Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Monza

Image source, EPA

Another strong performance from Alex Albon put the Williams sixth on the grid, on a track where the team expected to be strong with such an efficient car.

“We came into here hoping to get into Q3 so P6 is great,” Albon said. “The quick cars are ahead of us in terms of race pace so that’s fine. I’m not really racing them. It’s the Astons, McLarens, maybe we can do something against them. It was the first ‘normal’ qualifying we have had for so long, weird to have so many laps to build into it.

“The car has been feeling good. Before qualifying we were changing it every session. It’s one of the weekends we haven’t hit the ground running, but by qualifying we were dialled in and the car feels good. We have quite a lot of rear deg so let’s see how that goes. We need to use these weekends to try and pull that gap from a constructors point of view because apart from here and Vegas this is it in terms of tracks that favour us.”

Team-mate Logan Sargeant, who is under pressure for his seat because he is not making enough progress in closing the gap to Albon, did himself no favours by qualifying 15th, nearly 0.7secs off Albon in second qualifying.

Image source, Getty Images

Gone are the days of the Williams straggling behind the rest of the field. In 2023, Alex Albon is disappointed he didn't put his car in the top five at the end of the pole position shootout.

Coming off the back of an impressive P4 qualifying at the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend, Albon said he was looking strong in Q1 and Q2 but overall, he was happy with his Q3 lap.

"I felt like we did a good job, we executed it well," said the 27-year-old.

"It was just not quite top five - I guess in some ways that was a bit of an aim. But let’s see [Sunday]."

The pit lane opened a few moments ago but Liam Lawson already has an issue with his Alpha Tauri. "My left mirror has come loose," says the 21-year-old. "It's disconnected from the frame."

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Liam Lawson is continuing his audition for a 2024 race seat, sitting in for Daniel Ricciardo while the Australian recovers from the broken hand he sustained at Zandvoort practice last week.

The 21-year-old from New Zealand put his Alpha Tauri 12th on the grid for today's Italian Grand Prix and was only a tenth off his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who qualified in P11.

Lawson started in P19 for his debut at the Dutch Grand Prix and finished the race in 13th place - two spots above Japanese driver Tsunoda.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Monza

Image source, Getty Images

George Russell caught himself and the Mercedes team by surprise with fourth place on the grid. Russell was a chunky 0.3secs behind the top three, but this was a track where Mercedes expected to struggle with a draggy car. They were 10km/h down on the fastest cars on the straight, but still Russell managed to get on to the second row. For Russell, it was confirmation that a change in approach since the summer break was paying dividends, a week after he qualified third in Zandvoort.

“Lost my way a bit before the break,” Russell said. “Just focusing on the main points. The tyres are a huge factor, slightly going back to basics, not trying to reinvent the wheel with set-ups, and just accepting the pace of the car. P4 was the maximum potential. But if I went in trying to do a lap for pole, trying to find three 0.3secs, I would have ended up in the gravel because 0.3secs extra is just not possible.”

As for the race, Russell said: “I think we’ll have good race pace. Tyre deg doesn’t look high. Never really is here in Monza. With the skinny rear wings, overtaking isn’t actually that easy because even when you open the DRS, you only gain 0.1-0.2secs. I expect to have better tyre deg than Ferrari so our only chance is to be faster at pit stops and do something slightly different.”

Lewis Hamilton is down in eighth place, and very unhappy he was about it, too. “I lost it all in I think the second or last sector. Up in the first, a bit of the second. Just struggling with the car.”

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are locked in for at least two more years at Mercedes after confirming their deals with the team this week but the pair had contrasting fortunes in qualifying.

Russell was happy with his P4 and felt it "slightly exceeded expectations", while Hamilton said his Saturday in the Italian sunshine was a "real challenge" and "not fun".

When asked how he was feeling before Sunday's race, Russell said: "Feeling good. Especially my side of the garage. We set the car up more for the race than we did in qualifying. That’s why I’m very pleased to be P4."

