Championship leader Sebastian Vettel took his twenty-fifth career pole position with a sensational lap around the legendary Monza track.
His margin over rival Lewis Hamilton was an impressive 0.4 seconds and by taking the top spot, it underlines the speed of the Renault-powered RB7 and maintains the team’s perfect record in qualifying this season.
The McLarens will start the Italian Grand Prix in second and third, with Hamilton edging out team-mate Jenson Button by 0.052 seconds.
Racing in front of the passionate tifosi, Fernando Alonso took fourth for Ferrari ahead of Mark Webber’s Red Bull and team-mate Felipe Massa.
The Renaults and Mercedes completed the top ten, with Vitaly Petrov in seventh, Michael Schumacher out-qualifying Nico Rosberg to eighth, with Bruno Senna completing the Q3 field without setting a lap time.
Senna’s last-gasp Q2 effort knocked Force India’s Paul di Resta out by just a tiny margin of 0.006 seconds. He will share the sixth row with his team-mate Adrian Sutil.
The Williams pair takes up row seven, while the Saubers struggled in qualifying after a promising practice session and will sandwich Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi in P15 and P17. Buemi’s team-mate Jaime Alguersuari was again the unfortunate midfielder knocked out in Q1 and will start the race in P18.
Jarno Trulli led the tail-end group for Team Lotus out-qualifying team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. Timo Glock got close to Kovalainen’s pace despite concerns that his Virgin Racing’s Drag Reduction System was sticking open.
As for the back row of the grid, Daniel Ricciardo will start ahead of his veteran HRT team-mate Tonio Liuzzi for the first time in only his fifth appearance in Formula One.
Qualifying positions for the Italian Grand Prix, Monza:
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m22.275s
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m22.725s
3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m22.777s
4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m22.841s
5. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m22.972s
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m23.188s
7. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m23.530s
8. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m23.777s
9. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m24.477s
10. Bruno Senna Renault No time
11. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m24.163s
12. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m24.209s
13. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m24.648s
14. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m24.726s
15. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m24.845s
16. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m24.932s
17. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m25.065s
18. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.334s
19. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m26.647s
20. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m27.184s
21. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m27.591s
22. Jerome D’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m27.609s
23. Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 1m28.054s
24. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m28.231s
107 per cent time: 1m29.854s