Italian GP: Ferrari's Fernando Alonso says faster time impossible

The double Formula 1 world champion was the quickest of the drivers not powered by Mercedes engines, but will line up down in seventh position for Ferrari's home race at Monza.

Alonso finished over 1.3 seconds off the pace of polesitter Lewis Hamilton.

"I was completely on the limit today," said Alonso, who outqualified team-mate Kimi Raikkonen for the 11th time in 13 races.

"I could put 100 sets of tyres on and I would do identical laptimes. It was absolutely the maximum.

"It was positive for me because I see two Mercedes, two Williams, two McLarens, one Ferrari, two Red Bulls [in grid order].

"Personally I think I extracted the maximum."

The Spaniard admitted he is not expecting to be able to challenge Mercedes or Williams in Sunday's race, and is hoping he can beat the McLarens and the Red Bulls instead.

"Obviously Mercedes and Williams are a little bit too fast, and then there is a group of Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull quite close in one or two tenths, so hopefully we can lead that group," he said.

"Tyre degradation will be important in the race. Probably we have to make a lot of laps with the soft and a lot of laps with the hard tyre so we just need to have everything under control if possible."

Raikkonen, 12th in qualifying, will start from 11th position following a grid penalty to Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat.