F1 2026: The extraordinary timeline of Pierre Gasly's unbelievable Italian GP pole position

Gasly and Colapinto in Barcelona — Photo: © IMAGO

Italian Grand Prix

The extraordinary timeline of Pierre Gasly's unbelievable Italian GP pole position

Sports historians of the future will be no less baffled than the sports writers of 2026

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Saturday 5 September 2026 20:23 Updated: 21:50

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What. The. Heck. Was. That?

In front of God and some 100,000 fans at Monza on Saturday afternoon, Pierre Gasly defied the all known logic about F1 and took pole position for the Italian Grand Prix.

Gasly's pole is comfortably the most shocking in the sport this decade, and probably the most stunning since Pastor Maldonado's qualifying triumph at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix (which, if you're looking for signs, he went on to win).

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In isolation, the French driver's first career pole position was a complete bolt from the blue. In the context of recent events, it's downright spooky.

F1 QUALIFYING RESULTS: Pierre Gasly takes staggering pole for Italian Grand Prix

The Background

Set the Wayback Machine for June 2025, when Alpine stopped essentially all development on their cars for that season and focused entirely on 2026. Last year was brutal for the Enstone team, picking up just 22 points to finish plumb last in the championship – with Sauber the next worst team on 70.

The idea was to start 2026 with a bang with the new regulations, and to the team's credit, that...basically happened. It was no Aston Martin 2023, but Alpine had a finish of seventh or better in six of the opening seven races, and have scored points in all but two of the first 12 rounds of the 2026 season.

They even had a third place finish in Monaco with Gasly! Except they didn't, because he had two five-second penalties added to his race time for 'speeding in the pit lane', due to an apparent error – or at least leeway – in the measurements of the timing loops on pit entry.

'Hey', they said. 'That's not fair, he might not have been speeding, and it's you lot's screwup that caused the penalties'.

Unexpectedly, the FIA agreed, and in the days after the race removed both of Gasly's time penalties to promote him back up from seventh to his finishing position of third. Then all hell broke loose, with multiple teams complaining that they were also given the unfair penalties – true – and were effectively being punished for serving them at their pit stops, removing the FIA's ability to just magic away the penalties after the race.

The Downswing

In the meantime, Alpine's pace dipped. Their best finish in the last five races has been ninth, and both of their point-less weekends have come in that time. Their development headstart has ebbed away, and both of their pointless weekends have come at those last five weekends.

At high power tracks Silverstone and Spa, neither Alpine made it into Q3.

Then the FIA's International Court of Appeal sat down this week to hear a McLaren and Red Bull case to reapply Gasly's penalties.

Now you're almost up to date.

Flavio Briatore was involved in a fiery press conference on Friday with Andrea Stella

The Italian Grand Prix weekend

The court's decision was announced on Friday, during the first free practice session at Monza. After consideration, Gasly's penalties would be applied and his podium taken away from him (again), dropping him back down to seventh (again).

Brutal, for a situation not especially of Gasly or his team's causing.

The fireworks really started in an FIA press conference after practice, in which Alpine's de facto team principal Flavio Briatore all-but accused one of the judges involved in the appeal decision of being biased in McLaren's favour, citing 'links' between him and the team.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella fumed at the implication, and the FIA put out a statement on Saturday defending the integrity of the process and those overseeing it.

On track, Gasly and his team-mate Franco Colapinto went out early on Saturday for the final free practice session, winding up ninth and tenth on the timing sheets.

Then Gasly set the fastest time in Q1 later that afternoon.

Then Gasly set the fourth fastest time in Q2.

Then Gasly set the fastest lap time of the weekend in Q3.

It's impossible to analyse. The only thing that can be done with Gasly's performance is to point at it and say, in increasingly high-pitched tones, how it shouldn't have been possible.

Nothing – nothing – pointed at Alpine even being more than decent this weekend. In fact, the bookies' odds (7/4 for a points finish) suggested that Gasly probably wouldn't finish Sunday's race in the top ten.

Pierre Gasly's Italian GP pole came out of nowhere

There wasn't anything in practice to hint at pole position pace. Neither Alpine finished a practice session higher than ninth on the timing sheets. The team had qualified poorly at recent high power tracks, and had been trending down across the board.

Nothing short of some kind of satanic ritual or angel of vengeance sprinkling some Go-Faster Dust on Gasly's power unit could reasonably explain what happened at Monza on Saturday afternoon. Even conspiratorial thinking is no good, because...well, do you think Flavio Briatore could be trusted to keep his damn mouth shut about it for more than five minutes?

The Future

Who knows? Wormholes, or gravity turning upside down, or something. Pierre Gasly and Alpine broke the fabric of F1 and reality at Monza. Nothing is real and everything is possible.

Unless he gets swallowed up by the Ferraris off the line and is fourth going into the first Lesmo on Sunday. Things would feel a lot more normal then.

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Written by

Chris Deeley - Editor

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F1 Alpine Italian Grand Prix Pierre Gasly