Hamilton secures pole position at Monza

Lewis Hamilton beats Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in qualifying to secure pole position at the Italian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton secured his first pole position since May [Getty Images]

Lewis Hamilton has broken Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg’s recent stranglehold on pole position by qualifying ahead of the championship leader at the Italian Grand Prix.

Hamilton clocked 1 minute, 24.109 seconds at the Monza circuit on Saturday, winning his first pole since the Spanish GP back in May, as Rosberg came second in 1:24.383.

“Tomorrow will be really good to get another 1-2 for the team,” Hamilton said. “And I hope we have some competition as that will be great for the fans.”

Rosberg had taken four straight poles and six of the last seven and now enters Sunday’s race with a 29-point lead over Hamilton in the drivers’ standings, the biggest it has been all season.

A big part of that gap was built in the controversial Belgian GP two weeks ago, when Rosberg finished second after crashing into Hamilton early and sending his teammate out of the incident-packed race.

Rosberg was disciplined by Mercedes for the incident at Spa and while no team orders were installed, the pair was told explicitly not to make contact again.

When Hamilton was asked by reporters what effect the team’s warning would have on him on Sunday, he said: “It won’t be ringing in my ears. We are free to race. That was the decision last week so it continues as usual.”

Home Ferrari favorite Fernando Alonso came seventh, defending champion Sebastian Vettel was eighth and his Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who won the past two races, was ninth.

Source: News Agencies