The two McLarens dominated the qualifying sessions at the Italian Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso claimed pole position, just 0.037 seconds ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, having set fastest times in each of the three segments.
Ferrari, on home turf, had to settle for third and fifth places. Felipe Massa managed to qualify in third, 0.6 seconds behind Fernando Alonso, with the BMW of Nick Heidfeld managing to beat Kimi Raikkonen s Ferrari into fourth place.
Robert Kubica put the second BMW into sixth place, just ahead of Renault s Heikki Kovalainen and the Williams of Nico Rosberg. Jarno Trulli managed ninth for Toyota, however his team-mate Ralf Schumacher did not fare so well the German driver was knocked out in the first qualifying session for the fifth time this season.
Honda s Jenson Button rounded out the top ten, only the third time that the British driver has made the last qualifying session this season. Button s team-mate Rubens Barrichello was in eighth place for much of Q2, however towards the end of the session, other drivers improved, overtaking him. Whilst trying to improve his time, he ran wide into the gravel at the first Lesmo, ruining any chance he had of making it through to Q3. Barrichello eventually qualified in 12th.
Mark Webber finished in 11th. His team-mate David Coulthard had another torrid weekend the Scot spun thanks to a suspected gearbox problem at the Rettifilio during Q1.
Sebastien Vettel had a good run for Toro Rosso, making it through to the second qualifying session for the first time since joining the team. He eventually qualified in 16th, with team-mate Tonio Liuzzi behind him in 19th position.
Anthony Davidson is still on form, managing 14th in his Super Aguri. Team-mate Takuma Sato did not fair so well he spin at the Roggia on his first outing, and the missed making Q2 by a mere 0.01 seconds, leaving him down in 17th place.
Spyker s B-spec car appears to have made little difference to the team performance with Adrian Sutil in 21st and Sakon Yamamoto in last. Yamamoto had a spin in the first chicane and managed to remove his front wing on the barriers.
ITALIAN GP GRID
1. ALONSO Mclaren
2. HAMILTON McLaren
3. MASSA Ferrari
4. HEIDFELD BMW
5. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
6. KUBICA BMW
7. KOVALAINEN Renault
8. ROSBERG Williams
9. TRULLI Toyota
10. BUTTON Honda
11. WEBBER Red Bull
12. BARRICHELLO Honda
13. WURZ Williams
14. DAVIDSON Super Aguri
15. FISICHELLA Renault
16. VETTEL Toro Rosso
17. SATO Super Aguri
18. SCHUMACHER Toyota
19. LIUZZI Toro Rosso
20. COULTHARD Red Bull
21. SUTIL Spyker
22. YAMAMOTO Spyker
