Gasly snatches shock Monza pole hours after FIA strips him of Monaco podium

Pierre Gasly secured his first Formula 1 pole position at the Italian Grand Prix on Saturday, edging Mercedes’ George Russell by 0.060s at Monza — less than 24 hours after the FIA’s International Court of Appeal ruled to strip him of his Monaco Grand Prix podium.

The ICA overturned the Monaco stewards’ earlier decision to reinstate Gasly’s third-place finish, upholding the original pitlane speeding penalties after the pitlane speed measurements were found to have been inaccurate. Gasly, who had crossed the Monaco finish line third, been demoted to seventh, recovered to third and is now classified seventh in the final standings, was blunt when asked whether the ruling had provided extra motivation heading into qualifying.

“I don’t think I can say much about this and all I can say is it’s not a nice situation, not ideal,” the Alpine driver said. “Obviously, I try to use everything I can into something positive and extra motivation, but I think I could have dealt without it this weekend.”

The pole was far from inevitable given Gasly’s practice form. He missed Free Practice 1 to allow Alpine reserve driver Paul Aron to fulfil his mandatory rookie running, finished 14th in FP2 and ninth in FP3. The turnaround in qualifying — first in Q1, fourth in Q2, fastest in Q3 — was, in Gasly’s words, a product of “perfect execution” from the team.

“We knew that there was a bit more on the table in the practice sessions,” he said. “My last lap, managed to target slightly over 2.5 seconds behind Lewis [Hamilton] when he was going to be fast and sort of drag me with him. The car balance is probably one of the best I’ve had so far this year — gave me the confidence to attack all these corners.”

Converting pole into victory will be a different challenge. Most of the frontrunners line up directly behind Gasly on the grid. The one notable absentee from the sharp end is championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who will start from 20th after exceeding his power unit allocation — a development that removes one complication for Gasly but does nothing to thin out the queue of faster machinery behind him.

“I’m starting first, got no one ahead of me,” Gasly said. “I just got to focus on my driving and I know what it looks like having no one around this track, so that’s a good advantage and probably the best place to do it.”