{"id":45724,"date":"2026-09-06T13:41:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T13:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/45724\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T13:41:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T13:41:41","slug":"gasly-stuns-monza-again-with-his-first-ever-pole-position-for-f1s-italian-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/45724\/","title":{"rendered":"Gasly stuns Monza again with his first-ever pole position for F1’s Italian GP"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONZA, Italy (AP) \u2014 Alpine\u2019s Pierre Gasly claimed his first-ever pole position in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The F1<\/a> driver seemed as surprised as everyone when he was informed on the team radio that he was fastest immediately after the session.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go! Been waiting for that one!\u201d exclaimed Gasly, who took his only Formula 1 win at Monza in 2020.<\/p>\n

Gasly looked strong throughout the session and finished O.060 seconds ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end it felt like a very good lap but I am so happy, it has been nine years, trying to chase and get the opportunity to get pole position,\u201d said Gasly, who lives in nearby Milan. \u201cTo win my first race in Monza, get my first pole position on this track, it is something special around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell was among drivers to express surprise at Gasly topping the timesheets.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be totally honest I don\u2019t think we thought they were in the fight and it goes to show what a great job he did,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n

Hamilton almost went out in Q2<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri was third-fastest in qualifying but was handed a three-place grid penalty after stewards found the McLaren driver guilty of impeding Red Bull\u2019s Liam Lawson in Q2.<\/p>\n

That promoted Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton<\/a>, with the Ferrari duo \u2014 who have an upgraded engine this weekend \u2014 locking out the second row. There was a scare for the team earlier in its home race as Hamilton only just sneaked into Q3 by one thousandth of a second.<\/p>\n

Lawson\u2019s teammate Max Verstappen also moved up a place, to fifth. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli qualified seventh-fastest but a grid penalty due to a planned engine change means he will start at the back. <\/p>\n

Gasly\u2019s teammate Franco Colapinto moves up to seventh, with defending champion Lando Norris, Arvid Lindblad and Gabriel Bortoleto now rounding out the top 10 on the grid.<\/p>\n

Antonelli is bidding to become F1\u2019s youngest champion. The 20-year-old Italian leads Russell and Hamilton by 59 points, with Norris 24 points further back after winning the past two races \u2014 in Hungary<\/a> and the Netherlands<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Russell also lost to Gasly in chess match<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s race is a golden opportunity for Russell to make up some ground on Antonelli, who was deployed for much of qualifying ahead of his teammate to give him a slipstream.<\/p>\n

Russell called qualifying \u201cscrappy\u201d and said he started his final lap too close to Verstappen, who let Antonelli by to avoid running in clean air.<\/p>\n

Russell also revealed that it was the second time he had lost to Gasly on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cMassive congrats to Pierre because that\u2019s an incredible performance,\u201d Russell said. \u201cWe were actually playing a game of chess about 15 minutes before qualifying and he beat me there and I thought, \u2018Well I think I\u2019ll beat you in qualifying\u2019 and here we are \u2014 he\u2019s ahead of me again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gasly\u2019s pole comes a day after he was stripped of his only podium<\/a> of the season because the FIA\u2019s International Court of Appeal reinstated a penalty he was given at the Monaco Grand Prix in June.<\/p>\n

Monza is a high-speed track and overtaking is relatively easy, giving Russell a chance to get past Gasly in Sunday\u2019s race and Antonelli the opportunity to make up places.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a problem for tomorrow,\u201d Gasly replied when asked if his car\u2019s long-run pace is enough to at least fight for the win.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full auto racing coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONZA, Italy (AP) \u2014 Alpine\u2019s Pierre Gasly claimed his first-ever pole position in qualifying for the Italian Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29389,9380,9599,8997,9381,9598,14149,29388,5825,14363,5,1802,8992,4646,8995,6174,29391,8999,8996,129],"class_list":["post-45724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-arvid-lindblad","tag-auto-racing","tag-automobile-racing","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-formula-one","tag-formula-one-racing","tag-franco-colapinto","tag-gabriel-bortoleto","tag-george-russell","tag-italian-grand-prix","tag-italy","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-lando-norris","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-liam-lawson","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mercedes-f1-team","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-pierre-gasly","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}