Dominating in qualifying, Hamilton achieves his third consecutive pole position at Monza. With five poles at Monza, he equals Senna’s record at this circuit. He set a time almost half a second quicker than teammate Rosberg, who qualified second. Ferrari had a strong session and will line up on the second row of the grid.
Q1
From the start of qualifying, Hamilton was very quick, he set a time of 1:21.854 – the fastest of the weekend up until then. Rosberg was 6 tenths off the pace in second. While Esteban Ocon failed to set a time after an electrical issue, his teammate Wehrlein excelled in Q1 to make it through to the next session.
Both McLarens made it through to Q2, with Kvyat the first to be knocked out in 17th. Nasr and Ericsson finished 18th and 19th respectively with the Renaults of Palmer and Magnussen 20th and 21st.
Q2
Despite most of their rivals setting times on the supersoft tyres, Mercedes were fastest in Q2 on the soft tyres. This means they will start the race on different tyres to the rest of the top ten. Red Bull also attempted to make it through on softs, but had to go back out on the supersofts to prevent being knocked out.
An impressive performance from Gutierrez saw him make it through to Q3 for the first time this year. For Massa, a disappointing lap meant that the failed to reach the final qualifying session. He will start the race in 11th on the grid. Behind him, Grosjean was 12th and Alonso 13th. An impressive session for Wehrlein saw him 14th, ahead of the McLaren of Jenson Button. Carlso Sainz finished the session in 16th position.
Q3
On their initial runs, Hamilton went faster in all three sectors than Rosberg. His time of 1:21.358 was almost 3 tenths of a second quicker than his teammate could manage. In his final run, Rosberg was unable to find more time – whilst Hamilton improved on his lap to go almost 5 tenths faster than second-placed Rosberg.
Behind, Vettel went third fastest, with Raikkonen securing 4th. A strong session for Bottas saw him an impressive fifth, ahead of the two Red Bull drivers. Perez and Hulkenberg finished 8th and 9th for Force India, with Gutierrez rounding out the top ten.
The Grid
Romain Grosjean is the only driver with a grid penalty this weekend, receiving a 5-place grid drop due to a gearbox change after an issue in FP3. Therefore, the provisional grid for the race is:
Hamilton, Rosberg; Vettel, Raikkoneen; Bottas, Ricciardo; Verstappen, Perez; Hulkenberg, Gutierrez; Massa, Alonso; Wehrlein, Button; Sainz, Kvyat; Grosjean, Nasr; Ericsson, Palmer; Magnussen, Ocon.