French Formula One driver Pierre Gasly upset the favourites to grab a stunning career-first pole position with Renault-owned Alpine at the Italian Grand Prix on Saturday.
Gasly, who won at Monza with Red Bull-owned AlphaTauri (now Racing Bulls) in 2020 and lives in nearby Milan, seized pole from Mercedes’s George Russell with his final effort and a lap of one minute 21.786 seconds — 0.060 quicker than the Briton.
“It’s been nine years trying to chase the opportunity to get a pole,” said Gasly, who was the last of the pole contenders to complete his final flying lap. “I won my first race in Monza and got my first pole at this track. It’s something special around here.”
Gasly had already hinted at something special in the earlier
phases, leading Q1 and fourth fastest in Q2, and his mechanics
erupted in jubilation as the pole was confirmed — a day after
he had been stripped of third place at last June’s Monaco Grand
Prix.
The pole was also the first for Renault’s team since they
became Alpine in 2021.
Russell, a title contender, hailed an incredible performance
by the 30-year-old Frenchman in his 190th start.
“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.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri qualified third at the ‘Temple of
Speed’ but was then handed a three-place drop for impeding Red
Bull’s Liam Lawson.
That created an all-Ferrari second row with Charles Leclerc,
a two-time winner of his team’s home race, directly behind
Russell and teammate Lewis Hamilton in fourth after the
seven-time world champion had sneaked into the final phase by
the skin of his teeth — 0.001 of a second.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, last year’s race winner, will
line-up fifth with Piastri sixth.
Mercedes’s championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who is 59
points clear of Russell and Hamilton, qualified seventh but will
go to the back due to engine penalties.
That lifted Alpine’s Franco Colapinto to seventh instead
with McLaren’s reigning world champion Lando Norris, winner of
the previous two races, eighth on the grid.
Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto
completed the top 10.
Sunday is Russell’s big opportunity to cut the gap to
Antonelli, although he too will have to take a similar engine
penalty later in the season and probably in Azerbaijan later
this month.
Antonelli obeyed orders and did his best to help Russell by
providing a tow but will be champing for points, even if a
podium looks a long shot too far.
Monza is the fastest track on the calendar, with
slipstreaming opportunities and chances to overtake, and how
long Gasly can stay ahead is the big question even if he does
have a car with the same Mercedes engine.
Russell was on provisional pole after the first flying laps,
with Gasly only third, and team boss Toto Wolff suggested
Verstappen had cost him the fraction of a second needed.
“You always need to take everybody seriously. They (Alpine)
have a huge amount of straight-line speed. They’ve taken away a
lot of drag and on a single lap, that proved to be what is
necessary,” said Wolff. “The race is a completely different ball
game, so we shall see.”
The main drama before the final seconds was caused by
Hamilton, still outside the top 10 with three minutes to go in
Q2 before hauling himself to safety while Bortoleto missed out
by the slimmest of margins.
Ferrari fans gathered in their tens of thousands around the
circuit breathed a sigh of relief but Saturday already looked
like damage limitation for the Italian team, with hopes of doing
better on Sunday.
Source: Khaleej Times