Pierre Gasly Claims Stunning Pole Position at Monza
Pierre Gasly ripped up the script at Monza.
On a circuit built for horsepower and heavy hitters, the Frenchman delivered the lap of his life to take a stunning pole position for the Italian Grand Prix, his first in Formula One and Alpine’s first in the sport. In a season where Alpine have rarely troubled the front, Gasly found a level of precision and nerve that left the paddock blinking at the timing screens.
He beat George Russell’s Mercedes by six-hundredths of a second with a 1min 21.786sec lap, Oscar Piastri’s McLaren slotting into third. Charles Leclerc will start fourth, Lewis Hamilton fifth, and the reigning world champion Lando Norris only ninth after his final run unravelled.
For Gasly, now in his ninth full F1 season and only 10th in the championship, this was no fluke, no quirk of strategy. Alpine sit sixth in the constructors’ standings and have been miles off the title fight all year, yet over one lap at Monza, Gasly dragged the blue car into a fight it had no right to be in.
He has history here, of course. Monza was the scene of his shock victory in 2020, a race shaped by a perfectly timed pit stop and Hamilton’s penalty. That win always carried an asterisk for some. This pole does not. This one came head‑to‑head, flat‑out, with everyone on equal footing.
Mercedes’ gamble and Antonelli’s long road
Behind the fairytale story on Saturday sits a cold, calculated call from Mercedes. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, only seventh in qualifying, will not start from there. After taking a full set of new engine components, he drops to the back row, Mercedes choosing Monza’s slipstream-heavy layout as the place to swallow a grid penalty.
They believe he can still come back to fifth. That is ambitious, but not outrageous here. The long straights, DRS zones and heavy braking areas offer overtaking chances most tracks cannot match.
Antonelli leads both Russell and Hamilton by 59 points in the standings. Russell, starting second, suddenly has a clear shot at clawing back a serious chunk of that margin. Hamilton, in fifth, will sense an opening too. Mercedes have given their young star a long Sunday afternoon of work, and in doing so handed his two most experienced rivals a golden opportunity.
A qualifying session on a knife-edge
The session itself was as tight as the final times suggested. In Q3, with the tow absolutely vital on this low-downforce, high-speed strip of tarmac, the big teams rolled out their slipstream plays.
Mercedes used Antonelli exactly as planned, sending him ahead to punch a hole in the air for Russell. McLaren mirrored the move, Norris towing Piastri. On those opening Q3 laps, Russell delivered: a 1min 21.929sec, Piastri just behind. The top four were split by a mere seven-hundredths of a second. Gasly, already quick all weekend, slotted into third and, crucially, looked utterly at ease in that company.
Then came the final showdown.
Mercedes sent Antonelli early for his second run, again priming the track and the tow for Russell’s last attempt. Ferrari paired Leclerc with Hamilton, McLaren switched roles with Piastri set to drag Norris. It all looked neat on the timing screens. On track, it frayed.
Piastri overcooked it into Turn 1, his braking too hot, his line gone. That mistake shredded Norris’s final shot at pole, the world champion left stranded without the slipstream he needed.
Russell, by contrast, nailed his lap. Clean, committed, the kind of run that usually seals the deal at Monza. For a few seconds, it looked like enough.
Then Gasly arrived.
Tucked in behind, he attacked every apex, rode every kerb with just enough aggression, and refused to back out of the final chicane. He crossed the line and stole pole by six-hundredths. A huge upset, but one that felt entirely earned.
Alpine’s pole amid a political storm
All of this came against the backdrop of a storm Alpine could have done without.
Before qualifying, the FIA’s International Court of Appeal issued a sharply worded response to explosive claims made by Alpine executive advisor and de facto team principal Flavio Briatore. On Friday, Briatore had suggested that one of the judges involved in overturning Gasly’s third place at the Monaco Grand Prix was biased in favour of McLaren, who had appealed that result.
He went as far as to name the judge, accusing him of acting as a “prosecutor” and describing him as “very linked with McLaren”. The remarks lit the fuse. McLaren principal Andrea Stella hit back, calling the comments “insulting” to his team.
The ICA, which operates independently of the FIA, did not let the allegations slide. In a detailed statement, it underlined that Alpine had every opportunity to question the composition of the judging panel in the Monaco case and chose not to.
“At both the beginning and conclusion of the hearing, the parties were invited to raise any issue concerning the proceedings or the composition of the court. None did so. No objection was raised during the hearing concerning the manner in which the court questioned the witness or conducted the proceedings,” the statement read.
The court stressed that the appointment and participation of its judges followed FIA judicial procedures and long‑standing practice, aligned with international standards on conflicts of interest. Judges, it noted, must meet strict independence and confidentiality requirements, file annual disclosures of interest with the FIA compliance officer, and sign a specific declaration of independence for each case, shared with the parties involved.
For Gasly, those words and that row formed the noise around his weekend. His answer came on the asphalt.
On Sunday, he will line up on pole at Monza in an Alpine that should not, by rights, be there. Behind him, a Mercedes with a title-chasing teammate starting at the back. A McLaren pair with a point to prove. Ferrari on home soil, desperate for a win.
Gasly has already delivered the shock of qualifying. The question now is whether he can survive 53 laps of Monza with the wolves closing in.
