Lewis Hamilton became the sole record holder for most pole positions in Formula 1 history after grabbing top spot at the Italian Grand Prix in a delayed qualifying session.

The Mercedes driver proved once again why he is perhaps the best wet-weather driver on the grid, posting a 1:34.660s to lead the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

However, engine penalties for both drivers will see them fall to the back of the grid and promote Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon to second and third respectively as both put in tremendous performances to end fourth and fifth fastest overall while Ferrari struggled at their home Grand Prix.

After a 16-minute final practice due to the weather, qualifying, which began on time, only had around five minutes of running before Romain Grosjean saw his Haas aquaplane on the main straight causing a red flag and a delay of two hours and thirty minutes before Race Director Charlie Whiting declared the track driveable again.

At the restart, all drivers went out on the full wets but it was only a matter of time before we saw the blue stripes replaced with the green-striped intermediates, however, that change was not a positive one for everyone as some drivers struggled to heat their treaded tyres.

The end result in Q1 saw Kevin Magnussen finish 16th, meaning both Haas cars failed to make it into the second part of qualifying, followed by a struggling Jolyon Palmer, who is another of the six drivers to take penalties. The Sauber duo couldn’t make it into Q2 once again and finished eighteenth and nineteenth with Marcus Ericsson beating his teammate Pascal Wehrlein as Grosjean watched on unable to rejoin the session.

The drama continued into Q2 as Sergio Perez missed on Q3 with just 0.002s, dropping back to 11th in the last few moments due to a last lap by Stoffel Vandoorne. Nico Hulkenberg followed with both drivers failing to pick up the right tyre choice at the right time and then struggling with the intermediates.

Alonso finished 13th but has the largest engine grid penalty of those which will drop the double world champion to the back. The McLaren was followed by the Toro Rossos with Daniil Kvyat finishing 14th and Carlos Sainz 15th.

Going into Q3, rain started to pour again meaning drivers had to decide between inters and the full wet once again. It soon became clear the full wet was the right choice again with Mercedes and Ferrari having to return back to the garage for new set.

The Red Bulls would take an early lead in the session before Hamilton would start lowering the benchmark time once on the right tyres. At the same time, Ferrari, who had been on the pace in the first two segments, were left struggling as both Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel sat at the bottom of the top 10.

Stroll and Ocon shined in the difficult conditions improving on each lap, eventually sitting behind the impressive Red Bulls in fourth as Verstappen jumped to the top.

Any hope he had of replacing Sebastian Vettel as the youngest F1 pole scorer ended, however, as Hamilton, who pitted for fresh wet tyres before his final lap, roared around Monza to claim pole for the eighth time in 2017.

Behind the top five, Valtteri Bottas was only sixth fastest in the second Mercedes with Kimi Raikonen seventh followed by Sebastian Vettel as all three struggled for grip.

Felipe Massa was the second Williams in the top 10 in ninth, ending a series of Q1 exits for the team, with Vandoorne using McLaren's strong chassis to his advantage for his second Q3 appearance in three races.