Hamilton, who has a record seven pole positions at Monza, added: "I was just slow from the get-go. It started off great in FP1, and then it just got away from us.

"Didn’t feel the car underneath me, and I can’t pinpoint what it is but very slow today."

No restrictions on what compounds can be used today; the alternative tyre allocation trialled in qualifying is put to bed for the 53-lap grand prix.

Teams do have two sets less than a normal weekend, however, in the drive to improve sustainability.

The softest rubber in the Pirelli range is on offer this time around, with the C3 the hard, the C4 the medium and the C5 the red-banded soft tyre.

Image source, Pirelli Motorsport

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Monza

Image source, Getty Images

Oscar Piastri continues to impress in his rookie season for McLaren, qualifying seventh, two places and just under 0.2secs quicker than team-mate Lando Norris. A week after messing up his final run at the Dutch Grand Prix, after looking quick all weekend, he said his qualifying at Monza had been the diametric opposite.

Piastri said: “Last week I was happy with every lap until the last one and this week was probably the opposite, not that happy with all the laps until the last one. The last lap I did was pretty solid. Until that point I felt like I hadn’t really nailed a lap. I had been struggling all weekend to nail a lap, just through my driving, and through a car that has been a bit tricky to drive this weekend. I feel like when it mattered, I felt like I did a decent job today. I can be happy with that.”

Like Mercedes, McLaren had been worried that this was going to be a bad weekend for them - their car also suffers from high drag, and unlike the Mercedes, it is also a struggle in slow corners - so they were content with their grid positions in the circumstances, and by how a new low-drag rear wing had given them the boost it had promised in simulations.

“Long straights don’t fit the characteristics of the car,” team principal Andrea Stella said, “and the second is low-speed corners - we lose quite a lot of time in the first and second chicanes. So no surprises in a way. We thought the gap to the pole could be even bigger. Actually we have achieved some progress. But more work is required to be quick on the straights and low-speed corners.”

Image source, Getty Images

Red Bull arrive at Monza having won all 13 races so far this season and have nine more to go to complete the first 'perfect' year by a Formula 1 team.

The closest we've come to perfection previously was in 1988 when McLaren won 15 of the 16 races with their legendary MP4/4.

The one that got away? Monza.

Ayrton Senna - who would go on to pip team-mate Alain Prost to the drivers' title - was leading the Italian Grand Prix in the closing stages when he attempted to lap the Williams of Jean-Louis Schlesser.

Schlesser, deputising for an ill Nigel Mansell, locked up at the first chicane and punted Senna into retirement.

The tifosi roared in joy as the Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alberto swept by Senna's stricken McLaren for a famous one-two.

Could history repeat itself and Monza be where Red Bull's streak is stopped?

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Monza

Image source, Getty Images

A world record is up for grabs in the Italian Grand Prix, and who is going to stop it happening? Max Verstappen is on the cusp of a 10th consecutive grand prix victory. His Red Bull might start between the two Ferraris, with Carlos Sainz on pole and Charles Leclerc third, but while Sainz was professing after his excellent qualifying performance that “nothing is impossible”, few expect the Ferraris to be able to hold back Verstappen in the race.

The world championship leader certainly doesn’t sound too concerned about being behind a Ferrari in qualifying on merit for the first time since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

“Not really surprised,” Verstappen said. “They were quick also last year. Also when you look at their rear wing, it seems like it's quite well optimised for Monza where I think our wing, especially for one lap, is maybe not the best optimisation but for the race normally it should be better. Here in Monza it’s always very tight. Sometimes you might jump ahead, sometimes you're just behind but I'm confident.”

Image source, Getty Images

Max Verstappen has won from lower positions than second during his dominant run in Formula 1, so can the Dutchman pass Carlos Sainz and secure that 10th consecutive victory today?

If he does, the win would also be Verstappen's 12th out of 14 races this season, and his 26th victory from the past 35 grands prix covering the start of the 2022 season to the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend.

His superior form has also seen him bring home 303 of Red Bull's 540 points so far this year, thanks to his 11 victories, six fastest laps and a total of 22 points from the three sprint events.

