Pierre Gasly delivered a stunning performance at the Italian Grand Prix, capturing his maiden pole position in Formula One and sending shockwaves through the Alpine camp and the broader paddock. The French driver, who had seen his podium finish from the Monaco race stripped away by a court decision just a day earlier, turned the tables at Monza by out‑pacing the usual front‑runners throughout the qualifying session. Entering the final segment of qualifying, Q3, Gasly was sitting third on the leaderboard.
Rather than chasing the early leaders, he elected to hold back his quickest lap for the very last run. When the opportunity arrived, he unleashed a blistering lap of 1:21.786, eclipsing provisional pole‑sitter George Russell by a razor‑thin margin of 0.060 seconds and seizing the coveted top spot.
This achievement marked his first pole in a career that has spanned 190 Grand Prix starts, and it came six years after his lone race victory – also at Monza – which he secured under similarly unlikely circumstances while driving for AlphaTauri. The pole also represented a historic milestone for the Alpine brand. It was the first time the team, which operates out of Enstone under Renault ownership, has ever started from pole in Formula One, and it was the first pole for the organization since 2009.
Russell, who had been leading the session before Gasly’s final effort, was left to rue a "messy" final lap that was disrupted by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Despite missing out on pole, the Mercedes driver will line up second on the grid, joining his teammate Kimi Antonelli, who will be relegated to the back of the field because of an engine‑change penalty. Antonelli, who had given Russell a tow during the session, qualified seventh but was aware that the penalty would force him to start from the rear regardless of his position. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri initially qualified third, but a three‑place grid drop for impeding Red Bull’s Liam Lawson in Q2 saw him start from sixth.
This penalty promoted Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to the third and fourth slots, with Verstappen moving into fifth. Both Ferraris will therefore occupy the second row, despite a qualifying day that fell short of the pole‑winning pace the team had hoped to display.
Their progress was aided by a narrow escape for Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who missed the top ten by just 0.001 seconds in Q2, leaving Leclerc in ninth place. The final top ten after all penalties were applied looked 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) – penalty, 8) Franco Colapinto (Alpine), 9) Lando Norris (McLaren), 10) Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls). Lando Norris, the reigning champion, had been on a roll with consecutive poles and victories before the summer break, yet he managed only ninth in qualifying.
A late‑stage tow from Piastri was lost when the McLaren driver made a mistake at the first chicane, dropping Norris to eighth after Antonelli’s penalties were applied. The Alpine team’s weekend was a study in resilience. After a Friday in which the FIA’s International Court of Appeal reinstated the pit‑lane speeding penalties from Monaco, dropping Gasly’s earlier third‑place finish to seventh, the prospect of a pole seemed remote.
Alpine, which has dramatically improved from a last‑place finish in 2025, had never started a race higher than seventh before this weekend. Gasly’s pace in the final practice session was modest – ninth fastest, about 0.6 seconds off Russell’s benchmark – but the team’s aerodynamic tweaks, including a reduced rear‑wing angle for the high‑speed Monza circuit, turned the Alpine A526 into a genuine contender. Gasly led the way in Q1, proved his speed in Q2 by finishing fourth, and remained in the mix throughout Q3.
While Russell posted the fastest time early in the final segment, Gasly stayed within striking distance, only 0.072 seconds off the leader. The decisive moment arrived when Piastri locked up at the first chicane, ruining his own pole chances, and Russell’s warm‑up run was compromised.
Gasly seized the moment, delivering a flawless lap that vaulted him into the top spot. The Alpine garage erupted in celebration as the pole was confirmed. An emotional Gasly could be heard on the team radio exclaiming, "Yessssss!
Let's go. I've been waiting for that one!" In his post‑qualifying interview, he 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, 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 his French counterpart, noting that Gasly had also bested him in a game of chess shortly before the session. "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 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’s pole also broke a long French drought at the top of the grid; the last French driver to claim pole was Jean Alesi for Benetton at Monza in 1997, a team that can be considered a predecessor of the modern Alpine outfit. The weekend schedule includes an F3 feature race at 7:10 am, an F2 feature at 8:40 am, a Porsche Supercup race at 10:40 am, followed by the main Grand Prix action. The Italian Grand Prix will start at 2 pm on Sky Sports F1, with live streaming available via NOW without a long‑term contract.