What an intriguing race we have today. In shock events on Saturday, Pierre Gasly claimed his first Formula One pole position at the 190th time of asking.

Monza is, of course, such a storied venue and only around 10 miles from Gasly’s adopted home in Milan, this will be such a special race for him, but the Alpine driver will be under pressure from the off. It should be noted, though, that Gasly’s only F1 victory came at this track six years ago.

Mercedes made an error that day that cost Lewis Hamilton the victory, with the Brit given a penalty for illegally entering the pit lane. Mercedes and an Englishman were again pipped by Gasly on Saturday in qualifying, with George Russell edged out to second place on the grid, six-hundredths of a second behind the Frenchman. Mercedes’ other driver, the championship leader Kimi Antonelli, will start in 20th having taken a full set of new engine components. But it’s a quick, track and both Mercedes and Antonelli will fancy their chances of flying through the field towards the podium.

A preamble on the Italian Grand Prix would not be complete without a mention of Ferrari. Their will be a raucous home crowd for The Prancing Horse and this is a huge opportunity for Hamilton to close the gap on Antonelli at the top of the standings: the seven-time world champion is trails Antonelli by 59 points with 11 races to come and warned Ferrari that the light of at end of tunnel is “getting dimmer”.

It should be a good’un.

Lights out: 2pm BST.

Italian F1 GP qualifying results

1 Pierre Gasly 🇫🇷 Alpine 1:21.876
2 George Russell 🇬🇧 Mercedes 1:21.846
†3 Oscar Piastri 🇦🇺 McLaren 1:21.966
4 Charles Leclerc 🇲🇨 Ferrari 1:22.004
5 Lewis Hamilton 🇬🇧 Ferrari 1:22.011
6 Max Verstappen 🇳🇱 Red Bull 1:22.070
*7 Kimi Antonelli 🇮🇹 Mercedes 1:22.093
8 Franco Colapinto 🇦🇷 Alpine 1:22.220
9 Lando Norris 🇬🇧 McLaren 1:22.256
10 Arvid Lindblad 🇬🇧 Racing Bulls 1:22.286

Q2 eliminations
11 Gabriel Bortoleto 🇧🇷 Audi 1:22.517
12 Oliver Bearman 🇬🇧 Haas 1:22.756
13 Nico Hülkenberg 🇩🇪 Audi 1:22.779
*††14 Liam Lawson 🇫🇷 Red Bull 1:22.821
15 Carlos Sainz 🇪🇸 Williams 1:23.453
16 Esteban Ocon 🇫🇷 Haas 1:23.454

Q1 eliminations
17 Yuki Tsunoda 🇯🇵 Racing Bulls 1:23.755
*18 Alexander Albon 🇹🇭 Williams 1:24.356
19 Valtteri Bottas 🇫🇮 Cadillac 1:24.364
20 Sergio Pérez 🇲🇽 Cadillac 1:24.595
††21 Fernando Alonso 🇪🇸 Aston Martin 1:25.150
22 Lance Stroll 🇨🇦 Aston Martin 1:25.22

† Piastri given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Lawson. *Antonelli, Lawson and Albon all relegated to the back of the grid for taking new power unit elements. ††Alonso and Lawson starting from the pit lane because of modifications under parc fermé.