Alpine's French driver Pierre Gasly grabbed a stunning career first pole position at the Italian GP on Saturday.
Gasly secured pole ahead of Mercedes' George Russell with his final effort and a lap of one minute and 21.786 seconds, which was 0.060 seconds quicker than the Briton.
Gasly was on the mark in the earlier phases, leading Q1 and finishing fourth fastest in Q2. He was the last of the pole contenders to complete his final flying lap.
“It's been nine years trying to chase the opportunity to get a pole,” said Gasly. “I won my first race in Monza and got my first pole at this track. It's something special around here.”
McLaren's Oscar Piastri qualified third and will be in the second row with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton squeezed into the final phase – by just 0.001 of a second – to secure fifth place on the grid, one slot ahead of the Red Bull rival Max Verstappen, last year's race winner.
Mercedes's championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who is 59 points clear of George Russell and Hamilton, qualified seventh but will go to the back due to engine penalties.
Russell lauded an incredible performance by Gasly.
“We were finishing a game of chess about 15 minutes before qualifying and he beat me there and I went 'well, I think I will beat you in qualifying' and here we are, he's ahead of me again,” said the Briton.
“I was disappointed to not get pole position. It was a bit messy with [Max] Verstappen opening the lap, I did the lap very close, but Pierre and Alpine have been super fast.”
Gasly became the first Frenchman to take pole position since Jean Alesi for Benetton at the same race in 1997.
Russell, meanwhile, has an opportunity to close in on teammate Antonelli who received a 30-place grid penalty.
