Pierre Gasly delivered the big shock in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix and put Alpine on pole at Monza, achieving it with a time of 1:21.789. George Russell was second and Oscar Piastri third, while Ferrari struggled to get into Q3 and Kimi Antonelli will start last due to his penalty.
Qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix delivered one of the biggest surprises of the season. When everything seemed to point to a new battle between Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull, Pierre Gasly appeared with a completely transformed Alpine and secured pole position at Monza.
The Frenchman will head the grid on Sunday ahead of George Russell and Oscar Piastri, on a day that confirmed the enormous progress of the French team during this weekend.
Gasly was once again the protagonist at Monza, a circuit that holds a special place in his career. In 2020 he achieved his first Formula 1 victory there with AlphaTauri and now, six years later, he surprised everyone again on the same stage, this time with Alpine and achieving the first pole position of his history as an F1 driver.
The result takes on even more importance because the team has been showing a performance leap thanks to the upgrades incorporated into the car, to the point of placing both its drivers among the top ten (Colapinto will start 7th) and achieving a pole that seemed completely out of the predictions before the start of Saturday.
It is worth remembering that the day also had a special meaning for the Frenchman after what happened just a few hours earlier. On Friday, the FIA International Court of Appeal resolved the Monaco Grand Prix case and reinstated the two five second penalties that Gasly had received during that race, so he officially lost the third place he had achieved in the principality.
Isack Hadjar thus recovered the last step of the podium, while Gasly fell to seventh position. The decision came after the appeal filed by McLaren and Red Bull against the previous resolution that had removed the sanctions from the Alpine driver.
The episode also provoked a strong clash between Alpine and McLaren during the Italian Grand Prix activities. Flavio Briatore publicly questioned aspects related to the Court's decision, while Andrea Stella defended McLaren's actions and the legitimacy of the appeal process. Thus, Gasly arrived at Monza qualifying with a particularly intense context around him and ended up responding in the best possible way.
George Russell finished second and once again confirmed Mercedes' strength throughout the weekend. The Briton had led FP2 on Friday and was also fastest in FP3, where he finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Qualifying, however, ended with Gasly breaking the trend and leaving Russell with a front row that still represents a privileged position for Mercedes.
Oscar Piastri completed the top three. The Australian had a complicated qualifying due to different moments in which he lost laps, especially at the first chicane, a problem that accompanied him for much of the session. Even so, he managed to recover at the decisive moment and finished third, just ahead of other protagonists who had shown competitive pace during practice.
Qualifying began with an 18 minute Q1 marked by traffic. As is often the case at Monza, drivers waited until the final minutes to look for their best times and the track ended up completely congested. The need to take advantage of the slipstream and, at the same time, find a free space to complete a fast lap once again generated a difficult situation for everyone.
Among those eliminated were Yuki Tsunoda, Alexander Albon, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Pérez, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Tsunoda's elimination was particularly striking. The Japanese driver had had a complicated Saturday since FP3, in which he could complete very few laps, and that lack of running was reflected in his performance during qualifying.
Lando Norris, meanwhile, started the session with brake problems. The world champion managed to continue and advance, but the issue added uncertainty to a qualifying session in which McLaren needed to confirm the pace shown in recent races.
Q2 was apparently calm until its final minutes, when again all the cars went out to look for a last lap. There, one of the incidents that could bring consequences after the session appeared, Liam Lawson came across Oscar Piastri at the chicane and the McLaren driver would have hindered the Red Bull's lap. The episode remained under analysis and could end with an investigation by the stewards.
Ferrari, moreover, experienced one of its most worrying moments of the weekend. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton reached Q3 practically on the limit, qualifying ninth and tenth respectively.
After the promising 1-2 achieved by Ferrari in FP1 and Hamilton's second place in FP3, the performance of the two cars in this part of qualifying set off alarms in Maranello. The Scuderia had arrived at Monza with high expectations because it was their home race, but Saturday ended up showing more difficulties than expected.
Those eliminated in Q2 were Gabriel Bortoleto, Oliver Bearman, Nico Hülkenberg, Liam Lawson, Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon. The positive note for Alpine was that they managed to place both their cars in Q3 again, something that had not happened since the Miami Grand Prix. The result confirms that the upgrades introduced by the team are producing a significant change in the car's performance.
The final part of qualifying had a particular situation with Kimi Antonelli. The Italian went out on track to do a solo lap and continue exploring the limits of the Mercedes, even knowing that his qualifying result would not modify his situation for the race. Antonelli received a 30 place penalty for the power unit change and, although the grid only has 22 drivers, the penalty is established in that way to contemplate possible additional penalties that other competitors may receive. The final starting position is determined later based on the number of penalty places corresponding to each driver.
In Q3, the drivers again waited until the final minutes to go out. With barely two minutes remaining, practically the entire grid appeared on track to look for the definitive lap. In that scenario, Gasly found the perfect combination and achieved a pole that once again places Alpine at the center of the scene.
For Gasly, the result also has a symbolic weight. Monza was the stage where he achieved his first victory in Formula 1 and now it once again becomes the place of one of the great performances of his career. For Alpine, it represents much more than an isolated qualifying. It is the confirmation that the upgrades introduced in the car may have changed their position within the grid.
The day thus leaves a completely unexpected grid for Sunday. Gasly will start from first position, Russell will accompany him on the front row, and Piastri will start third. Behind them, the usual protagonists will have to recover ground, while Ferrari will have to explain how they went from dominating the first practice to struggling to place both their drivers among the top ten.
And while everyone looks towards Gasly's pole, there will be another inevitable story at the start, Kimi Antonelli will have to fight from the back of the grid in his home Grand Prix, in a race where every position recovered may be decisive for his championship fight.
