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Pierre Gasly Takes First Career Pole at Monza
Pierre Gasly has waited nearly a decade for this. When it finally arrived, it came at the one place that already defines his Formula 1 story.
On a hot Saturday at Monza, the Frenchman delivered the lap of his life to take his first career pole position for the Italian Grand Prix, at the same circuit where he scored his unforgettable maiden F1 win in 2020.
This time, it was not chaos or strategy or luck. It was pure, unfiltered speed.
Gasly leaves it to the last breath
With two minutes left in Q3, the pit lane fell quiet. All 10 remaining cars sat in the garages, engines cooling, tyres wrapped, drivers alone with their thoughts. Gasly was only third. The final runs would decide everything.
Out on track, George Russell struck first. The Mercedes driver, already on provisional pole, found more time and punched in a 1:21.846. It looked strong. It looked decisive.
Gasly went last.
As the clock hit zero, the Alpine swept through the final corner and charged to the line. When the time flashed up – 1:21.786 – it was enough. By six hundredths of a second, he had beaten Russell and taken his first ever pole.
“Let's go! I've been waiting for that one!” he roared over the team radio, years of frustration bursting out in a single shout.
In parc fermé, Charles Leclerc, fourth fastest, walked over to offer a handshake. Gasly climbed out of the Alpine, raised a fist to the grandstands and let the moment sink in. Nine seasons in Formula 1. One win. No poles. Until now.
“It was amazing. Thank you everyone. It was an incredible quali,” he said afterwards. “From the first lap in Q1, I felt very good in the car, trying to chip a little bit away every single session and then, yeah, in the end, it felt like a very good lap.
“But I'm so happy. It's been nine years trying to chase and get the opportunity to get a pole position. Win my first race in Monza, get my first pole position on this track I think is something special.”
Special barely covers it.
Russell denied after off-track duel
Russell will line up alongside Gasly on the front row, but even before they went wheel to wheel at 350 km/h, the two had already squared off.
The Mercedes driver revealed that the pair had been playing chess in the moments before qualifying began. Russell lost that game and fancied revenge where it really counts.
“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,” Russell said with a laugh. “So huge congrats to him.”
Behind them, the grid reshuffled in the stewards’ room as much as on the tarmac.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri set the third-fastest time, but a penalty for impeding dropped him to sixth on Sunday’s grid. That promoted others into cleaner air and gave the race a different complexion before a wheel had turned.
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli qualified only seventh for Mercedes, then saw his prospects worsen with an engine penalty that will force him to start from the pit lane. It opens a rare window for the rest of the field to attack without the dominant title favourite planted near the front.
Piastri’s Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto will start seventh, just ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who arrives in Monza on the back of two straight victories and now faces a heavier lift if he wants a third.
The ingredients for a chaotic Sunday are all there.
A pole won in the shadow of a podium lost
Gasly’s pole comes with a sting in the background. Only a day earlier, he had watched a Monaco podium slip through his fingers – not on track, but in the stewards’ offices, three months after the race.
He had originally finished third in the principality, celebrated on the podium, and then been handed two 10-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane. Those penalties dropped him to seventh and elevated Red Bull Racing’s Isack Hadjar to third.
Alpine fought back, requesting a review and winning it, which briefly restored Gasly to third place. Red Bull Racing and McLaren then filed their own petition to reinstate the penalties – and this time they won. The Monaco podium disappeared for a second time.
For many drivers, that kind of whiplash would linger. Gasly answered it the only way that really matters in this sport: by going faster than everyone else.
A career that keeps circling back to Monza
Gasly’s relationship with Monza runs deep.
He took his only Formula 1 victory here in 2020, a shock win for AlphaTauri (now Racing Bulls) that instantly became one of the defining underdog stories of the hybrid era. Now, four years later, he returns to the top of the timesheets at the same track, this time in Alpine blue.
His path to this point has been anything but straightforward. Gasly made his F1 debut in 2017 at the Malaysian Grand Prix, stepping in for Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso. That team evolved into AlphaTauri and is now Racing Bulls, but the Frenchman moved on, joining Alpine in 2023.
He committed his future to the French outfit last year with a contract extension through 2028, a clear signal that both team and driver see this as a long-term project. Days like this are exactly what they signed up for.
The numbers behind his career remain modest compared to the sport’s serial winners, but they tell their own story of persistence and opportunism. Five podiums in total:
- 2nd place at the 2019 Brazil Grand Prix with Toro Rosso
- 1st place at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix with AlphaTauri
- 3rd place at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix with AlphaTauri
- 3rd place at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix with Alpine
- 3rd place at the 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix with Alpine
One win. Now, one pole. Both at Monza.
On Sunday, he has the clearest shot yet at adding another line to that list. The question is no longer whether Pierre Gasly belongs at the front of a Formula 1 grid.
It’s how far this Monza story can go.
