Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have secured a McLaren front-row lockout for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Hamilton set his 1:24.01s pole time on the first of his two runs in Q3, while Button jumped to second when he chimed in with a lap just 0.12s shy of his team-mate after the chequered flag fell.
Felipe Massa was a surprise third for Ferrari and will start a full seven places ahead of his team-mate Fernando Alonso.
The Ferrari team experimented with having its drivers slipstream each other during the course of Q2 and the early part of Q3.
The Spaniard was all alone when it mattered most however, and failed to get within 1.5s of Hamilton’s benchmark after suffering from a rear anti-rollbar failure.
Paul di Resta was a career best fourth fastest in his Force India but will start ninth due to a five-place gearbox change penalty.
Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen and Kamui Kobayashi all benefit from the Scot’s misfortune to fill fourth through eighth on the grid.
Mark Webber is set to start 11th after missing out on the Q3 cut-off by a scant 0.07s.
Nico Hulkenberg meanwhile endured the worst session of all having been forced to pull off the circuit with gearbox troubles in his Force India before being able to set a time in Q1.
See below for the full qualifying result
|
Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:24.211 | 1:24.394 | 1:24.010 |
| 2 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:24.672 | 1:24.255 | 1:24.133 |
| 3 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:24.882 | 1:24.505 | 1:24.247 |
| 4 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:24.875 | 1:24.345 | 1:24.304 |
| 5 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:25.302 | 1:24.675 | 1:24.540 |
| 6 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:25.011 | 1:24.687 | 1:24.802 |
| 7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:24.689 | 1:24.515 | 1:24.833 |
| 8 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:25.151 | 1:24.742 | 1:24.855 |
| 9 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:25.317 | 1:24.683 | 1:25.109 |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:24.175 | 1:24.242 | 1:25.678 |
| 11 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:25.556 | 1:24.809 | |
| 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:25.103 | 1:24.820 | |
| 13 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:25.300 | 1:24.901 | |
| 14 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 1:25.135 | 1:25.042 | |
| 15 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 1:25.728 | 1:25.312 | |
| 16 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Lotus-Renault | 1:25.834 | 1:25.408 | |
| 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 1:25.649 | 1:25.441 | |
| 18 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1:26.382 | ||
| 19 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1:26.887 | ||
| 20 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:27.039 | ||
| 21 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:27.073 | ||
| 22 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1:27.441 | ||
| 23 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1:27.629 | ||
| 24 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes |
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Italian Grand Prix Race Guide
