Lewis Hamilton claims his twelfth Pole Position of the season at the Italian GP

During Q1, we saw on track that Marcus Ericsson kept Nico Hulkenberg behind him while Hulkenberg was on a flying lap during the final corner. Hulkenberg struggled to get by and Ericsson could be investigated by the stewards for impeding. While at the end of the session, Max Verstappen saw his engine cover come completely off his Toro Rosso and was eliminated from Q1 for the first time in his F1 career.
Within Q2, we did see Daniel Ricciardo who had to change his Renault engine just before qualifying, with the Red Bull team doing a sterling job to complete this in an hour and forty minutes; did complete one installation lap but did not set a time and was eliminated from Q2.
But it was Lewis Hamilton who claimed his twelfth Pole Position of the season; his seventh consecutive Pole Position in a row and the 49th Pole of his career with a lap time of 1.23.397 ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in second place who was 0.234 seconds behind him and managed at the last second to out-qualify his team mate Sebastian Vettel who finished in third place who was 0.288 seconds behind the Mercedes of Hamilton.
Nico Rosberg qualified in what many people wasn't expecting which was fourth place ahead of the Williams drivers of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas in fifth and sixth places. Sergio Perez ended the session in seventh place after his promising form so far this weekend ahead of Romain Grosjean in eighth place, Nico Hulkenberg in ninth place and Marcus Ericsson who rounded off the top ten finishers of the session.
Pastor Maldonado ended the session by qualifying eleventh place ahead of Felipe Nasr in twelfth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in thirteenth place and of the two Red Bull drivers of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo in fourteenth place and fifteenth places; with both drivers struggling all weekend so far to be competitive.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Jenson Button qualified in sixteenth place ahead of his team mate Fernando Alonso and Will Stevens finishing in seventeenth and eighteenth places ahead of Roberto Merhi in nineteenth place and Max Verstappen in twentieth place.

The classification of Qualifying for the Italian GP is as follows:-

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.23.397
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 0.234s
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.288s
4. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 0.306s
5. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 0.543s
6. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 0.730s
7. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.229s
8. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 1.657s
9. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.920s
10. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.817s*
11. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 1.24.525
12. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.24.898
13. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.25.618
14. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 1.25.796
15. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, No Time
16. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.26.058
17. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.26.154
18. Will Stevens, Manor, 1.27.731
19. Roberto Merhi, Manor, 1.27.912
20. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, No Time

[NB. Marcus Ericsson has been handed a three place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hulkenberg during Q1 and will now start the race in thirteenth place].

[There will also be grid penalties applied to Carlos Sainz Jr, Daniil Kvyat, Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Max Verstappen.]

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa

photo courtesy of @MercedesAMGF1