Pierre Gasly has claimed the first pole position of his Formula One career, topping qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix with a lap of 1min 21.786secs. His team-mate Franco Colapinto joined him in Q3 and will start eighth, giving BWT Alpine both cars inside the top ten. The team says it is its first pole as Alpine, and the first for the Enstone-based squad in 17 years.
Alpine arrived at Saturday running at the Italian Grand Prix with modest expectations and left it on top. Pierre Gasly set a 1min 21.786secs in qualifying to secure pole position for the first time in his Formula One career, while Franco Colapinto put the second A526 eighth on the grid with a 1min 22.220secs.
The result was not signposted by final practice. In Free Practice 3, Gasly was ninth with a 1min 22.898secs and Colapinto tenth on a 1min 23.101secs — both more than a second off the pace Gasly would ultimately find when it counted.
A first pole after a long wait
Gasly, a Grand Prix winner but never before a pole-sitter, said the session went far beyond what the team had anticipated.
“What an incredible moment, my first pole position in Formula One! I am absolutely delighted by what happened today even if we all can’t quite believe it. The result really exceeded our expectations. We did not expect that at all going into the day. It feels very special of course as I have been waiting a long time for this moment in Formula One.”
He added that the car felt strong from the opening session: “Right from Q1 we were fast but even then I did not think pole position was possible! We’ll enjoy this moment but we know tomorrow is when it really matters.”
Both cars in the points fight
Colapinto congratulated his team-mate and pointed to the wider value of getting two cars into Q3, with Alpine needing results in the constructors’ standings.
“It’s positive to have both cars in Q3 and in the fight for points tomorrow, which we know is important given the gap to our rivals has grown in the Championship. The car felt good throughout Qualifying and the changes we made were positive, and this is a circuit that clearly suits our package.”
The Argentine flagged the race itself as the harder question. Alpine has good straight-line speed, he said, but “overtaking is a bit of an unknown here this year and deployment strategy will play a factor” — a reference to how teams manage electrical energy over a lap under the 2026 power unit rules.
A milestone for Enstone
Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore described the session as a landmark for the whole operation, calling it the team’s first pole position as Alpine and its first in 17 years. He also linked the result to a difficult run for the squad.
“The team did a fantastic job and this is exactly what they deserve after the news this week and the points we feel we unfairly lost as a team.”
The team is based at Enstone in Oxfordshire, where it has operated since 1992 under previous names including Benetton Formula, Renault F1 Team and Lotus F1 Team. According to Alpine, the site has seven Formula One World Championships to its name, and its 2026 car, the A526, is designed and built there by a workforce of around 1,000 people across a 24-race season.
What it means
Pole is only half the job at a high-speed circuit where slipstreaming has historically made positions easy to lose, and Gasly starts ahead of cars that have generally been quicker over a race distance. But with both Alpines inside the top ten, the team has its best starting position of the season to close a championship gap its own drivers admit has been growing.
Facts: Alpine at the 2026 Italian Grand Prix
- Qualifying: Pierre Gasly P1, 1min 21.786secs
- Qualifying: Franco Colapinto P8, 1min 22.220secs
- Free Practice 3: Gasly P9, 1min 22.898secs
- Free Practice 3: Colapinto P10, 1min 23.101secs
- Car: Alpine A526
- Milestone: Gasly’s first F1 pole; team’s first pole in 17 years, per Alpine
The Italian Grand Prix takes place on Sunday.
Source: media.alpinecars.com