Pierre Gasly Claims First Career Pole Position at Monza

Pierre Gasly has waited nine long years for this. When it finally arrived, it came at the place that defines his Formula 1 story.

On a golden late afternoon at Monza, the scene of his fairytale 2020 victory, the Frenchman delivered the lap of his life to take a first career pole position for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix – and etch his name into the sport’s history books.

Gasly leaves it to the last breath

With two minutes left in Q3, the pit lane fell silent. All 10 remaining drivers sat in the garages, engines off, eyes locked on the timing screens. Gasly was only third. The opportunity was there, but so was the pressure.

The final runs turned the circuit into a 1:21 sprint. George Russell struck first. The Mercedes driver hooked up a clean lap, stopping the clock at 1:21.846 to grab provisional pole. It looked strong. It looked enough.

Gasly had one shot.

As the last car to cross the line after the chequered flag, he threaded the Alpine through Monza’s chicanes and sweeping curves with the kind of commitment that wins races and changes careers. When his time flashed up – 1:21.786 – he had beaten Russell by six hundredths of a second.

Pole position. At Monza. At last.

“Let’s go! I’ve been waiting for that one!” he shouted over team radio, the release of nearly a decade of frustration packed into a single roar.

Back in parc fermé, Charles Leclerc, fourth fastest, walked straight over to offer a handshake. Gasly climbed out of the car, punched the air and soaked in the moment.

“It was amazing. Thank you everyone. It was an incredible quali,” he said afterwards, still buzzing. “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.

Russell denied, chess and all

Russell will line up alongside Gasly on the front row, but this was an afternoon when the Mercedes man played supporting role.

The two had been killing time before qualifying in an unusually calm way for two elite racing drivers: a game of chess.

“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,” Russell said with a wry smile. “So huge congrats to him.”

On track, Russell did almost everything right. His final lap looked like a pole lap until Gasly found that last fraction of a second. The margins at Monza are always brutal. On Saturday, they cut in Alpine blue.

Behind them, the grid told its own story of penalties and reshuffles. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was quick enough for third on raw pace but will start sixth after a grid drop for impeding. That promotes others and clutters the pack behind the front row, exactly where chaos so often erupts into Turn 1.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli had a quieter, more complicated day. The Mercedes youngster qualified seventh but will start from the pit lane thanks to an engine penalty, his title campaign forced into damage-limitation mode before the lights even go out.

Piastri’s Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto inherits seventh on the grid, with Lando Norris – winner of the last two races – slotting in just behind. Norris will not mind the view: a cluster of cars ahead, a long run to the first chicane, and a car that has been ruthless on Sundays.

Pole on the day after heartbreak

What makes Gasly’s pole even more striking is the timing. It arrived less than 24 hours after he had a Monaco podium taken away for a second time.

The saga around his third place at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix has dragged on for months. Initially, Gasly finished third in the principality, only to be hit with two 10-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane shortly after the podium ceremony. That dropped him to seventh and elevated Red Bull Racing’s Isack Hadjar to third.

Alpine fought back. The team requested a review of the penalties and won, restoring Gasly to the podium and giving him what felt like a hard-earned reward.

Then came the twist. Red Bull Racing and McLaren filed their own petitions to have the penalties reinstated. This time, they won. Gasly’s podium vanished again.

For many drivers, that kind of emotional whiplash would linger. Gasly turned it into fuel. Less than a day after losing a trophy, he went out and took something far more symbolic: his first pole, and at the circuit that already defines his legacy.

A career circling back to Monza

Gasly’s journey to this moment has never been straightforward. He made his Formula 1 debut back in 2017 at the Malaysian Grand Prix, stepping in for Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso. That team morphed into AlphaTauri and now Racing Bulls, and along the way Gasly produced some of the most memorable underdog drives of the hybrid era.

The pinnacle remains that 2020 Italian Grand Prix win at Monza, his only F1 victory so far. On that day he survived a wild, safety-car-scrambled race to stand on the top step for AlphaTauri, a shock result that instantly became part of modern F1 folklore.

His record since then underlines both his consistency and the scale of Saturday’s achievement. Gasly has five career podiums in Formula 1:

• 2nd place – 2019 Brazil Grand Prix with Toro Rosso
• 1st place – 2020 Italian Grand Prix with AlphaTauri
• 3rd place – 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix with AlphaTauri
• 3rd place – 2023 Dutch Grand Prix with Alpine
• 3rd place – 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix with Alpine

But pole positions are different. They mark you out as the fastest driver over a single lap on a given day. Until now, that box remained unticked.

Alpine, the French factory outfit he joined in 2023, showed its faith a year ago by signing him to a contract extension through 2028. Saturday at Monza felt like the first true return on that investment, a statement that both driver and team can still hit the very top of the timesheets on merit.

The question now is simple, and brutal: can Gasly convert?

He has the memories of 2020, the car beneath him, and the front row to himself. The Temple of Speed has already given him one career-defining victory. On Sunday, it offers him the chance to prove that was not a one-off fairytale, but the start of something bigger.