Sainz beats Verstappen to claim home pole for Ferrari
Verstappen looked set to seal another pole after completing his final run of Q3 but Sainz produced a superb lap in his Ferrari to snatch pole away from the Red Bull driver by just 0.013s at the death as he delighted a raucous Tifosi crowd.
It marks Sainz’s first pole at Monza and is just the fourth time this season a non-Red Bull driver has topped qualifying.
Charles Leclerc, who briefly sat at the top of the timesheets, completed a strong performance for Ferrari to take third as just 0.067s separated the top three.
A great lap from George Russell put his Mercedes onto the second row and ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Perez, while Alex Albon starred again for Williams to claim an impressive sixth.
Oscar Piastri took seventh ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, McLaren teammate Lando Norris and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, who completed the top-10 order.
The AlphaTauris of Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson both missed out on a spot in Q3 as they took 11th and 12th, just ahead of Nico Hulkenberg.
Valtteri Bottas was 14th-fastest, with Williams’ Logan Sargeant splitting the Alfa Romeo pair ahead of Zhou Guanyu in 16th.
It was a dreadful qualifying for Alpine with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon both suffering Q1 eliminations.
The French duo will line up on the penultimate row of the grid for Sunday’s race in 17th and 18th, ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas and Lance Stroll.
The Aston Martin driver, who only turned his first competitive lap of the weekend in FP3 on Saturday morning, was slowest of all in 20th.
