Gasly's surprise pole at Monza prompts Toto Wolff to strike his timing console in frustration

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly denied George Russell pole position at the Italian Grand Prix by a margin of just 0.060 seconds in Q3 at Monza, triggering a visible outburst from Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who was filmed striking his garage timing console in frustration.

Mercedes leaned into the moment, sharing their own behind-the-scenes footage of Wolff’s reaction with the caption: “This goes out to all computer screens, we’re sorry — we just really wanted that Pole for George Russell. But congratulations to Alpine.” The clip had been viewed more than 134,000 times within hours of being posted, with one fan commenting: “Angry Toto, we missed you!”

Wolff was unapologetic about his reaction. “I just cared so much for George to be on pole,” he said when asked about the incident. “He was the quickest car out there. And then we got compromised in the last lap, so… yeah, that was annoying.”

Despite his frustration, Wolff was generous toward Gasly and Alpine, who run Mercedes customer engines. “I’m happy for Alpine,” he said. “We played a little part in there and them being on pole is something different, and they’ve done a good job.”

Wolff also cautioned against dismissing Gasly as a race-day threat. “You always need to take everybody seriously. They have a huge amount of straightline speed. They’ve taken away a lot of drag. And on a single lap, that proved to be what is necessary. The race is a completely different ballgame. So we shall see.”

Russell will line up alongside Gasly on the front row for the Italian Grand Prix. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri qualified third but received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Liam Lawson at Turn 2, promoting Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to third and fourth on the grid respectively.