Lance Stroll admitted he and the Williams team were surprised by how comfortably he made it through to Q3 for the first time this season at the Italian GP.

With the aerodynamic issues of their car less influential on the straights of Monza, the British team enjoyed their most successful qualifying with the Canadian 10th and Sergey Sirotkin 12th.

The result also continued what has been a steady upward trend in recent races as some of the major flaws are addressed, though has still seen Williams stuck at the back of the grid.

Still, at the track where he started second a year ago, Stroll was pleased by how everything played out.

"I think it was all pretty straight-forward today," he told Sky Sports. "I know we didn't expect that coming into it, we expected a much more challenging session.

"It all kind of came together in Q1, the car felt good, we managed to get a good tow all the way through our qualifying and that helped us.

"I put in a good lap in Q2 to get into Q3, and yeah, one of those when it just kind of all clicked."

Such has been the problems with the Williams car, that Stroll and teammate Sirotkin have often struggled to simply stay on the racetrack with the very nervous handling.

"For sure we've had a tough run when you look at the results, and in the cockpit, it hasn't been very pleasant for a few months now," added the 19-year-old.

"But today I'm really pleased for everyone and really happy for us as a team. I think we really deserve this result and it was one of those when I had a good chemistry with the car, and hooked it up."

Sky also took the opportunity to ponder if his performance was somehow boosted by the knowledge of a pending move up the grid to Force India, potentially as soon as Singapore.

"I don't compete for those reasons, I do it to prove to myself and I embrace the challenge, I'm not here to prove to everyone what I can do," he responded.

"That’s a big part of the business but I'm just really happy for us as a team.

"The people I work with every day, we put in a lot of hours and we look for every tenth all the time and a result like really just makes everything worth it.

"We'll see what the future holds, I'm really not thinking about that right now, I'm just going to enjoy the moment," he added. "I'm sure it's going to sink in later and I'm looking forward to an exciting race tomorrow.

"We're going to be in the mix which has been rare this year."

Kimi Raikkonen took advantage of following his teammate Sebastian Vettel to lead an all-Ferrari front row after qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix.

The Finn would take his first pole since Monaco last year with the fastest ever lap in Formula 1, a 1m19.119s with an average speed of almost 164mph around Monza.

Running as the second of the two Ferrari's proved the difference as the slight slipstream he gained behind Vettel saw him set the fastest final sector to take the top spot by 0.161s.

It was a titanic battle between the Scuderia and Lewis Hamilton with the Briton setting the initial benchmark in Q3, but eventually, third fastest was the best the Mercedes driver could do.

Valtteri Bottas finished over half a second down in fourth with Max Verstappen almost 1.5 seconds off pole in fifth for Red Bull.

The absence of Daniel Ricciardo, who'll start from the back, allowed Romain Grosjean to take sixth for Haas ahead of Carlos Sainz in an impressive seventh for Renault.

Five different midfield teams would complete the top 10 as Esteban Ocon was eighth for Force India ahead of Pierre Gasly's Toro Rosso with Lance Stroll giving Williams their first Q3 appearance of the season in 10th.

Kevin Magnussen just missed out in 11th after getting involved in a scrap with Fernando Alonso at the first chicane on their final efforts. The Spaniard would only manage 13th as a result.

The only other driver to set a time in Q2 was Sergey Sirotkin in 12th as the two Williams' enjoyed their best qualifying of the season.

Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo both opted not to set a time as they will start from the back of the grid with substantial grid penalties.

In Q1, Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc were the shock casualties with his Force India misjudging the cut-off time and the Mexican missing out by 0.001s in 16th.

The Monegasque, who ran wide at the Lesmo bends, was a further thousandth of a second back in 17th.

Brendon Hartley sat 18th with Marcus Ericsson struggling after his crash in practice and meaning both Sauber's missed out on Q2 at the home race of title sponsor Alfa Romeo.

Despite being given a tow by teammate Alonso, Stoffel Vandoorne couldn't pull himself off the bottom of the timesheets in 20th.

Ricciardo, Hulkenberg and Ericsson will start 18th, 19th and 20th respectively after their penalties.

Full results from qualifying can be seen below:

Lewis Hamilton admits he was expecting Ferrari to find the extra pace to claim pole position for the Italian Grand Prix in qualifying.

The Briton surprised many by setting the initial benchmark in Q3 after the first flying laps but would eventually be overhauled by both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, with the latter claiming his first pole of the season.

