Lewis Hamilton recorded his 69th career pole position in a rain-affected marathon qualifying session at Monza ahead of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton set a 1m35.554s in Q3, 1.148s clear of second-fastest Max Verstappen. The Dutchman will go from 14th tomorrow due to grid penalties, with Red Bull team-mate Ricciardo 17th despite setting the third fastest time.
Qualifying was halted for nearly three hours after Romain Grosjean binned his Haas on the main straight just five minutes into Q1 and the rain got even worse.
The remainder of first qualifying session was eventually played out with the two Saubers, Haas’ and Jolyon Palmer failing to make it through into the second session.
Sergio Perez missed out on Q3 by just 0.002s but will move up into the top 10 for tomorrow’s race. Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz Jr were all knocked out of Q2 but also all have grid penalties.
Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat managed to out-qualify his team-mate Sainz for the first time since Silverstone. The Russian qualified 14th but should start 10th tomorrow.
Stoffel Vandoorne made his fourth Q3 appearance of the year, qualifying 10th behind FP3 pacesetter Felipe Massa, who failed to match the pace of his team-mate throughout qualifying.
Kimi Raikkonen managed to out-qualify Ferrari team-mate and championship leader Sebastian Vettel. The fan favourites struggled for performance in Q3 and were left mystified by their lack of pace in the wet conditions.
18-year-old Lance Stroll was fourth quickest with an outstanding last-minute effort and will move up to second on tomorrow’s grid with fellow youngster Esteban Ocon just behind him in third.
Valtteri Bottas could only manage sixth but will start fourth on Sunday.
His Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton will line-up on pole for the 69th time in Formula 1, breaking seven-time champion Michael Schumacher’s record.
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