
Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton was unbeatable in qualifying, setting impressive lap times in the Mercedes W07 Hybrid at the temple of speed.
Championship challenger and team-mate Nico Rosberg tried his best but had to settle with second position. Although the gap to Hamilton was telling… 0.478 seconds.
Sebastian Vettel leads division two, giving the Tifosi a little cheer at Ferrari’s home race. Kimi Raikkonen joins his team-mate with a red row two.
The Iceman was quicker than Vettel after their first runs in Q3, but failed to improve on his second set of tyres so slipped to fourth.
Valtteri Bottas was in fine form for Williams and pipped Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull to fifth by just a tiny margin of 0.001 second.
Max Verstappen rounded out the top seven, ahead of the Force India pairing of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.
Esteban Gutierrez impressively got Haas into the top ten in qualifying for the first time, but then endured a scrappy Q3 session.
He ran off track at the Lesmos on his first Q3 run and failed to better his Q2 time on his second, which left him P10.
Felipe Massa failed to improve on his final run in Q2, so was bumped out of the top ten by a fine lap from Gutierrez, plus marginally better times by both Force India drivers, and the Red Bulls abandoning plans to progress on the soft tyre and then turning in quicker super-soft laps at the death.
Massa wounded up P11 in a car fast enough for the top six, while Romain Grosjean found nearly half a second on its second Q2 run but this was only good enough for P12.
The Haas driver will drop a further five places on the grid thanks to a penalty for changing his gearbox after the final practice session.
Pascal Wehrlein impressively split McLaren-Honda’s past world champions with P14, just 0.042 seconds slower than Fernando Alonso and 0.044 seconds quicker than Jenson Button.
Carlos Sainz managed to drag a sub-one minute, 23.5 seconds lap out of his underpowered Toro Rosso, but this was only good enough to make him the slowest driver in Q2, just under a tenth back from Button.
Daniil Kvyat joined the Saubers, Renaults and Esteban Ocon’s Manor in failing to escape Q1.
Kvyat swore furiously over team radio after missing the cut by just 0.042 seconds, as Toro Rosso team-mate Sainz, both McLarens and Wehrlein’s Manor all made it through with last efforts.
Felipe Nasr was P18 in the best of the Saubers, complaining an engine misfire cost him a shot at finding the two tenths he needed to make it through to Q2.
Team-mate Marcus Ericsson was just over a tenth slower in P19, ahead of Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen, who survived a big moment exiting the Ascari chicane on his final run.
Ocon’s car broke down on track for the second time this weekend, before he could set a time.
So a pure domination from Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton on pole position at the temple of speed. Can Nico Rosberg fight back? What about Ferrari? Can Sebastian Vettel or Kimi Raikkonen raise a cheer for the Tifosi? We shall find out on race at the legendary Monza circuit.

Qualifying positions, Monza:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m21.135s
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m21.613s
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m21.972s
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m22.065s
5 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m22.388s
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m22.389s
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Renault 1m22.411s
8 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m22.814s
9 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m22.836s
10 Esteban Gutierrez Haas-Ferrari 1m23.184s
11 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m22.967s
12 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1m23.273s
13 Pascal Wehrlein Manor-Mercedes 1m23.315s
14 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1m23.399s
15 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m23.496s
16 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m23.825s
17 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1m23.092s
18 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1m23.956s
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1m24.087s
20 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m24.230s
21 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1m24.436s
22 Esteban Ocon Manor/Mercedes No time


