Greeted by a number of boos from the Tifosi in the crowd at Monza, the Mercedes driver ignored the hostile reception as he reflected on the close fight which saw the top three covered by less than two-tenths of a second.

"That was an exciting qualifying session! Congratulations to Ferrari, they did a solid job today," he said.

"It's obviously incredibly close between us but they've had the upper-hand all weekend, but we still gave it everything we can.

"I kind of knew that the Ferraris might just be able to pull out some extra bit of time, but I think second place might have been possible today.

"I lost maybe half a tenth in the last corner and that's the difference between third and second," he claimed. "We gave it everything we could today and will give more tomorrow.

"We've got to fight hard tomorrow. The long-run pace of the Ferraris looked quicker than ours, so it's not going to be easy, that's for sure."

Also Read:

• Raikkonen: Monza "couldn't be a better place" to end pole drought

Despite his fears of a deficit, the reigning world champion insists he is pleased with the job his team has done so far.

"We've squeezed absolutely everything out of the car today," he insisted. "We've improved the car overnight and I'm really happy with where we were today.

"Everyone in the team is working as hard as they can to make the difference."

As the partisan atmosphere continued, it didn't stop the 33-year-old from giving his usual one-liner...

"It's incredibly close as I said, as you can see, which is great for the sport and great to see so many fans here," he added. "Obviously they're all Ferrari fans, but it's still great!"

Sebastian Vettel kept Ferrari on top heading into qualifying after setting the fastest time in final practice at the Italian Grand Prix.

More overnight rain had washed the circuit but, for a damp patch on the approach to Turn 1, conditions were dry at Monza allowing the teams to conduct for important running on the slicks.

It would cause a few problems, however, with Stoffel Vandoorne wearing a front-left tyre down to the canvas with just a single lock-up into the first chicane as the two McLaren's and Nico Hulkenberg set the early pace.

Soon though, the top teams came out to play and Kimi Raikkonen lowered the best time by over two seconds with his first flying lap in the mid 1m21's.

Hamilton was unable to match the Finn with his initial effort in second as Vettel struggled for pace, having locked up into the first chicane on his opening flying lap.

Max Verstappen suggested Red Bull may have some strong pace, sitting third on the Soft tyre, however, that gap would soon grow significantly larger as the second set of Supersoft tyres were fitted.

Vettel found his groove and went fastest ahead by three-tenths of Hamilton, who had squeaked ahead of Raikkonen by 0.007s, as lap times dropped into the 1m20's for the first time this weekend.

The 2007 world champion then made it a Ferrari 1-2 with less than a tenth between the two Prancing Horses.

As the grip level improved, the Spa race winner then set the session's best time of 1m20.509s with Hamilton moving up to second just 0.081s back and crucially splitting the two red cars.

Raikkonen a was tenth back in third but comfortably ahead of Valtteri Bottas as his fellow countryman struggled for pace, ending the session six-tenths off the pace in fourth.

Verstappen sat fifth, a position he is almost certainly going to take in qualifying as teammate Daniel Ricciardo will limit his running to just Q1 as he prepares to start from the back.

Another battle between Haas and Force India is emerging for 'best of the rest' with Kevin Magnussen taking that distinction in sixth, less than half a tenth clear of Esteban Ocon for the pink panthers.

Ricciardo sat eighth with Charles Leclerc hinting another Q3 appearance is possible in ninth and Romain Grosjean, despite a brief altercation with Brendon Hartley, completing the top 10.

Sergio Perez sat 11th ahead of Pierre Gasly as the Honda-powered Toro Rosso appears a match for the Renault works team with birthday boy Carlos Sainz in 13th.

Williams are showing better pace too with Sergey Sirtokin and Lance Stroll making it up into what would be Q2 places in 14th and 15th respectively.

For Marcus Ericsson, the morning was about making up for lost time after his big crash on Friday as he sat 16th in front of both McLaren's as Alonso led Vandoorne.

Nico Hulkenberg suffered a DRS failure which left him stuck in the garage in 19th as Hartley completed the order in the second Toro Rosso.

The full results can be seen below:

Fernando Alonso has launched a strong attack on Kevin Magnussen for what he sees as creating the incident between the pair during qualifying at the Italian GP.

The two drivers were seen banging wheels through the first chicane at the start of their respective final laps in Q2, ending both their chances of making it into the top 10 shoot-out.

While under investigation by the stewards, Alonso believes the Dane's poor judgement was the catalyst for the whole situation as driver's looked to make space at Parabolica.

