Lewis Hamilton extended his dominance of the Italian Grand Prix into a third successive year by claiming an emphatic pole position ahead of his championship rival Nico Rosberg.
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Hamilton topped the timesheets on Friday afternoon, and the championship leader was fastest again on Saturday morning with a best lap of one minute and 22.008 seconds.
Ferrari has spent its three remaining engine development tokens on an upgrade this weekend, meaning Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel have the best specificiation the team will have in 2016.
Come the end of FP3 Red Bull found itself fourth in the pecking order behind both Williams cars as Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa finished fifth and sixth quickest respectively, 1.492s and 1.639s down, with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen in close attendance.
Hamilton, whose pole time of one minute 21.135 seconds was almost half a second faster than Rosberg, leads the German by nine points in the championship with eight rounds remaining.
The drivers will face hot temperatures in free practice and qualifying, but the threat of thunderstorms on Sunday could make for an unpredictable race.
“Overtaking up front is very hard so pole position is definitely a good place to start”, Hamilton said.
The reigning world champion clocked a 1m22.801s on the super-soft tyres to finish 0.193 seconds clear of Rosberg.
Vettel however, was still almost one second slower than Hamilton with Mercedes, who have won all but one of the 13 grands prix so far this season, arguably further ahead here than they have been at any stage this season.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso was seventh, while his team-mate Jenson Button, whose future in the sport remains shrouded in uncertainty, finished 10th, 1.7 seconds slower than Hamilton.
After tangling with Ferrari cars in last weekend’s Belgian GP, the 18-year-old Verstappen put his Red Bull in the way of Rosberg on the Monza circuit.
Hamilton is aiming for his 50th career win on Sunday. The halos could be introduced for races in 2018.
While the deal hasn’t been officially signed yet, Ecclestone said it’s just a matter of “small details” at this point.
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Based on his previous record, Hamilton should be enthused by the extension.
