Antonio Fuoco sent the tifosi into a frenzy at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza by locking down pole position for Ferrari ahead of the final round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship on 7 November. Just as it was back at the opening round at Imola, the Ferrari 499P proved the machine to beat on home asphalt, and this time it was Fuoco who extracted every ounce of pace from it. The Italian dominated the opening phase of the two-stage qualifying session before fending off the rest of the field in the 10-minute Hyperpole shootout, securing his fifth outright pole in the FIA WEC and his first in 18 months.
That performance marked the 499P's 11th pole in the championship and its fourth consecutive top-spot start on Italian soil, following a three-year streak at Imola. On Sunday, Fuoco will share the #50 car with team-mates Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina as they hunt for a second victory in what has otherwise been a tough title defence for the Prancing Horse.
“Coming to Italy is always special for us and to be on pole here at Monza, as an Italian driver with Ferrari, is really emotional,” the 30-year-old explained. “It was quite tricky because with practice having all been wet, we didn’t have chance to do any prior dry-weather running, but I really like these conditions when you just have to go and send it and try to put everything together. I think today, we did that really well.”
While Fuoco set the benchmark early on, the Hyperpole session brought genuine pressure, forcing the former 24 Hours of Le Mans winner to dig deep to secure the top spot. Mathieu Jaminet carried Genesis' strong form from Spain three weeks prior by putting the #19 entry on the front row, finishing just 0.096s behind the pace-setting Ferrari, though Barcelona star Mathys Jaubert missed the top ten in the other GMR-001.
Row two will feature the #38 Cadillac V-Series.R alongside the #51 Ferrari, thanks to solid laps from Earl Bamber and Antonio Giovinazzi. Théo Pourchaire rounded out the top five with a stellar run in the #94 Peugeot 9X8 during the car's final outing in its current spec, while stablemate Nick Cassidy took ninth in the #93 machine.
Further back, disaster struck for the title-chasing Toyota TR010 Hybrids as neither car made it out of the first qualifying phase. Ryō Hirakawa and Kamui Kobayashi ended up down in 15th and 16th positions respectively, sitting ahead of only the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, which currently holds best-of-the-rest status in the championship standings.
The 6 Hours of Monza gets underway at 11:00 local time (CET) on Sunday, 8 November.
