Sebastian Vettel claimed pole position for the Italian Grand Prix as all his Formula 1 championship rivals made a mess of their qualifying sessions. Vettel’s pole was his fourth this season and his first since Canada in June. It came after a dominant performance throughout the weekend.
Hulkenberg put Sauber into the top 10 for the first time this season with a sensational performance – and at the perfect time, as he is one of the drivers in the frame for a Ferrari drive next season.
Ferrari had attempted to get Alonso on to the front row by running Massa ahead of the Spaniard on all his qualifying laps in order to try to provide a ‘tow’ – a boost of straight-line speed because of reduced drag.
But starting his final lap Alonso, who had been second to Vettel in the second part of qualifying, complained over the radio that “Felipe is too far ahead”.
Despite that, two thirds of the way around his final lap Alonso was only fractionally slower than Vettel’s benchmark time from the German’s first run, but then seemed to lose out in the last sector and Massa was able to sneak ahead of him.
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg took sixth ahead of Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo, with the McLarens of Sergio Perez and Jenson Button eighth and ninth and the second Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne 10th.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m23.755s 2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m23.968s +0.213s 3. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m24.065s +0.310s 4. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m24.132s +0.377s 5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m24.142s +0.387s 6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m24.192s +0.437s 7. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m24.209s +0.454s 8. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.502s +0.747s 9. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.515s +0.760s 10. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m28.050s +4.295s Q2 cut-off time: 1m24.776s 11. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m24.610s +0.633s 12. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m24.803s +0.826s 13. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m24.848s +0.871s 14. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m24.932s +0.955s 15. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m25.011s +1.034s 16. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m25.077s +1.100s Q1 cut-off time: 1m25.030s 17. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m25.226s +0.907s 18. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m25.291s +0.972s 19. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m26.406s +2.087s 20. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m26.563s +2.244s 21. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1m27.085s +2.766s 22. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m27.480s +3.161s