Strong qualifying showing from McLaren in Ferrari-land

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton will start tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix in Monza from an all Vodafone McLaren Mercedes front row. Fernando achieved his 17th Formula 1 pole position with a time of 1min21.997 whilst Lewis qualified second with 1min22.034, 37 thousandths of a second behind his team mate.

Fernando Alonso "It is great to get pole position; I have been doing some good qualifying laps at the last races but they have not always come together in the final session like it did today. The car has been working really well all weekend and we already had a good idea that we would be fast from the test. The team has really taken the opportunity between now and Turkey to focus and from their efforts there has been a definite step forward in our pace. I am looking forward to the race tomorrow where hopefully we should have the same result."

Lewis Hamilton "It was a good battle with Fernando throughout qualifying. My first timed lap wasn’t the best, but I was able to improve on it for my final attempt. The result today shows just how hard everyone at McLaren and Mercedes-Benz has been working. We have all put our heads together and this has resulted in us locking out the front row. For the team I hope we can maintain these positions throughout the race tomorrow."

Ron Dennis "Fernando has been really strong throughout this weekend and it was a brilliant, well deserved pole position for him. Lewis has not been quite as happy with the balance of the car, and in the circumstances therefore he did a great job. Whilst it is important to the team to be on the front row, we will now be concentrating all our efforts into repeating this performance tomorrow afternoon and rewarding everyone in the team for their tremendous efforts over the past few weeks."

Norbert Haug "This double pole was a first-class team performance, with a gap of just 37 thousandths of a second between Fernando and Lewis. A great pole position from Fernando and our fifth 1-2 qualifying result in the last nine Grands Prix. We have the best basis for the race tomorrow and with the MP4-22’s speed and our strategy we should be in a position to perform well."