Italian GP Qualifying: Pierre Gasly claims shock first pole position to beat George Russell to head of Monza grid for Alpine
Alpine's Pierre Gasly upstages the title contenders to deliver his first pole in F1 after almost 200 races; Mercedes' George Russell second with Ferraris promoted by Oscar Piastri penalty; watch the Italian GP live on Sunday at 2pm (build-up from 12.30pm) on Sky Sports F1
Saturday 5 September 2026 19:21, UK
Pierre Gasly produced a sensational performance to claim his first career pole position in F1 as the Alpine driver stunned the grid's usual frontrunners at the Italian Grand Prix.
A day after losing his podium finish from June's Monaco Grand Prix for a second time after a court ruling, Gasly was unexpectedly a threat at the front throughout qualifying at high-speed Monza.
The Frenchman was third on the timesheet heading into the final Q3 runs before saving his best until last to usurp provisional polesitter George Russell and take the coveted top spot with a surging final lap of 1:21.786.
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Gasly's first pole in F1, for his 190th race, comes six years after he claimed what stands as his sole career win, also at Monza, which was achieved in similarly unlikely circumstances for AlphaTauri.
It is the first pole position in F1 for the Alpine name and a first for the Renault-owned Enstone team since 2009.
Russell was left to rue a "messy" start to his final lap behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen and he missed out on pole by 0.060s.
But the Briton still starts on the front row in second for a race in which championship-leading team-mate Kimi Antonelli will start among the grid's back rows due to engine-change penalties.
Antonelli, who helped Russell with a tow during qualifying, took seventh but always knew he would drop to the back wherever he qualified.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri qualified third but was handed a three-place grid penalty after the session for blocking Red Bull's Liam Lawson in Q2.
Piastri drops to sixth on Sunday's grid as a result with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton promoted to third and fourth respectively, with Verstappen into fifth.
Both Ferraris will now start on the second row despite a difficult qualifying session in which their expected pole-contending pace never materialised.
Indeed, the Scuderia had been fortunate to get both cars into the top 10 at all after Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto finished just 0.001s behind 10th-fastest Hamilton at the end of Q2. Leclerc had been ninth.
After consecutive poles and race wins either side of the summer break, reigning champion Lando Norris qualified only ninth.
The Briton was shorn of a tow on his final lap of Q3 after a Piastri error at the first chicane in front of him, although moves up to eighth on the grid owing to Antonelli's penalties.
With the championship leader dropping to the back, Gasly's Alpine team-mate Franco Colapinto takes over seventh with Norris eighth and Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad ninth. Bortoleto ends up 10th.
Gasly delivers qualifying shock for the ages at the Temple of Speed
After the frustration of Friday - when Gasly and Alpine learned from the FIA's International Court of Appeal that his pit-lane speeding penalties from June's Monaco race would be reapplied and so he would drop from third to seventh in a result revised for the second time - the prospect of them delivering such an eye-catching response on track would have appeared far-fetched.
Alpine are enjoying a much-improved season compared to 2025, when they finished last in the standings, but until Saturday had not started a race higher than seventh on the grid.
Gasly was ninth fastest in the day's earlier final practice session, six tenths of a second off Russell's benchmark pace, but their Mercedes-engined A526 car was suddenly a pole contender in the Frenchman's hands come qualifying.
With Alpine appearing to have trimmed out the car's rear-wing levels for F1's fastest track, Gasly led the way in Q1 before showing that was no fluke by finishing fourth-fourth in Q2 and still ahead of pole favourite Russell.
The first runs of Q3 then underlined that Gasly was a serious contender. Russell set the quickest time but Gasly remained right in the mix in third, just 0.072s behind.
The final run then played out absolutely perfectly for the Alpine driver. While Piastri blew his pole chance by locking up into the first chicane, and Russell's warm-up for his final attempt was compromised, Gasly seized his chance and jumped ahead of both.
Confirmation of pole triggered scenes of jubilation in the Alpine garage, with an emotional Gasly shouting on team radio: "Yessssss! Let's go. I've been waiting for that one!"
Reflecting on the achievement in his post-qualifying interview, the Frenchman said: "From the first lap in Q1, I felt very good in the car. I tried to chip away a little bit, every single session, and it felt like a very good lap.
"It's been nine years trying to chase the opportunity to get a pole.
"I won my first race in Monza and got my first pole at this track. It's something special around here."
Russell paid tribute to Gasly, revealing that the Frenchman had also beaten him at chess ahead of qualifying.
"Massive congrats to Pierre. That's an incredible performance," said Russell.
"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!
"Huge congrats to him. I was disappointed to not get pole position. It was a bit messy with Verstappen opening the lap, I did the lap very close, but Pierre and Alpine have been super fast."
Gasly is the first Frenchman to claim pole position in the sport since Jean Alesi for Benetton - one of the forerunners of the Alpine team - at Monza in 1997.
Sky Sports F1's Italian GP live schedule
Sunday September 6
7.10am: F3 Feature Race
8.40am: F2 Feature Race
10.40am: Porsche Supercup Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Italian GP build-up
2pm: THE ITALIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: Italian GP reaction
5pm: Ted's Notebook
*also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 is at Monza for Ferrari's home race at the Italian Grand Prix with Sunday's race live at 2pm on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