Image source, Getty Images

Carlos Sainz was on pole position three times during the 2022 season but only one of those front-row spots were turned into a race victory the following day.

The 29-year-old took his maiden win in Formula 1 at the incident-packed British Grand Prix at Silverstone last year but he has yet to even make the podium during the 2023 campaign.

His highest finishing position so far this year has been fourth at the season opener in Bahrain in March.

Image source, Getty Images

Charles Leclerc is starting third, and he has Max Verstappen and his mighty Red Bull just in front of him, but if the Monegasque man and Carlos Sainz do manage to come home in first and second at Monza today, it will be the first time Ferrari has finished on the top two steps of the podium since Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher in 2004.

Image source, Getty Images

The tifosi went berserk in the stands when Carlos Sainz beat out Max Verstappen yesterday and both the Spaniard and Charles Leclerc have been praising the feverish support they receive at the 'Temple of Speed'.

"In the hotel, arriving to the track, everywhere we go, it’s just noise, support and encouragement, and it’s the best feeling you can have as a driver, as an athlete," said Sainz.

Leclerc added: "They are just incredible. I don't smile very often when I'm P3 but... obviously being here and having that much support is an amazing feeling."

Image source, Getty Images

Carlos Sainz starts on pole today at the Italian Grand Prix, he told Sky Sports before the race: "It was a great day for me yesterday but now it's Sunday and it's time to focus on the race. I think we are in a great position to target the win, at the same time we are realistic, we know Red Bull have the quicker race pace and a quicker car. But I'm optimistic and I'm positive about today and I'm going to give it my all to try and get the win for the tifosi."

On tyre degradation, he added: "It's particularly warm today, particularly sunny compared to the rest of the weekend, so I do expect a tougher race with tyres and tougher degradation. I think it's going to be a tougher race for everyone but we know realistically the car suffers a bit more with this kind of situation, but I don't care I'm going to go in and try to do the best I can."

On dreaming about the win, he said: "I've been dreaming all weekend. I thought the pole position was possible yesterday, I woke up with that feeling and it happened. I also woke up with a feeling that it was possible to win so let's see if we can make it happen."

Image source, EPA

The special livery and race suits came up trumps for Ferrari on Saturday as eventual polesitter Carlos Sainz and team-mate Charles Leclerc were battling at the front of the pack for the best position on the grid.

Fans were on the edge of their seats as pole position switched between Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Sainz in the dying moments of Q3.

Sainz, who celebrated his 29th birthday on Friday, beat Red Bull's Verstappen by 0.013 seconds.

"My birthday yesterday gave me something extra and today I put in one of my best laps to get pole," said Sainz after the session.

A warning to every driver on the grid: Nico Rosberg is a part of the telly broadcast team for Sky Sports today and is taking selfies all over the paddock, so keep your eyes peeled for the 'Rosberg curse'.

Meanwhile, in the stands, the fans have brought out their finest flags and banners.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Formula 1

Championship leader Max Verstappen is the meaty filling between two slices of Ferrari bread as the Dutchman aims for that all-time consecutive wins record on the Italian team's turf.

Alex Albon is once again in the thick of things in the Williams in P6, while Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are down the order in P8 and 10th place.

Liam Lawson put his Alpha Tauri into Q2 on Saturday and will line up 12th on the grid, just one spot below temporary team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.

While we go along this afternoon, have a listen to the Chequered Flag podcast, as the 5 Live F1 team dissect yesterday's Italian Grand Prix qualifying session.

Have a listen on BBC Sounds

Hello again, folks. The big day has arrived and the Italian Grand Prix is just around the banked corner.

The weather is glorious here at BBC Sport HQ in Salford and Monza is equally bathed in warm sunshine.

Lights out for what we hope will be a cracker are at 14:00 BST.

Rosanna Tennant, Harry Benjamin and Jolyon Palmer will be with us just before the race start.

Commentary is only-online and available to listen to at the top of this page using the audio icon.