Lewis Hamilton set himself up as favourite for today’s Italian Grand Prix after beating championship-leading team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg to pole position on an all-Mercedes front row.
Mercedes-powered cars filled the top six slots after yesterday’s qualifying, with Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa together on the second row and McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button fifth and sixth.
The pole, on a sunny afternoon at the historic Monza circuit near Milan, was 2008 world champion Hamilton’s fifth of the season and 36th of his career.
“We’ve done this as a team and it’s great to have another one-two for the team,” said Hamilton, who is 29 points adrift of Rosberg in the championship after they collided in Belgium two weeks ago.
That incident has been the talk of F1, with Rosberg taking the blame for a coming together that led to Hamilton’s retirement at Spa.
Mercedes bosses have told both drivers that such a collision, which robbed the team of a likely one-two finish, must not happen again but neither driver said much had changed really.
“It’s not changed. Already when we started the season the message was clear so there’s no real change,” said Rosberg when asked whether he would have the bosses’ words ringing in his ears as he entered the first chicane.
“It’s the same as always.”
“They won’t be ringing in my ears,” said Hamilton firmly, relieved to have a clean qualifying at last after being plagued by problems since his previous pole in Spain in May eight races ago.
Dominant Mercedes have taken pole in all but one of the 13 races so far this year, and marked the team’s seventh front row sweep of 2014.
“It’s so great, even at a track like Monza which is such a different track to all the others, that we’re still so dominant,” said Rosberg.
“It was an OK lap, and from that point of view second place is still a good position for tomorrow (today),” he said. “It’s a long race and everything can happen.”
Ferrari’s long-suffering fans, without a win to celebrate for more than a year, saw Fernando Alonso qualify seventh and Kimi Raikkonen 12th.
The Finn will move up to 11th, however, because Toro Rosso’s Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat has a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his season’s engine allocation.
“In the end, I’m happy. I have a huge support here, the people are crazy about Ferrari. They hope a Ferrari will win,” said Alonso.
Today’s grid in Monza...
| 1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) | Mercedes | 1:24.109 |
| 2. Nico Rosberg (Germany) | Mercedes | 1:24.383 |
| 3. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) | Williams-Mercedes | 1:24.697 |
| 4. Felipe Massa (Brazil) | Williams-Mercedes | 1:24.865 |
| 5. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark) | McLaren | 1:25.314 |
| 6. Jenson Button (Britain) | McLaren | 1:25.379 |
| 7. Fernando Alonso (Spain) | Ferrari | 1:25.430 |
| 8. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) | RedBull-Renault | 1:25.436 |
| 9. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) | RedBull-Renault | 1:25.709 |
| 10. Sergio Perez (Mexico) | Force India-Mercedes | 1:25.944 |
| 11. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) | Toro Rosso-Renault | *1:26.070 |
| 12. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) | Ferrari | 1:26.110 |
| 13. Jean-Eric Vergne (France) | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1:26.157 |
| 14. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) | Force India-Mercedes | 1:26.279 |
| 15. Adrian Sutil (Germany) | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:26.588 |
| 16. Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico) | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:26.692 |
| 17. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) | Lotus-Renault | 1:27.520 |
| 18. Romain Grosjean (France) | Lotus-Renault | 1:27.632 |
| 19. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) | Caterham-Renault | 1:27.671 |
| 20. Jules Bianchi (France) | Marussia-Ferrari | 1:27.738 |
| 21. Max Chilton (Britain) | Marussia-Ferrari | 1:28.247 |
| 22. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) | Caterham-Renault | 1:28.562 |
Note: Daniil Kvyat handed 10-place grid penalty for engine change.