Hamilton takes pole in crazy Italian GP Qualifying!

Lewis Hamilton will start from P1 at the Italian Grand Prix after securing yet another pole position. The championship leader will start ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and McLaren's Carlos Sainz.

The ban to teams’ ‘party modes’ didn’t affect the German squad, who kept up their run of taking pole in every race this season.

The session was once again dominated by the hunt for slipstream and track extending at Parabolica, with several drivers having laps deleted for track limits.

Ferrari’s difficulties on home turf continued as Sebastian Vettel was knocked out in Q1 after a messy end to the first part of qualifying.

Hamilton set a new record at Monza, breaking Kimi Raikkonen’s record from two years ago. This means Hamilton now holds yet another Formula 1 record, this time for the fastest average speed of a lap ever.

Q1

As expected, the Ferrari powered cars struggled in the first session of qualifying. Charles Leclerc seemed to be in trouble early on, having his time deleted for track limits, but his next lap was legal and quick enough to escape the bottom five.

Vettel had a tougher time, sitting in P17 ahead of the final runs. The end of qualifying was a mess, with drivers impeding each other everywhere. Barely anyone was able to improve and the German was knocked out in Q1 along with Romain Grosjean, Antonio Giovinazzi and the Williams pair.

Q2

Whilst Leclerc may have escaped the mess that was Q1, Q2 was a step too far for him and the rest of the Ferrari powered cars. The Monegasque could only manage P13, beating just Raikkonen and Kevin Magnussen.

They were joined by Daniil Kvyat and Esteban Ocon, who went out early and did not receive any slipstream.

Hamilton’s first run in the session saw him set a 1:19.0, a tenth quicker than Raikkonen’s previous record for the fastest lap in F1 history, adding to his already huge collection of Formula 1 records.

However, he didn’t hold it for long as Bottas dipped into to 1:18s, topping the session.

Q3

Keen to avoid the traffic, Mercedes got themselves out first in Q3, with Hamilton edging Bottas in the first runs. The pair were more than half a second clear of Verstappen, whilst his Red Bull teammate Alex Albon saw his first effort deleted for going wide at Parabolica again.

Mercedes shocked the field again by leaving the pits with five minutes to go, with the rest of the field following. Mercedes' actions meant we avoided the farcical end to qualifying we saw last year, where most of the field failed to make it to the line in time for their final laps.

Bottas improved on his final lap, but Hamilton snatched pole from his hands by less than half a tenth, and with it, that record of the fastest lap in F1 history. Sainz set a superb lap to take third ahead of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen. Lando Norris took a strong P6, leading Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll. Albon will be disappointed with ninth, with Pierre Gasly joining him on the fifth row.