"We were all running together at the end of the out-lap and with all that traffic one of the Haas cars decided to overtake and start the lap in the middle of all the cars that were more or less in position," he explained.

"So we started the lap together and we reached the first corner together and we ruined both our laps."

The double world champion would then up the ante by suggesting it was the antics of Magnussen and teammate Romain Grosjean which were hurting the Haas team.

"There are many classes of drivers and then there are the Haas ones, who have the third or fourth-best car of the grid and are out in Q2.

"I got into Q2, which is one of the things that I wanted.

"It doesn't change much for me, I guess more for them, but it's fun, a lot of fun."

The two are set to visit the stewards to give their side of the story, the end consequence was Magnussen finishing 11th, while Alonso will start 13th.

Sebastian Vettel ensured the Tifosi went home happy on Friday by leading a Ferrari 1-2 in second practice at the Italian Grand Prix.

As the morning rain cleared, the Monza track has dried out sufficiently to allow the drivers out on the slick tyres for the first time this weekend.

There would be early drama, however, as, on his first flying lap, Marcus Ericsson lost the rear of his Sauber under braking for the first chicane with the DRS remaining open as well as a possible damp patch on the outside of the circuit.

The Swede would slam into the wall in the left before rolling over several times and coming to a rest luckily with all four wheels still attached and with him climbing out unharmed.

Unsurprisingly, it caused a lengthy red flag with the barriers also requiring repairs and also at Sauber, the DRS problem would also be traced on Charles Leclerc's car, leaving the Monegasque stuck in the garage.

With just over an hour to go, the session would resume finally allowing all the drivers out to complete some meaningful running.

Vettel would head straight out on the Supersoft tyres and would go fastest as the others completed runs on the Soft or Medium compound.

The qualifying simulations would follow but again Mercedes had no answer to the pace of the Prancing Horse's as Vettel lowered the benchmark to a 1m21.105s on the fourth flying lap.

His fifth though would see him lose the rear through Parabolica and gently hit the barrier after sliding through the gravel. The damage was limited to just the rear wing end-fence and he would be back out for the long runs.

Kimi Raikkonen briefly moved to the top before being overhauled by his teammate but would still finish ahead of the two Mercedes' in second.

For Lewis Hamilton, the second chicane was the main issue as he was repeatedly seen putting two wheels just over the kerb into the gravel, compromising his traction out of the corner.

He was still four-tenths clear of Valtteri Bottas in third though, albeit almost three-tenths off the best set by Vettel.

Red Bull's rear wings are even skinnier than in Spa last weekend but despite their solid straight-line speed, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo both remain over a second off the pace in fifth and sixth respectively.

The low-downforce strength of the Force India also continues to shine as Esteban Ocon led Sergio Perez in the 'best of the rest' positions of seventh and eighth.

Once the DRS problems were resolved, Leclerc went out and finished ninth for Sauber with Nico Hulkenberg completing the top 10 for Renault.

Much like last weekend in Spa, Haas appears to be hiding their pace for when it matters with Romain Grosjean 11th and Kevin Magnussen 13th.

The gaps are very tight, however, with just over six-tenths covering Ocon in seventh to Lance Stroll in 17th, with Williams partner Sirotkin and the Toro Rosso's ahead.

Bringing up the grid was the two McLaren's as Fernando Alonso led Stoffel Vandoorne by three-tenths of a second on another difficult day for the British team.

A full look at the Practice 2 results can be seen below:

Kimi Raikkonen admitted it felt "great" as he ended his run of near-misses in qualifying to finally claim a pole position at the Italian GP on Saturday.

The Finn has been enjoying a strong season in terms of pace but has often faltered when it matters most in Q3 which has then, in turn, compromised his race performance.

At Monza though, everything aligned as Kimi benefitted from running close enough to teammate Sebastian Vettel for a slipstream which allowed him to set the best final sector and snatch his first pole since Monaco last year and the first Ferrari driver to claim pole in Italy since Fernando Alonso in 2010.

“I think it couldn’t be a better place to be on pole position, our home Grand Prix in front of all the Tifosi,” he said. “They are always [great], it doesn’t matter where we go around the world but obviously here, the great Tifosi.

It has been a result the 38-year-old has threatened all season after often leading practice sessions but then finding himself pipped to the post by Vettel or making small mistakes on key laps.

Even so, Raikkonen didn't see pole as a major turning point.

"If this would be the first one then, of course, it is different," he said. "We keep trying, sometimes it works out and sometimes not, it's not as easy as it looks on TV.

