Pierre Gasly delivered a stunning performance at Monza, clinching his maiden pole position in Formula 1 and upending the usual front‑running order. The Alpine driver, who had just seen his podium from the Monaco Grand Prix stripped away by a court decision, turned heads by posting the fastest time in the final qualifying session.
Heading into the last segment of Q3, Gasly was sitting third on the board, but he held back his best lap for the very end, overtaking provisional pole‑sitter George Russell with a blistering 1:21.786 on his final lap. This marked his first pole in his 190th Grand Prix start, a milestone that arrived six years after his sole race victory – also at Monza – which he achieved under similarly unlikely circumstances while driving for AlphaTauri. The achievement is historic for Alpine, representing the team’s first pole since its re‑branding from Renault and the first for the Enstone outfit since 2009.
Russell, who had led much of the session, was left to rue a "messy" final lap that saw him lose out by just 0.060 seconds. Nevertheless, the British driver will line up alongside Gasly on the front row, while his teammate Kimi Antonelli is destined to start from the back of the grid after incurring a penalty for an engine change.
Antonelli, who had assisted Russell with a tow during qualifying, qualified seventh but was already aware that the penalty would drop him to the rear regardless of his position. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri originally qualified third, but a three‑place grid drop for obstructing Red Bull’s Liam Lawson in Q2 pushed him back to sixth. This reshuffle promoted Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to the third and fourth spots on the grid, with Max Verstappen slipping to fifth. Both Ferraris will start on the second row despite a qualifying session that fell short of the pole‑winning pace many had expected.
The Scuderia had been fortunate to secure both cars inside the top ten after Audi rookie Gabriel Bortoleto missed the top ten by a mere 0.001 seconds, finishing just behind Hamilton in Q2, while Leclerc had been ninth. The provisional top‑ten after qualifying looked like this: 1) Pierre Gasly (Alpine), 2) George Russell (Mercedes), 3) Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – subject to a three‑place penalty, 4) Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 5) Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), 6) Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 7) Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) – to drop to the back, 8) Franco Colapinto (Alpine), 9) Lando Norris (McLaren), 10) Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls). After the penalties, the final grid order shifted accordingly, with Norris moving up to eighth after losing a tow on his final lap due to an error by Piastri at the first chicane. The weekend’s drama was amplified by the earlier news that the FIA’s International Court of Appeal had reinstated Gasly’s pit‑lane speeding penalty from Monaco, demoting his result from third to seventh – a decision that had been reversed once before.
Overcoming that setback to claim pole was a narrative few could have predicted. Alpine’s 2026 campaign has already shown a marked improvement over the dismal 2025 season, when the team finished at the bottom of the standings, but until this Saturday they had never started a race higher than seventh on the grid. In practice, Gasly was only ninth fastest, a full 0.6 seconds off Russell’s benchmark, yet the Alpine A526, powered by a Mercedes engine, appeared to find a new level of performance when the rear‑wing configuration was adjusted for Monza’s high‑speed layout. Gasly topped the first qualifying segment (Q1) and continued his momentum by finishing fourth in Q2, staying ahead of the pole favourite Russell.
In the opening runs of Q3, Russell set the quickest time, but Gasly lingered close behind, just 0.072 seconds off the leader’s pace. The decisive moment arrived on Gasly’s final lap.
While Piastri locked up at the first chicane, compromising his own chance, and Russell’s warm‑up lap was disrupted, Gasly seized the opportunity and posted the fastest time, clinching pole. The Alpine garage erupted in celebration as the Frenchman shouted into the team radio, "Yessssss! Let's go. I've been waiting for that one!" In his 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." George Russell paid tribute to his rival, noting that Gasly had also beaten him at a game of chess shortly before qualifying.
"Massive congrats to Pierre. That's an incredible performance," Russell said.
"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 marks the first time a French driver has topped a Formula 1 qualifying session since Jean Alesi secured pole for Benetton – a predecessor of the Alpine team – at Monza in 1997. The result adds another chapter to the storied history of the Italian Grand Prix, a race that traditionally showcases Ferrari’s home‑track advantage but, this year, highlighted Alpine’s resurgence and the unpredictable nature of motorsport.
The race weekend schedule includes a Formula 3 feature race at 7:10 am, a Formula 2 feature at 8:40 am, the Porsche Supercup at 10:40 am, followed by the main Grand Prix event at 2:00 pm, with post‑race analysis and reactions later in the afternoon. Fans can watch the action live on Sky Sports F1 or stream via NOW, with flexible subscription options.