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From chess to battle for pole, Gasly has Russell covered at Monza

From BBC News · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth From a news agency Outcome reported
  • Pierre Gasly secured a surprise pole position for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, with George Russell qualifying second for Mercedes.
  • Gasly said Alpine's straight-line speed, a recent upgrade and a strong qualifying session helped produce the result.
  • The pole marked a performance earned on pace, unlike Gasly's unexpected victory at Monza six years ago.

Pierre Gasly was beating George Russell at online chess 15 minutes before qualifying at Monza. He then beat the Mercedes driver on the track as well, taking one of Formula 1's most unexpected pole positions in years.

Gasly said he felt confident before qualifying because he was steadily taking Russell's chess pieces. His performance coach, Ben Thorne, joked that Russell would soon turn the game around. Instead, Gasly arrived at the circuit's decisive session and produced the faster lap. Russell, who qualified second, laughed about the reversal. "He beat me there," he said, adding that he had expected to beat Gasly in qualifying, "and here we are, he's ahead of me again."

I must say before the quali, I felt pretty confident, because I was picking piece by piece after piece.

· Pierre GaslyGasly joked about beating George Russell at online chess shortly before qualifying.

Neither Gasly nor Alpine had expected the 30-year-old to start from pole. Alpine's car had shown strong straight-line speed throughout the weekend, helped by an aerodynamic design favoring low downforce and a Mercedes engine. An upgrade introduced at the previous race in the Netherlands had also improved the car's performance.

He beat me there, and I thought, 'Well, I think I'll beat you in qualifying,' and here we are, he's ahead of me again.

· George RussellRussell reacted to losing both the chess game and qualifying battle to Gasly.

Gasly and his team then executed qualifying cleanly while the established front-runners struggled. Alpine's initial target had been to reach the final session, but Gasly topped Q1, finished fourth in Q2 and placed third on his first Q3 run. That gave him a genuine chance to fight for pole for the first time.

His only Formula 1 victory came at Monza six years ago, when a series of incidents and a penalty for Lewis Hamilton helped put him in front. This pole felt different. Gasly said he had to leave everything on the table through the Ascari and Parabolica corners, and knew as he crossed the line that the lap would be rewarded. Even so, he did not expect it to be enough for pole. The popular Frenchman, long regarded as one of F1's overlooked drivers, now starts at the front on merit.

Monza is a bit of unique track as we know. It definitely exceeded all our expectations.

· Pierre GaslyGasly described Alpine's unexpectedly strong performance at Monza.
About this summary

Originally published by BBC News. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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