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:
