lewis Hamilton extended his recent stranglehold on pole position in Formula One, while Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel gave Ferrari fans something to cheer about at their home Italian Grand Prix by qualifying second and third.
Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg qualified only fourth after reverting to an old engine.
Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel gave Ferrari fans something to cheer about at their home race by qualifying second and third, respectively.
It was Hamilton’s seventh straight pole and 11th in 12 races this season, with Rosberg beating him only in Spain. Ayrton Senna set the record of eight consecutive poles in 1988-89.
Hamilton clocked 1 minute, 23.397 seconds around the Monza circuit. Raikkonen was 0.234 behind and Vettel was 0.288 back. Rosberg, who was a further 18 hundredths behind, went back to the motor he used in Spa two weeks ago following an unspecified problem on his new power unit.
Hamilton holds a 28-point lead over Rosberg, with Vettel 67 points back in third. The result moved Mercedes within one of Williams’ record of 24 straight poles, set in 1992 and 1993 with Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Damon Hill.
The last time Mercedes didn’t take pole came at last year’s Austrian GP, when Massa of Williams took first spot on grid.
Massa and Williams teammate Valtteri Bottas qualified fifth and sixth, respectively, followed by Sergio Perez of Force India in seventh and Romain Grosjean of cash-strapped lotus in eighth. Nico Hulkenberg in the other Force India was ninth and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top 10.