87	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	1:22.906	1:22.756
13	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	1:23.440	1:22.779
14	30	Liam Lawson	Red Bull Racing	1:22.989	1:22.821
15	55	Carlos Sainz	Williams	1:23.616	1:23.453
16	31	Esteban Ocon	Haas F1 Team	1:23.466	1:23.454
17	22	Yuki Tsunoda	Racing Bulls	1:23.755
18	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:24.356
19	77	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	1:24.364
20	11	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	1:24.595
21	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:25.150
22	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:25.222