Lewis Hamilton took his 56th career pole position, his 5th at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza and 7th of the 2016 season so far. Nico Rosberg completed an 8th Silver Arrows front row lockout of the season in second position.
Both drivers completed a single run in Q1 (super soft), two runs in Q2 (soft/soft) and another two runs in Q3 (super soft/super soft).
“I loved that lap, it felt fantastic”, Lewis Hamilton said
“It was poetry in motion – the adrenaline was crazy. I’ve felt good all weekend and it all started with the initial setup from Friday. I’ve been working closely with my engineers and mechanics, taking small steps forward with the balance of the car, and I knew if it all came together then I could do that kind of lap time. It’s a really tough circuit and you have to get everything right, especially the braking zones. The team has done another fantastic job today and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow”, Hamilton added.
Rosberg said that he could match Lewis’ pace but was in positive mood for tomorrow’s race: “I’ve had a good weekend so far, but Lewis produced some really good laps. I couldn’t match him today. It’s a long race and you never know what can happen, I will give it everything.”
Ferrari took second row on the grid for their home race
“Hopefully we can take the advantage at the start but we have to wait and see”, Sebastian Vettel said. “Once the lights go out we hope we can find a good traction which the tires should give us. It’s a long way down to Turn 1 and even if we can try something the race is not one stretch, it’s 53 laps around here. To be honest, after I saw the times already in Q1 and in Q2 on a different compound, I knew it would be difficult, but you never know…I was pushing as hard as I could, probably too hard in the first run in Q3 and it wasn’t a good lap.”
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth while the Scuderia’s president Sergio Marchionne observed everything from the team’s garage.
Valtteri Bottas took fifth place
The Williams driver managed to pass both Red Bulls. Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were sixth and seventh. Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg classified eighth and ninth.
Haas reached Q3 for the first time with Esteban Gutierrez.
PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION: (END OF Q3) HAM utterly dominant #Quali #ItalianGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/JmlNsCY8vF
— Formula 1 (@F1) 3 September 2016
