Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton makes a historical milestone as he becomes the third driver to score 5 pole positions at Monza, along with Ayrton Senna and Juan Manuel Fangio.
“It was poetry in motion – the adrenaline was crazy. I’ve felt good all weekend and it all started with the initial setup from Friday. I’ve been working closely with my engineers and mechanics, taking small steps forward with the balance of the car, and I knew if it all came together then I could do that kind of lap time. It’s a really tough circuit and you have to get everything right, especially the braking zones,” said Hamilton.
Hamilton finished Q3 with a time of 1:21.358 leading Rosberg by 0.2s. Rosberg was unable to challenge the three time world champion’s time. Hamilton finished qualifying with a 1:21.135 beating his teammate by 0.5s.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished the day three tenths from Rosberg, with Vettel’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen in fourth. Valtteri Bottas’ qualified fifth place for Williams, eeking out Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo by just 0.001s.
“Overall it has been a good weekend so far, putting both cars in the second row. I’m sure we can have a good race from there tomorrow. Hopefully we can take the advantage at the start but we have to wait and see. Once the lights go out we hope we can find a good traction which the tires should give us. It’s a long way down to Turn 1 and even if we can try something the race is not one stretch, it’s 53 laps around here,” said Vettel.
Ricciardo’s RedBull teammate Max Verstappen took eighth ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg. Haas F1 driver Esteban Gutierrez ended his day on a good note as he gave Haas their first Q3 appearance.
“We expected to be floating around the top five and we were one thousandth of a second off fifth. It’s a little frustrating but at least there were no major surprises,” said Ricciardo.
“First of all, I have to say thank you to the team,” said Gutierrez. I’m very grateful and proud of them because everybody has done a great job in achieving the consistency that has allowed us to work on the details that make the difference. In qualifying, for the first time we broke the top-10 barrier by getting into Q3.
Williams driver Felipe Massa will have some work to do after finishing 11th in what will be his last Italian Grand Prix after announcing his retirement.
After finishing 12th for Haas F1, Romain Grosjean will have to face a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change after FP3. McLaren-Honda driver Fernando Alonso will start 13th after finishing 0.3s from Q3.
A very impressive Pascal Wehrlein slipped in between the McLarens, finishing 14th, with Carlos Sainz finishing 16th for Toro Rosso, along with his teammate Daniil Kvyat who ended his day 17th.
Saber drivers Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson took 18th and 19th ahead of Jolyon Palmer who qualified 20th, and teammate Kevin Magnussen in 21st for Renault who continue to struggle.
Esteban Ocon will need permission from the stewards to race tomorrow, after failing to set a time in Q1.