Gasly Takes His First Pole in Nine Years at the Circuit Where He Won His Only Race

Pierre Gasly will start the Italian Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday afternoon. He has been in Formula One since 2017 and has never qualified first for anything.

The lap was a 1:21.786. George Russell was six hundredths of a second behind it, Oscar Piastri another twelfth of a second back, then Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton within seven thousandths of each other. Max Verstappen qualified sixth. Lando Norris qualified ninth.

Both Alpines reached the final session, with Franco Colapinto eighth, which is not the normal shape of an Alpine weekend. Gasly is tenth in the drivers standings on 35 points. Kimi Antonelli leads on 242, fifty-nine clear of Russell and Hamilton, who are level on 183. Mercedes have 425 points in the constructors table and Alpine are not in that conversation.

Monza rewards low drag and a tow, and one lap at one circuit is not a change in form. It is also where Gasly won the 2020 race from tenth on the grid, in a car nobody expected to see at the front either.

The race starts at three in the afternoon local time, two in Britain, nine in the evening in Kuala Lumpur.

A pole is worth one place at the first braking zone and nothing after that. The gap he built it on was six hundredths.