Gasly shocks Italian GP with maiden pole position

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly has delivered his maiden career pole position at Italian Grand Prix, in a shock qualifying session, beating the Mercedes of George Russell.

Feature image credit: Alpine

At the same venue where Gasly claimed his first-ever Grand Prix victory, for Alpha Tauri at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, the French Alpine driver has finally clinched his maiden pole position at the very same circuit, Monza.

From the outset, it looked like normal business of the weekend would resume with Russell favourite to take the grid’s top position for Sunday’s race. The Briton had improved his lap time to take provisional pole, but on the final run of Q3, Gasly put in the best lap to claim pole position.

The Alpine driver put in a 1 minute and 21.786-second lap around the Italian circuit, pipping Russell by 0.060 seconds in the process, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri rounding out the top three, 0.180 seconds adrift.

However, the McLaren is at risk of a grid drop for allegedly impeding Red Bull Racing’s Liam Lawson, who failed to make it through to Q3 – standing in for the still-injured Isack Hadjar.

On the final runs of Q2, Lawson had just begun his final fast lap with the late runners peeling out of the pit lane in the dying minutes. One driver was Piastri, who had allowed Verstappen to slip through. However, the Australian found himself in the way of Lawson at the opening chicane at turns one and two.

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Even though Piastri moved out of the way at the earliest opportunity, race control still notified they were to investigate his impeding allegation after the session.

If he was to endure a three-place grid penalty, it means the two Ferrari’s of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton would move up to the second row of the grid, in third and fourth respectively, having qualified fourth and fifth.

The Ferrari pair were lucky to make it through to Q3 as Hamilton passed through by the skin of his teeth, beating Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto by 0.001 seconds in Q2. Leclerc and Hamilton narrowly progressed to Q3 after finishing ninth and 10th in the second third of qualifying.

Mercedes’ championship leader, and local hero – in terms of drivers – Kimi Antonelli finished qualifying in seventh, behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in sixth. However, the Italian driver will lose his starting position thanks to a pending grid penalty for exceeding his power unit allocation.

Who qualified where at Italian Grand Prix (excluding pending penalties)

1. Pierre Gasly, Alpine
2. George Russell, Mercedes
3. Oscar Piastri, McLaren
4. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
5. Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
7. Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
8. Franco Colapinto, Alpine
9. Lando Norris, McLaren
10. Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls
11. Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi
12. Oliver Bearman, Haas
13. Nico Hulkenberg, Audi
14. Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing
15. Carlos Sainz, Williams
16. Esteban Ocon, Haas
17. Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls
18. Alexander Albon, Williams
19. Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac
20. Sergio Perez, Cadillac
21. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
22. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin 

The Italian Grand Prix will get underway on Sunday afternoon, with the race set to start at 3pm local time.

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.