Gasly snatches shock Monza pole from Russell by 0.060s to claim first career front row start

Pierre Gasly secured his first-ever Formula 1 pole position at Monza on Saturday, outpacing pre-session favourite George Russell by a razor-thin 0.060 seconds in the final moments of qualifying. The result marks a landmark moment for the Alpine driver, who arrived at the Italian Grand Prix best known at this circuit for his emotional victory there in 2020 — still his only F1 race win.

Russell was gracious in defeat at the post-qualifying press conference, though he could not resist revealing a curious subplot to the afternoon. The pair had been mid-game on Chess.com just 15 minutes before qualifying began, with Gasly winning that encounter too.

“Massive congrats to Pierre because that’s an incredible performance,” Russell said. “We were actually finishing a game of chess about 15 minutes before qualifying and 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. So, yeah, huge congrats to him. Of course, I was disappointed not to get the pole position.”

Gasly explained that he had only discovered Russell’s passion for the game during the drivers’ briefing on Friday evening, after which the two exchanged accounts on the platform and immediately began playing.

“Since the briefing last night, I figured out that he’s obsessed with chess,” Gasly said. “I am obsessed with chess. We have a few in the paddock, a few drivers, to be obsessed with it. So, we’ve just exchanged our IDs on Chess.com and we’ve had a little game going on, one yesterday, another one that carried on to today.”

Gasly added that his performance coach Ben Thorne had jokingly warned him before the session that Russell would have his revenge on track. “Before the quali, I felt pretty confident because I was picking piece after piece,” Gasly said. “Ben told me, ‘Well, you’re getting George here, but he’s going to get you in a few minutes.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, fuck off.’ Turned out it worked out well.”

Chess has quietly become a notable pastime in the F1 paddock. Ferrari teammates Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are known to play regularly, and Carlos Sainz is also an enthusiast. For Gasly, however, Saturday’s double victory — board and track — will be the one that matters most heading into Sunday’s race at the Temple of Speed.