George Russell caught off-guard by sudden Pierre Gasly threat

George Russell has admitted he did not expect Pierre Gasly and Alpine to be genuine contenders for pole position at the Italian Grand Prix, despite the Frenchman looking quick from Q1 onwards at Monza.

Gasly stunned the field in qualifying on Saturday, setting a 1:21.786 to claim his maiden Formula 1 pole by six-hundredths of a second from Russell, with Oscar Piastri a further tenth back in third.

It was the first pole for a French driver since Jean Alesi managed the feat at the very same circuit in 1997, nearly three decades ago.

It is also the same venue where Gasly clinched his sole grand prix victory, when he triumphed for AlphaTauri at the Temple of Speed in 2020.

This latest result also came with an amusing subplot. Just 15 minutes before qualifying began, Gasly had beaten Russell in a game of chess, a light-hearted pre-session duel that proved to be a fitting omen for what was to follow on track.

The Mercedes driver headed out on circuit not believing he would be beaten again — only to be proven decisively wrong.

Russell, who will start alongside Gasly on the front row of the grid for Sunday's race, conceded that he had dismissed the Alpine's early pace as a flash in the pan, the kind of one-lap competitiveness occasionally seen from midfield runners that tends to fade as a session progresses.

"They've looked strong the whole weekend, but we've often seen in Q1 some midfield teams have competitive laps, and you've seen it with VCARB a few times where they've been sort of top three at the beginning of a session, and I didn't think too much of it," the Briton told media, including RacingNews365.

"I just thought they looked fast. Pierre clearly did a great job in Q1, but, no, to be totally honest, I don't think we thought they were in the fight.

"And it goes to show what a great job he did and their team did to get the pole, and one of the few drivers to improve on that last lap. Yeah, pretty impressive."