Pierre Gasly went out last in Q3 with nothing behind him — no tow, no slipstream, his teammate already through the corner and unable to help. At Monza, that is not how a lap is supposed to be built. Gasly built it anyway, delivering the Frenchman’s first pole position in 212 grand prix starts, at the one circuit on the calendar where an Alpine is not supposed to get near the front row.
A Session That Changed Shape Three Times
The story of how Gasly got there begins in Q1, where he was not merely surviving the cut but sitting on top of the timing screen. Q2 brought the correction most expected, as Mercedes and McLaren put in their proper laps and Kimi Antonelli, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris moved ahead. Yet Gasly still finished fourth, only two-tenths off the fastest time — a signal, in hindsight, that the Alpine deserved to be taken seriously on a circuit where the team is more usually fighting Racing Bulls for fifth in the constructors’ standings.
Q3 then produced a lap of 1 minute 21.786 seconds, with George Russell six-tenths adrift in second, Piastri third, and Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen filling out a top six covered by under three-tenths of a second.
The Tow Game Gasly Won Without a Tow
At Monza, the slipstream is worth something between one and two tenths of a second, and every team plays the queue to secure one. Piastri was sent out first as McLaren’s sacrificial car, while everyone else waited for a benefit. Gasly went out at the very back of the queue with Franco Colapinto ahead of him, but not positioned to give him anything. He took pole in clean air while the drivers around him were being helped — arguably the most striking detail of the entire session.
There is a home-advantage angle worth mentioning too. Gasly has lived in Milan for years and knows Monza intimately, the way the Italian drivers do. It would be wrong to build the whole story on that alone, but Monza rewards a driver willing to carry speed over the kerbs and through the Lesmo corners without lifting — and on Saturday, Gasly looked every bit like a man who had put in the laps.
Further down the order, Antonelli qualified seventh but starts from the back after an engine change, while Colapinto’s eighth gives Alpine both cars in the top ten. Norris managed only ninth in an odd weekend for McLaren, and Isack Hadjar’s tenth included a tow assist for Yuki Sonoda, who then qualified 17th himself after sacrificing his own lap. Liam Lawson (14th) also starts from the back, with Nico Hülkenberg, Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto filling 11th to 13th — Bortoleto missing Q3 by eight-thousandths of a second, ahead of both Ferraris.
Why Pole at Monza Is Worth Less Than It Looks
The honest reading is that pole at Monza carries less weight than anywhere else on the calendar. It is a long run to the first chicane, the slipstream effect is powerful, and Alpine has not shown the race pace to match its one-lap form. The bigger teams, Red Bull included, should be stronger over a full stint — Red Bull’s long runs on Friday were markedly better than its single-lap pace. Gasly leads into Turn One. Holding that lead into lap ten is an entirely different question.
Briatore’s Bombshell Overshadows the Grid
Saturday’s headline was written by a driver who works for a man who dominated Friday’s headlines instead. Flavio Briatore arrived at the team principals’ press conference carrying a photograph, named a judge, and accused that judge of acting like a prosecutor. The occasion was the International Court of Appeal’s ruling on the Monaco Grand Prix, which reinstated Gasly’s ten-second penalty, restored the trophy to Isack Hadjar, and dropped Gasly to seventh in the final classification.
The underlying case was messy from the start. Monaco’s pit-lane speed measurement was almost certainly flawed, but it affected several drivers, not just Gasly — and while others served their penalties during the race, Alpine did not. Stewards later handed the time back regardless, a discrepancy serious enough that the court struck down 26 pages of the original ruling and ordered the FIA to cover part of the costs.
Briatore, notably, did not challenge that substance. Instead, he alleged a judge was compromised through a foundation connected to that judge which had received McLaren cars, and made the accusation publicly with a photograph in hand. What he did not mention is that every party sees the panel before a hearing and can object beforehand — and Alpine did not. Raising it after losing, at a press conference in Monza, blindsided McLaren’s Andrea Stella, who said simply that serious allegations require the accuser to stand behind them. It is a story likely to end there, but it gave Briatore his theatre — and one day later, his team took pole.
Aston Martin Plays It Safe
Fernando Alonso (21st) and Lance Stroll (22nd) were both eliminated in Q1, more than two and a half seconds off pole, after Aston Martin and Honda opted against gambling on engine modes that could cost a power unit at Monza. Team representative Shintaro Orihara had already flagged on Friday that straight-line speed was lacking. Sunday’s race, not Saturday’s grid, will be the real test.
What to Watch For on Race Day
The question now is whether Gasly can convert an against-the-odds pole into Alpine’s first podium of this kind, or whether the long run to the first chicane and the tow effect settle matters before lap two. Reliability will matter just as much: Monza traditionally exposes any weakness in a power unit over a full grand prix distance.
▶ Watch the full paddock-level breakdown, including every qualifying detail and the Briatore controversy explained, in our video analysis:
Pierre Gasly, Alpine F1, Monza, Italian Grand Prix, F1 Qualifying, Flavio Briatore, Formula 1 2026, Andrea Stella
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