Hamilton leads McLaren front row at Monza

F1 Grand Prix, GP Italy, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

Lewis Hamilton took pole in the closing seconds of qualifying for the Italian GP. His teammate, Jenson Button posted the second fastest time, making it an all McLaren front row at the autodrome. Felipe Massa is 3rd for Ferrari while championship leader Alonso will start from 10th.

The weather is brilliant yet again at the start of qualifying, and Daniel Ricciardo made perfect use of that to come out and set the first laptime, continuing on the same set of tyres for another lap to record a 1:25.731. By that time, D'Ambrosio also set a time, albeit slightly slower than that of Toro Rosso driver.

Crowd favourite Fernando Alonso also chose to come out early and did several laps on the harder tyre, eventually recording a 1:24.175, 9 minutes from the end of Q1. Rosberg is 5 tenths slower and second fastest, ahead of Hamilton's third fastest time. The McLaren driver however may have lost a few tenths by locking his left front wheel due to braking late at the Ascari chicane.

Di Resta was also immediate well on the pace and set the fifth time, immediately securing him of a place into Q2.

More worried are Vergne, Ricciardo and D'Ambrosio, but they all make it through to Q2 as Kovalainen could not improve on their times. All three however had to fit the softer tyre compound to make sure they got through. Eliminated are therefore Kovalainen, Petrov, Glock, Pic, Katrhikeyan and De La Rosa. Nico Hulkenberg is also out as he was unable to set a time due to a gearbox problem on his first flying lap.

At the start of Q2, Di Resta, Schumacher and Raikkonen are the first men on track with Di Resta setting the early pace until Alonso improved on that one minute later. At the same time Hamilton leaves the pits to start his challenge to get into Q3.

Halfway through the session, Alonso is still on top, ahead of Button, Hamilton, Massa, Rosberg, Di Resta, Schumacher, Raikkonen, Vettel, Maldonado. Provisionally out are Sena, Pérez, Webber, Kobayashi, D'Ambrosio, Ricciardo and Vergne.

This also means that from Raikkonen onwards, everybody gets out on track in an attempt to improve further.

Mark Webber managed to improve, but in the end not enough to get through. The Australian is 11th, 4 tenths off of Raikkonen. Behind him are Maldonado (who will move 10 places down on the grid due to two penalties), Pérez, Senna, Ricciardo, D'Ambrosio and Vergne.

Interesting perhaps for Webber is that Vettel only managed 9th in Q2, while Raikkonen was 10th, showing how both Red Bull and Lotus seem to be under pressure at the high speed Monza circuit.

As the lights go green for Q3, Alonso and Massa are out on track right away, soon followed by Vettel and both McLarens.

Interestingly, by the time Alonso is halfway, the Spaniard allows Massa to get closer into his slipstream and then back out, perhaps creating a little advantage for Massa. After Massa passed, Alonso continued waving after Ascari to get heat in the tyres but backed out during his flying lap.

Hamilton meanwhile set the fastest lap. His 1:24.010 is 4 tenths faster than what Massa achieved. Button is third, Vettel 4th and Alonso 5th.

Rosberg then crossed the finish line at a calmer moment and is 5th, followed by Raikkonen who posts the 6th fastest time. One minute later and 1:30 before the end, Kobayashi completes his first attempt of Q3 and sets the 8th time. Di Resta then completes his first attempt to go second fastest, although he will be moved back 5 places due to a gearbox change.

Rosberg's second lap is no improvement and he remains 6th now.

At Ferrari, Massa is again the first to cross the finish line, improving to second place while Alonso was strangely unable to improve and hence is stuck with his 10th time.

At the closing seconds, Hamilton left everyone behind to take pole, just ahead of Jenson Button. As Di Resta moves back from 4th, Michael Schumacher will start tomorrow's race from 4th place.

* Di Resta to start from 9th following a 5-place grid penalty for a gearbox change
* Maldonado to start from 22nd due to a double penalty at Belgium (jumpstart and causing a collision)