Russell reflects on Monza prospects after losing pole to flying Gasly

Here's the thing about racing: just when you think the script is written, somebody rips it up entirely. found himself unexpectedly pipped to pole position for the Italian Grand Prix by none other than Alpine driver , who executed a remarkable lap to snatch the top spot right at the final moment.

It looked like a straightforward path for the Mercedes machine initially. With his team mate set to start at the back of the grid due to a penalty, and Ferrari failing to maintain their earlier pace, the door was wide open. Russell's first effort in Q3—helped by a tow from his team mate—put him in P1 early on. Even while dealing with "front locking and instability" in the car, he managed to go even faster on his final lap. But Gasly was flying.

The Frenchman had shown eye-catching speed all through the session, and his final improvement stole pole by a slim margin of 0.060s. "Firstly, massive congrats to Pierre because that's an incredible performance," Russell reflected. "We were actually finishing a game of chess about 15 minutes before Qualifying and he beat me there, but I thought 'well I'll beat you on Qualifying' and here we are! He's ahead of me again, so huge congrats to him. Of course I was disappointed not to get the pole position, was a bit messy with [Max] Verstappen opening the lap. I did the lap very close but Pierre and Alpine have been super fast, even from Q1, so happy to see them get a good result."

Nobody saw Alpine coming. Russell admitted they will likely study the data from FP2 much closer now, as they never truly considered them a threat. While they knew the car looked more competitive, teams often run less fuel or higher power in practice. They didn't completely disregard it, but certainly nobody expected a fight for pole.

Despite missing out and having a bit of a messy run hampered by opening the lap, Russell's optimism remains entirely intact. Monza offers plenty of overtaking spots, making pole position less critical here than almost anywhere else. "Of all the circuits, this is probably the least important one to be on pole for [to] fight for victory," Russell explained. "I was very happy to see Pierre on pole because he’s a great driver, a great person, hasn't had many opportunities of having the car beneath him to fight for pole. This weekend they were flying."