Italian GP: Hamilton storms to Monza pole

Rosberg was on a run of three consecutive poles, but Hamilton scored his seventh pole of 2016, his third consecutive pole at the Italian GP venue and his fifth career top spot at Monza.

The only cloud on Hamilton's horizon is a flatspot on the set of soft tyres he will start the race on.

Sebastian Vettel qualified third for Ferrari, ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Story of the session

Rosberg set the benchmark in Q3 with a lap of 1m21.646s, but suffered a scruffy exit of the Roggia chicane, which meant Hamilton was well clear with his 1m21.358s opener.

Hamilton then improved his pole time to 1m21.135s, with Rosberg only making a tiny gain to 1m21.613s, which was 0.478s clear.

Raikkonen was third after the first runs, ahead of Vettel by almost three tenths, with Valtteri Bottas fifth for Williams ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, who was a tenth up on teammate Max Verstappen.

Vettel snatched third from Raikkonen at his second attempt, eight tenths off Hamilton, with Bottas staying fifth, ahead of Ricciardo, Verstappen and the Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.

In Haas's first-ever Q3 appearance, Esteban Gutierrez suffered an off at Lesmo 2 on his opening effort. He will start 10^th.

Massa out of Q2, Wehrlein stars

On the weekend of the announcement of his impending retirement from F1, Felipe Massa was knocked out of the top-10 shootout by Hulkenberg by just 0.016s.

Haas's Romain Grosjean set the 12^th fastest time, but will start 17^th due to a five-place grid penalty for an engine change.

That promotes McLaren's Fernando Alonso to 12^th, who complained "I didn't feel the power – losing on the straights, unfortunately".

Pascal Wehrlein was an impressive 14^th fastest, which will be 13^th on the grid for Manor, ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button and Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso.

Hamilton was on top in this session with a 1m21.498s on soft tyres, gaining three tenths on Rosberg in the final sector alone, but locked up on his flying lap on the set of tyres he's destined to start the race on.

That forced him to run again on a new set of softs, but failed to improve – which forces him to start on a set that has a flatspot. He said: "I've got a small flat spot on this right-front."

Like Mercedes, the Red Bulls also ran the soft tyres on their first runs which put Verstappen and Ricciardo ninth and 10^th – but with a half-second advantage. However, they bailed out of that gamble and ran supersofts for their second attempts.

Alonso escapes Q1 by 0.042s

A great lap from Wehrlein saw him safely through to Q2, which put Alonso under pressure on the bubble.

But Daniil Kvyat failed to make Q2 again in his Toro Rosso, just failing to pip Alonso by 0.042s. "Last corner, again," complained Kvyat between swear words.

Sauber's Felipe Nasr will start 18^th, rueing "that misfire cost us a shot", but was still a tenth faster than teammate Marcus Ericsson.

Jolyon Palmer was the fastest Renault in 20th, complaining about a lack of straightline speed, but two tenths off the Saubers. His teammate Magnussen, in a new chassis after his massive shunt at Spa last Sunday, ran wide through the gravel on the exit of Ascari on his final attempt.

Manor's Esteban Ocon failed to complete a lap, pulling off at the first corner with an electrical failure. "I'm stopped at Turn 1," he confirmed.

Hamilton set the pace in this session with a 1m21.854s on supersofts, 0.643s clear of Rosberg.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'21.135
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'21.613	0.478
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'21.972	0.837
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'22.065	0.930
5	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	1'22.388	1.253
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	1'22.389	1.254
7	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	1'22.411	1.276
8	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	1'22.814	1.679
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	1'22.836	1.701
10	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	Ferrari	1'23.184	2.049
11	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	1'22.967	1.832
12	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	1'23.273	2.138
13	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	Mercedes	1'23.315	2.180
14	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	1'23.399	2.264
15	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	1'23.496	2.361
16	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	1'23.825	2.690
17	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	1'23.092	1.957
18	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	1'23.956	2.821
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	1'24.087	2.952
20	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	1'24.230	3.095
21	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	Renault	1'24.436	3.301
22	Esteban Ocon	Manor	Mercedes