After Toyota fought them all the way, Ferrari have taken back to back pole positions in Italy with the #51 of Antonio Giovinazzi setting the quickest time in qualifying of 1.30.127, just 11 thousandths of a second ahead of Ryo Hirakawa’s #8 Toyota who split the works cars. Antonio Fuoco was third in the #50 continuing what’s been a strong weekend from the Scuderia on all fronts.

The opening 12 minute session saw a benchmark time by the Alpine duo, as after setting the quickest time in FP2 the french marque opened the first competitive running with a 1.36.325 from Joules Gounon in the #36, with Charles Milesi’s #35 0.780sec slower, with Norman Nato’s #12 Cadillac slotting in just 0.033 behind the top two.

Malthe Jakobsen was the first driver to displace Gounon at the top of the timing sheets, with 1.34.102 in the #94 Peugeot. Toyota, Ferrari and Genesis found themselves well off the pace in the first half of the session, before Jakobsen improved with a 1.30.474 and teammate Stoffel Vandoorne just 0.521 behind. Alpine stayed close to them, before Ferrari soon came alive.

The Scuderia stormed into a 1-2 with the two factory cars, the #50 of Antonio Fuoco topping the times with a 1.30.199 and Antonio Giovinazzi just 0.142sec behind. They were split shortly afterward by the Peugeot of Jakobsen, just 0.221sec behind Fuoco’s time.

Toyota’s new TS010 showed good speed with both cars running in the top 10 for most of the session, Nyck De Vries coming within 2 tenths of Fuoco’s Ferrari and Hirakawa running 7th in the #8, 0.473sec behind. Meanwhile Gounon who’d set the fastest time early on spoilt his penultimate lap by running wide through the Tamburello chicane, with Charles Milesi now 6th, 0.0332 back from the Ferrari 1-2 of which the latter was now Robert Kubica.

Peugeot pulled both cars into the pits, but they were secured into Hyperpole already with Jakobsen’s time enough to place him fourth when the chequered flag flew.

Of those eliminated, Gounon’s final time wasn’t enough to see him in, placing him 11th for tomorrow’s race. The best placed of the Aston Martin’s was Harry Tincknell’s #007 in 12th, with the #009 of Marco Sorensen 14th thanks to Norman Nato, who split both in his Cadillac to qualifying 13th.

While Jakobsen had secured his #94’s place in Hyperpole the sister Peugeot of Stoffel Vandoorne was only 15th come the endof the session, ahead of both Genesis cars as expected. The #19 of Mathieu Jaminet was only 1.170sec back from Fuoco’s best time, with Andre Lotterer last of the Hypercars. It’s not the end of the world pace-wise though.

Hyperpole

Alpine’s remaining #35 set the opening time once again with Charles Milesi, but Ryo Hirakawa was the fastest of the opening laps with a 1.35.424 in the new Toyota, with Antonio Giovinazzi second, 0.451sec back. Jakobsen improved with a 1.30.545 next time around, setting the first of the serious lap times and improved again on his next lap as the #94 went 3 tenths quicker with a 1.30.237.

But Ferrari responded by taking a 1-2 with the works cars again, the #51 of Giovinazzi just 0.025 ahead of Fuoco’s #50 behind. Norman Nato’s #12 Cadillac slotted into fourth, 0.264 behind the top three with Milesi fourth in his Alpine.

Robert Kubica struggled in the Le Mans winning #83, running down the order for most of the session while Jakobsen split the Ferrari works cars with a fastest third sector with Fuoco finishing with a flourish, restoring the a Ferrari front row for but a moment. Ryo Hirakawa had pole at the death with a 1.30.138 for Toyota’s TS010 on debut, giving shades of 2023 before Giovinazzi went 0.011sec quicker to restore Ferrari’s front row start. Hirakawa will start second in the #8 Toyota, the top four all split by less than a tenth of a second. Third was the sister #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, with Malthe Jakobsen fourth in the #94 Peugeot. Norman Nato took fifth in the #12 Caddillac.

6th would be Toyota’s #7 of Nyck De Vries, with the #35 Alpine of Charles Milesi 7th and Kubica’s #83 Ferrari eighth. Both BMW’s filled the fifth row in 9th and 10th, Robin Frijns’s #20 ahead of the #15 of Kevin Magnussen.