Gasly took maiden pole as Alpine stuns Monza
NXTbets Pro | Published On: September 5, 2026
Gasly pole breakthrough
Pierre Gasly delivered the result Alpine had chased for years, taking the first Formula 1 pole of his career at Monza and doing it in his 190th Grand Prix start. Gasly put together a pole-winning lap of 1:21.786 and beat George Russell by 0.060 seconds. The French driver turned a session Alpine had targeted as a push for Q3 into a breakthrough at the front of the grid, then said the team kept finding more speed as qualifying unfolded. He said he did not expect to fight for pole at Monza, but he felt a real chance once he reached Q3 and saw his pace improve. “It’s been nine years chasing it!” Gasly said. The lap gave Alpine a result that carried extra weight after a difficult weekend for the team and after it lost a Monaco podium on appeal.
Alpine pace rise
Alpine’s pace at Monza came from more than one fast lap. The team brought a recent upgrade and used its strong straight-line speed to stay in the fight through qualifying. Gasly said Alpine came to the weekend with a modest target, then kept building momentum each time it went back out. That made the pole more than a surprise. It became a sign that the package worked at Monza. The pole also ended a long wait for the team. Alpine’s previous Formula 1 pole came from Fernando Alonso at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix. Gasly’s effort also gave France a fresh milestone. He became the first French driver to take pole position since Jean Alesi in 1997. For Alpine, the session offered a rare lift after a stretch that had demanded patience. For Gasly, it delivered the one thing that had eluded him across 190 starts, and it came with the kind of clean, decisive lap that leaves no doubt about the achievement.
Monza grid order
Russell lined up second behind Gasly, with Oscar Piastri third, Charles Leclerc fourth, Lewis Hamilton fifth and Max Verstappen sixth. Kimi Antonelli qualified seventh, then was set to start from the back of the grid because of a power-unit penalty. Franco Colapinto took eighth for Alpine, giving the team another car inside the top eight. The order reflected a session in which Gasly and Alpine held their speed through the final runs and kept the larger names behind them. Piastri, Leclerc, Hamilton and Verstappen filled the next four positions and gave the front half of the grid a familiar look, even as Alpine stole the headline. Antonelli’s qualifying effort would not carry over in full because of the penalty, but his seventh-place result still showed how close the field ran behind the top two. Colapinto’s eighth-place run rounded out a strong session for Alpine and underlined the team’s pace on a track where straight-line speed can make the difference.
