Pierre Gasly Takes First Pole Position at Monza

Pierre Gasly has waited nine long years for this. When it finally arrived, it came at the only place it really could.

Monza.

On a hot Saturday in Italy, the Frenchman etched his name onto a new line in Formula 1’s history books, taking his first-ever pole position at the Italian Grand Prix – at the very circuit where he claimed his maiden F1 victory in 2020.

Last man on track, first on the grid

With two minutes left in Q3, the pit lane fell quiet. All 10 remaining drivers sat in their garages, engines off, minds racing. Gasly was only third at that point, staring at the timing screens, knowing he had one shot left.

When they rolled back out, George Russell struck first. The Mercedes driver laid down a 1:21.846, good enough for provisional pole and, for a moment, it looked like the lap to beat.

Gasly waited. He was the last man over the line after the chequered flag.

Under the Monza trees, with the crowd roaring, he threaded his Alpine through the chicanes and pounded across the line in 1:21.786. Fifty-nine thousandths quicker. Just enough. More than enough.

“Let’s go! I’ve been waiting for that one!” he screamed down the radio as he flashed past the finish.

The release was instant. Charles Leclerc, fourth on the day, walked over in parc fermé and offered a handshake. Gasly climbed out, raised a clenched fist to the grandstands and let the moment wash over him.

“It was amazing. Thank you everyone. It was an incredible quali,” he said afterwards. “From the first lap in Q1, I felt very good in the car. Trying to chip a little bit away every single session and then, yeah, in the end, it felt like a very good lap.

“But I’m so happy. It’s been nine years trying to chase and get the opportunity to get a pole position. Win my first race in Monza, get my first pole position on this track I think is something special.”

Special barely covers it.

Chess, penalties and a shuffled grid

Russell will line up alongside Gasly on the front row, but even that duel started long before the lights go out on Sunday.

The pair had been killing time with a game of chess in the moments before qualifying. Russell told the story with a grin: “He beat me there, and I thought, ‘Well, I think I’ll beat you in qualifying’ and here we are. He’s ahead of me again. So huge congrats to him.”

Behind them, the grid has been twisted by penalties. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri delivered the third-fastest lap in Q3, but a sanction for impeding drops him to sixth. That elevates others and scrambles the strategic picture for the race.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, in the Mercedes, had a subdued Saturday on paper – only seventh in qualifying – and his day got worse. An engine penalty means he’ll start from the pit lane, forced into a recovery drive at a circuit where track position usually rules.

Piastri’s Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto inherits seventh on the grid, just ahead of Lando Norris. The McLaren driver arrives in Monza on the back of two straight wins, but from that position he will have work to do if he wants to keep the streak alive.

A pole framed by controversy

Gasly’s pole comes with a complicated backdrop. Just 24 hours earlier, he had seen a Monaco podium given back, then taken away again, three months after the chequered flag.

He originally finished third in the principality, celebrated on the rostrum, then was slapped with two 10-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane. The sanctions dropped him to seventh and promoted Red Bull Racing’s Isack Hadjar to third.

Alpine fought back. The team requested a review and won, briefly restoring Gasly to third place. Red Bull Racing and McLaren then lodged their own challenge, and the stewards sided with them, reinstating the penalties and stripping Gasly of the podium once more.

It was a rollercoaster of bureaucracy, the kind that can leave a driver feeling powerless. Monza offered a very different kind of justice: a stopwatch, an empty track, and a lap no one else could match.

A long road to the front

Gasly’s journey to this moment has not been straightforward. He debuted in Formula 1 in 2017 at the Malaysian Grand Prix, stepping in for Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso. That team would morph into AlphaTauri and is now Racing Bulls, but Monza has always been the scene of his most vivid chapters.

His lone F1 win came here in 2020 with AlphaTauri, a shock triumph that turned him into a cult hero overnight. The podium record since then underlines his resilience: five in total.

• Second at the 2019 Brazil Grand Prix with Toro Rosso.
• That unforgettable win at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix with AlphaTauri.
• Third in Azerbaijan in 2021, again with AlphaTauri.
• Then two more thirds with Alpine – at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix and the 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix.

Since 2023 he has been the standard-bearer for Alpine, the French driver at the heart of a French team. Last year he committed his future there with a contract extension through 2028, a long-term bet on a project that has often blown hot and cold.

On Saturday at Monza, it burned bright.

Now the question hangs over Sunday: can Gasly turn the most emotional pole of his career into the second win of his life at the temple of speed that already defines him?