Fernando Alonso took pole position for tomorrow's race at Monza. Not only this, he did it with a surprising pace advantage over his rivals. It's also Ferrari's first pole since about 1961, or something. And in Italy of all places.
The conventional wisdom had been that this would be a McLaren track, and Jenson Button performed with some vigour to complete the front row, just over a tenth back. He's gone with a larger rear wing and an f-duct, showing admirable calm in the face of people who should know better (like me!) telling him it was the wrong way to go. If anything it was Lewis who chose the wrong path, as he lines up fifth, having faded away in a curious fashion in final qually.
Jenson's extra downforce may give him a strong run to, and under braking for, the first corner tomorrow, though on the flip side, he's been slow through the speed traps and anyone that gets a sniff of his slipstream will sail past him.
But short of Jenson, or anyone else, beating Fred off the line tomorrow it's hard to see anyone stopping him taking victory. It's also a great opportunity for the two of them to get back into the championship hunt.
Also, big well done to Webbo, who lines up fourth in a car that doesn't deserve to be there (no less that a quarter of a second ahead of his team mate, who lines up sixth). Plus, Webbo hadn't ran with the soft tyres until the qually session, what with missing running time through unreliability in the previous two practice sessions. He may well look back on this particular qualifying session as a save.
Full qualifying results
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