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Lewis Hamilton edged out his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas for pole position at the Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s 0.069-second margin was his sixth pole in eight races and placed him in the best spot to score his 90th Grand Prix on Sunday.
It was the fastest qualifying lap in Formula 1 history, at 164.286 mph, and Hamilton’s pole position in 94th.
McLaren’s Carlos Sainz was third, from Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Neither Ferraris made it into the top 10, with Charles Leclerc in 13th and Sebastian Vettel eliminated in the first session, in 17th, after being caught in a confusion on the track as the drivers battled for the perfect position in search of a stele.
Sainz’s teammate Lando Norris was sixth, ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, Red Bull’s Alex Albon and Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly.
“It wasn’t the easiest,” Hamilton said. “You saw how close it was and it really demanded a clean lap.
“Valtteri was very close and pushing. I made some big changes before qualifying and I was a little nervous, but it worked well.”
Mercedes decided not to chase the trailer for either driver, feeling it was not an advantage over the competition benefits of running only on the final lap to properly prepare the tires and have maximum downforce when cornering.
This was in stark contrast to all the other teams, who sought the optimal position on the track for a slip, which many considered was worth up to 0.7 seconds per lap if executed correctly.
The last two parts of qualifying were relatively trouble-free, but the end of the first session was chaotic as the drivers battled for position, some blocking their rivals as they battled on the track like it was a race.
And Renault’s Esteban Ocon has been called to the stewards to explain his actions against Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen.
A bad day for Ferrari
Ferrari expected to have a bad weekend at their home track, where last year Charles Leclerc won from pole position, and they were in the same uncompetitive position as in Belgium last weekend.
Leclerc qualified in exactly the same place he did at Spa, ironically benefiting from losing his first time in the first session after abusing the track limits at Parabolica.
That meant Leclerc had to play again in the middle of the session, and he had a good enough time to get through.
But Vettel completed his first lap and did not go again until the final minutes of the session.
He ended up caught in melee behind Ocon and couldn’t improve, falling to the relegation zone.
Red Bull was surprisingly uncompetitive, Verstappen took his worst position on the grid since the Hungarian Grand Prix three races ago, and McLaren were the beneficiaries, through an excellent lap from Sainz.
And Pérez tapped into the potential of Racing Point, dubbed the ‘Pink Mercedes’ because it’s a copy of the 2019 world champions’ car, for the first time since Hungary.
