Alonso and Ferrari on pole at Monza

Fernando Alonso delighted the tifosi, on Saturday afternoon, in taking pole position for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard was the only one to complete a lap of the Monza circuit in less than 1’22 and will be joined on the front row of the grid by McLaren’s Jenson Button.

Ferrari and McLaren looked set to lock up the first two rows of the grid, but Mark Webber spoilt it by setting the fourth fastest time at the wheel of his Red Bull. In doing so, he relegated the World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton to fifth place, alongside Sebastian Vettel.

Let’s have a look at how the session panned out :

Q1

Timo Glock – who was given a five-place grid penalty because the Virgin Team opened up his gearbox between the sessions – was the first to leave the pits. He had already started a flying lap when Vitaly Petrov joined him on track and impeded him.

More cars emerged a few minutes later. Jenson Button’s first flying lap moved him on top of the timesheets. He was then demoted to 2nd by Felipe Massa, before Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton set faster times.

With ten minutes gone, the McLaren driver was leading from Massa, Alonso, Button and Rosberg. The Red Bulls were down in eighth and ninth. Alonso then took another turn at the front but faced a fierce challenge from his teammate. Massa edged him over with a 1’22’’421.

A few minutes to the chequered flag, technical problems – loss of engine power – were reported for Liuzzi. The Italian completed only three laps and was in P19… hence sure to be eliminated alongside the new teams’ drivers.

The top five was made of Massa, Alonso, Hamilton, Button and Kubica.

Q2

Lewis Hamilton was the early pacesetter as he completed a first run on the soft tyres while the rest of the field was running on hard tyres. Fernando Alonso took over at the front with eight minutes remaining.

Vettel was the last driver to come in for another set of tyres in the final five minutes of this segment of qualifying. As he made his way back in the pits, Sutil left the pitlane for a final push. The Force India driver was followed by the rest of the field - bar Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica.

Alonso held on to P1 with Button and Hamilton right behind. Massa was fourth. Vettel and Webber were fifth and sixth fastest, four tenths of a second down on Alonso.

Sutil missed the final cut for a few hundredths. Also eliminated were Schumacher, Kobayashi, Buemi, Petrov, Alguersuari and de la Rosa.

Q3

Things hotted up in those ten minutes as the McLaren and Ferrari drivers got ready to deprive Red Bull of a 13th pole this season.

Alonso made his intentions very clear with a first flying lap completed in 1’21’’962. His closest rival was Button, with a 1’22’’259. Webber and Vettel were down in fifth and sixth.

Button managed to improve on his final run but it was not enough to snatch pole position away from Alonso.

Massa was third fastest with Webber fourth. Hamilton and Vettel were fifth and sixth. Fellow Germans Rosberg and Hulkenberg will line up on the fourth row of the grid. Kubica and Barrichello will share the fifth row.