Pierre Gasly delivered a stunning performance at the Italian Grand Prix, securing his inaugural Formula 1 pole position and surprising the usual front‑runners at the high‑speed circuit of Monza. The Alpine driver, who had just seen his podium finish from the Monaco Grand Prix stripped away for a second time following a court decision, turned the tables in qualifying by turning his car into the fastest on the track. Going into the final segment of the session, Q3, Gasly was sitting third on the leaderboard. Rather than trying to improve early, he held back his ultimate lap for the very end of the session.
When the clock ticked down, he unleashed a blistering final lap of 1:21.786, eclipsing provisional pole‑sitter George Russell by 0.060 seconds and claiming the top spot on the grid. This achievement is particularly noteworthy because it arrives in Gasly’s 190th Grand Prix start, six years after his lone career victory – also at Monza – which came under equally improbable circumstances while he was driving for AlphaTauri.
The pole is the first ever for the Alpine brand in Formula 1 and marks the first pole for the Renault‑owned Enstone outfit since 2009. Russell, who had led the session early on, described his final lap as "messy" after being held up by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Despite missing pole, the British driver will still line up on the front row in second place.
His teammate, championship‑leading Kimi Antonelli, will be forced to start from the back of the grid after incurring an engine‑change penalty, a setback that will see him drop well down the order regardless of his qualifying position. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri originally qualified third but received a three‑place grid penalty for obstructing Red Bull’s Liam Lawson in Q2. Consequently, Piastri will start from sixth. This penalty promotes Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to the third and fourth spots on the grid, with Verstappen moving into fifth.
Both Ferraris will therefore occupy the second row, even though their qualifying pace fell short of the pole‑winning expectations many had for the Scuderia. The top ten after all penalties were applied looks as follows: 1) Pierre Gasly (Alpine), 2) George Russell (Mercedes), 3) Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – after penalty, 4) Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 5) Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), 6) Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 7) Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) – will start at the back, 8) Franco Colapinto (Alpine), 9) Lando Norris (McLaren), 10) Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls). The list also notes that Bortoleto missed the top ten by a razor‑thin 0.001 seconds, finishing just behind Hamilton in Q2. Lando Norris, the reigning champion, qualified only ninth after a chaotic final lap in Q3.
He lost a tow from Piastri when the latter made a mistake at the first chicane, but he will still move up to eighth thanks to Antonelli’s penalty. With the championship leader forced to the back of the grid, Alpine’s second driver, Franco Colapinto, will start seventh, followed by Norris in eighth and Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad in ninth. Gabriel Bortoleto will round out the top ten. The road to this pole was not smooth for Gasly.
Earlier in the weekend, the FIA’s International Court of Appeal reinstated the pit‑lane speeding penalties from Monaco, dropping his Monaco result from third to seventh for the second time. The reversal could have demoralised the Frenchman, but instead it seemed to fuel his determination. Alpine’s season this year has improved dramatically compared to 2025, when the team finished at the very bottom of the constructors’ standings.
Yet, until Saturday’s qualifying, the team had never started a race higher than seventh on the grid. In the final practice session, Gasly was ninth fastest, about six‑tenths of a second off Russell’s benchmark, but the Alpine A526, powered by a Mercedes engine, suddenly looked like a pole contender when the qualifying tyres came on. The team appears to have refined the car’s rear‑wing configuration for Monza’s ultra‑fast layout, allowing Gasly to top the timesheets in Q1 and then post a solid fourth‑place time in Q2, staying ahead of the pole favourite Russell. In the opening minutes of Q3, Russell set the fastest time, but Gasly remained within striking distance, only 0.072 seconds off the lead and firmly in the mix.
The decisive moment arrived on Gasly’s final run. While Piastri compromised his own pole chance by locking up at the first chicane, and Russell’s warm‑up lap was disrupted, Gasly seized the opportunity, delivering a flawless lap that vaulted him into first place. The Alpine garage erupted in celebration as Gasly’s radio transmission captured his excitement: "Yessssss! Let's go.
I've been waiting for that one!" In the post‑qualifying interview, Gasly reflected on the significance of the achievement: "From the first lap in Q1 I felt very good in the car. I tried to chip away a little bit each 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 now I have my first pole at this track.
It's something special around here." Russell offered his congratulations, adding a personal anecdote: "Massive congrats to Pierre. That's an incredible performance. We were finishing a game of chess about 15 minutes before qualifying and he beat me there and I thought, ‘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 not to get pole, 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’s pole also marks a historic moment for French drivers in Formula 1.
He is the first Frenchman to claim a pole since Jean Alesi, who did so for Benetton – a predecessor of the Alpine team – at Monza in 1997. The weekend schedule continues with the F3 Feature Race at 7:10 am, the F2 Feature Race at 8:40 am, the Porsche Supercup at 10:40 am, followed by the build‑up to the Grand Prix. The Italian Grand Prix itself starts at 2:00 pm, with the chequered flag expected at 4:00 pm, and post‑race analysis and commentary slated for the evening.
The race will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1, with streaming available via NOW without a long‑term contract.