"The whole weekend has been working pretty well, conditions have been changing. After practice, one of the three cars was going to get it.

"Today it was me but it doesn't really change anything, tomorrow is the main job to be done."

Also Read:

• Vettel refuses to explain Ferrari complaint after Monza qualifying

With Vettel alongside on the front row, there is now the scenario of both Ferrari's battling each other on the long run to the first chicane at the start on Sunday.

The 2007 world champion is confident though neither he nor his teammate will try anything rash.

"We know as a team we can race but we need to be careful with each other," said Raikkonen. "I don't see how it changes for anybody.

"I don't think anybody was purposefully [going to] take a stupid amount of risk to damage someone else's car."

Almost a year after he was ousted from the Red Bull program, Daniil Kvyat could return with to Formula 1 with Toro Rosso in 2019, Christian Horner has confirmed.

The Russian endured a torrid 18-month spell which saw him replaced by Max Verstappen at Red Bull at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, after colliding with Sebastian Vettel a race earlier in Sochi, and then his final exit after a final appearance with the junior team in Austin in last year.

With Pierre Gasly joining Red Bull and the team not having much faith in Brendon Hartley, expectations are an all-new line-up will be at Faenza next season with a number of names linked.

This is because the company's top junior, F3 driver Dan Ticktum, is struggling to get a superlicence as a result of a prior two-year ban he was given while racing in MSA Formula in 2015.

McLaren junior Lando Norris has also been linked but now the young Briton is eyeing Stoffel Vandoorne's seat for 2019, with a decision expected in the coming weeks.

Since leaving Red Bull last year, Kvyat has been part of the Ferrari development program and has raced in sportscars while also completing simulator work for the Scuderia.

Asked by Sky Sports about the rumour, Horner said: “There’s always rumours this time of year, Monza being a hotbed of that.

“I think the situation with Toro Rosso is pretty open so I think everything is being considered. He’s one of several drivers who are on the list.”

Sebastian Vettel opted against explaining his apparent unhappiness with Ferrari after being beaten by Kimi Raikkonen in qualifying for the Italian GP.

The German would settle for second as his Finnish teammate claimed his first pole position since Monaco last year at Monza as both Scuderia drivers overhauled Lewis Hamilton with their final attempts in Q3.

It is thought the decision to send him out ahead of Raikkonen and therefore, giving him a slipstream is the most likely area of contention, particularly as the final sector of the 2007 world champion was what made the difference.

When told he was second to Kimi, Vettel told his team "we talk after" but asked what that meant after the session replied: "Clearly I wasn't happy but I don't tell you why."

He did clear up the reason why he went out ahead of Raikkonen for both runs in Q3 though, adding: "We have an order that changes every weekend and this weekend it was Kimi's turn to go second."

Still, the 31-year-old claimed he could be satisfied with second based on the lap he drove.

"To be honest it was not a tidy lap and I think the other laps were actually better ones," he said. "I lost time pretty much everywhere.

"It was just not a good lap and not good enough. [I'm] lucky to get second and not third, but it's just not good enough."

Despite the perception that Raikkonen is the number two to Vettel at Ferrari, Sebastian does expect to have to battle his teammate for the win on Sunday.

"If he is starting from pole I guess he is allowed to win," he claimed. "It is a long race, he wants to win, I want to win. So hopefully one of us will win."

Formula 1 has confirmed that the German Grand Prix will remain at Hockenheim in 2019 after being included in a provisional calendar for next season.

Following a successful return to the historic circuit earlier this summer, efforts were redoubled to end the recent scenario which saw the race take place every two years.

And now those have appeared to be successful with Hockenheim, national motorsport associations, Mercedes and the government coming together to make a one-year deal with Liberty Media.

“This demonstrates how all stakeholders within Formula 1 are working together to ensure the long-term future of the sport and its fans," CEO Chase Carey commented on Friday.

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff had hinted a deal was close last weekend in Belgium, adding: "We have tried to facilitate a comeback, we’re involved in the discussions with the various parties, but I haven’t got visibility as of today whether the German GP will happen, or whether we’ll be involved.

"That’s something that needs to be decided soon. I’m speaking about the next couple of days."

On the 21-race schedule that has been released, there are no significant changes in date for any race, although the triple-header which took place before the summer is no more due to an earlier start date, as Australia kicks off the season on March 17th. 

Also confirmed was a new multi-year contract for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka which will likely see F1 remain at the iconic figure-of-eight layout until 2021.