Vettel leads Red Bull front row at Monza

F1 Grand Prix, GP Italy, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

Sebastian Vettel has taken pole position for the Italian Grand Prix, ahead of his team mate Mark Webber. Nico Hulkenberg surprised everyone however and ended up in 3rd, ahead of both Ferrari cars.

Qualifying kicks off with Nico Rosberg who takes to the track immediately as the session starts, trying to make up some of the lost time from FP3. During that session, an overheating problem prevented him to do more than 5 laps. The German is out on the harder tyre and performs a longer run of fast-slow-fast iterations, attempting to set a reasonable time while getting a feel for the track as well.

Gutierrez quickly joins the action but it's another few minutes until others pop up as well.

7 minutes into the session both Ferraris have set a time, with Alonso going quickest, ahead of Vergne, Rosberg, Massa and Ricciardo. As seen in earlier sessions though, the tyres are usually better on the second or third lap, so even after the first attempts it doesn't say much.

The tyre warmup effect is proven by Vergne who goes fastest on his third lap, setting a 1:24.630. Hamilton then goes second, followed by Alonso who takes second back on his own third lap. Raikkonen meanwhile moved up into 8th while Vettel only now leaves the pitlane.

5 minutes from the end, Hamilton moves up into first. Vettel meanwhile posted third on his first lap but continued to go fastest on his second lap. At the same time Gutierrez is on track with the medium tyres, posting 15th.

In the closing stages, lots of cars are still out on the medium tyres. Williams and Force India were in the most battling positions and it was eventually Di Resta and Maldonado who made it through. Eliminated are Gutierrez, Bottas, Van der Garde, Pic, Bianchi and Chilton.

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In Q2, Ricciardo is out first, setting 1:24.746. The time stands until both Ferraris set their first laps and both go quicker, with Alonso shaving off half a second off of the Toro Rosso's time.

Hamilton meanwhile ruined his first and partly also his second lap as he went too wide through parabolica, ending up with his left wheels in the gravel and only just managing to keep the car pointing forwards at such high speeds. Hamilton returned to the pits after those laps, unsurprisingly having set the slowest time this far.

At about the same time, Webber and Vettel leave the pits as the only two men without a time set in Q2. Webber posts second, followed by Vettel who goes fastest, 3 tenths ahead of Alonso and Webber.

The closing seconds again have some surprises as both Lotus cars are eliminated, as well as Hamilton, Sutil, Maldonado and Di Resta.

Surprisngly, Ricciardo is through, just like Hulkenberg and Vergne.

Q3 kicks off with Rosberg setting a 1:28.332, a sluggish time really, soon beaten by Webber with 1:23.990. Alonso goes slower with Massa slotting in just behind his teammate. Vettel though is a tenth quicker and takes first.

4 minutes from the end, Ricciardo starts his first flying lap and sets a strong first sector. He's wide on the exit of Roggia though, losing 5 tenths in the sector and eventually ending up in 4th, still faster than Massa and Rosberg.

Everybody appeared focused on that final lap but it was Vettel still who took pole position. Webber is second and completes a perfect qualifying result for Red Bull Racing. Nico Hulkenberg was surprisingly quick, had a clean lap and is an impressive 3rd in a struggling season for Sauber.

Vergne though caused some confusion in the final sector as he went wide at Parabolica, very similar to what Hamilton had in Q2, resulting in 10th for him. The dust thrown up however was a hindrance for the following cars, perhaps most for Rosberg and both Ferraris as they were there earliest after Vergne went off.