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Alpine's Gasly beats Russell to stunning Monza pole

05 September 2026 21:33 (UTC +04:00)

Alpine driver Pierre Gasly took a stunning pole position at the Italian Grand Prix, APA reports citing BBC.

The Frenchman, whose sole Formula 1 victory came at this race for Red Bull's junior team in 2020, beat Mercedes' George Russell by 0.060 seconds.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri was third but was later given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Liam Lawson in the Red Bull.

The Australian's penalty moves up the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, who originally qualified fourth and fifth, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

The other McLaren of Lando Norris was only ninth after a messy session for the world champion.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes qualified seventh but will start at the back because of a grid penalty for taking a new engine.

Gasly's pole comes a day after he lost his third place from the Monaco Grand Prix because the FIA Court of Appeal reinstated a penalty he was given at the race in June.

Saturday's unexpected performance makes him the first Frenchman to take pole for a grand prix since Jean Alesi for Benetton at this race in 1997.

The result is a hiccup for Russell, who has a golden opportunity to make up ground on team-mate Antonelli, who has a 30-place grid penalty.

Antonelli was employed for much of the session in front of Russell to give him a tow, so to be beaten by an Alpine and be only 0.12secs ahead of Piastri was a disappointment.

Russell said he started his final lap too close to Verstappen, who let Antonellli by before the start of it to avoid running in clean air.

"Going into Parabolica, Max just slammed on the brakes and didn't want to be the lead car," Russell said. "In hindsight, it would probably have been better not trying this, but P2 is a good place to start."

Alpine put a large upgrade on their car at the last race in the Netherlands, where Gasly could qualify only 11th. This result came out of nowhere.