Lewis Hamilton will start on the pole for the Italian Grand Prix after beating Mercedes teammate and championship rival Nico Rosberg in Saturday's qualifying.
Hamilton made a lap around the 3.6-mile (5.793-kilomter), 11-turn Monza circuit in 1 minute, 24.109 seconds to claim his fifth pole of the season but his first since May in the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. It's also his 36th career pole in Formula One. Hamilton had the quickest lap in each of the three qualifying rounds.
Sunday's 53-lap Italian Grand Prix is the 13th round on this year's 19-race F1 calendar. Rosberg currently holds a 29-point lead over Hamilton in the world championship standings.
This is the sixth time this season that Mercedes has swept the front row. Hamilton and Rosberg have also started from the first row in the grand prix in Bahrain, Spain, Monaco, Canada and Belgium.
"I feel very excited about tomorrow," Hamilton said. "We've done this as a team. It's great to have another 1-2 for the team. I'm really proud that I could be up here for them."
Hamilton started on the pole and won the Italian GP in 2012. He also started first in this race in 2009 but finished 12th.
Rosberg's final lap in qualifying was clocked in 1:24.383. He had won the pole for the previous four grand prix -- Great Britain, Germany, Hungary and Belgium.
"It was an okay lap," Rosberg said. "Second place is still a good position for tomorrow. It's a long race, and anything can happen."
The Williams duo of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa qualified third and fourth, respectively, while Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button placed their McLarens fifth and sixth on the grid in that order.
Fernando Alonso from Ferrari was seventh, followed by Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel, the four-time F1 world champion and defending winner of the Italian GP, and Daniel Ricciardo, who is coming off back-to-back victories in Hungary and Belgium. Force India's Sergio Perez completed the top-10.
Monza is the home race for Ferrari, which has its headquarters located in Maranello, Italy, roughly 125 miles southeast of this circuit.
Kimi Raikkonen, driving for Ferrari this year, qualified 12th. Raikkonen, though, will move up one position on the grid since 11th-place finisher Daniil Kvyat from Toro Rosso received a 10-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change.
[SportsNetwork.com]
