Lewis Hamilton drew level with legendary racing drivers Juan Manuel Fangio and Ayrton Senna in the record books on Saturday when he flew to pole ahead of Nico Rosberg for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
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It was Hamilton’s third successive pole at the Italian event and his fifth in all at Monza, a feat that equalled those of Argentine Fangio and Brazilian Senna.
The British defending world champion dominated all three sessions in qualifying to post a best time of 1 minute 21.135 seconds for the 56th pole position of his career.
The records continue to fall for Hamilton and, with a nine-point advantage over Rosberg, the Stevenage-born racer is now the odds-on favourite to join only a handful of drivers to win four titles.
Behind Mercedes come Ferrari duo Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, with the Scuderia desperate for a strong weekend in front of their passionate fans in the midst of a dismal season so far.
Valtteri Bottas in a Williams qualified fifth, followed by the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. “I just had a small lock up into Turn One and ultimately for the race tomorrow you want everything to be ideal”.
Hamilton’s best lap in one minute and 21.135 seconds was not only almost half a second faster than Rosberg, but also more than 2.2 seconds quicker than the pole lap time he clocked a year ago.
Raikkonen was third after the first runs, ahead of Vettel by nearly three tenths, with Valtteri Bottas fifth for Williams ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who was a tenth up on teammate Max Verstappen.
“Lewis did some good laps and that was it”, said Rosberg.
“It’s been a really good day”, said Hamilton.
In Q1, Esteban Ocon was unable to put in a lap time before he had to pull his Manor over to the side of the track at the first chicane with an electrical problem, the same issue that caused him to stop on track on Friday.
Williams’ Felipe Massa – who announced Thursday he will retire at the end of this season – and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were among those eliminated in Q2.
In their first run in Q3 Hamilton was faster by three-tenths of a second.
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Mercedes went out on the soft tyres in Q2 so they would be able to start the race on the yellow-marked rubber. Romain Grosjean was just behind but he has a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. Carlos Sainz Jr. was 16 for Toro Rosso.
