Italian GP: Lewis Hamilton beats Kimi Raikkonen to Monza pole

Hamilton used Mercedes latest 'development' F1 engine to good effect to take pole by 0.234s from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen at Monza.

The reigning world champion failed to improve on his 1m23.397s best on his second run, but both efforts were good enough for top spot.

Raikkonen edged out Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel by just 0.054s on his final run to be best of the Scuderia's two drivers in front of its home crowd.

Running Ferrari's newly upgraded power unit, they were less than a tenth quicker than Hamilton's Mercedes team-mate Rosberg.

Rosberg noticed a "strange oscillation" with his new Mercedes engine in final free practice, so the team reverted to the less powerful spec used in the previous race at Spa.

The lack of horsepower told as he trailed team-mate Hamilton by 0.306s.

Williams team-mates Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas locked out row three of the grid, nearly half a second clear of the Force India of Sergio Perez.

Spa podium finisher Romain Grosjean split the Force Indias by placing his Lotus eighth fastest, 0.428s further back from Perez.

Nico Hulkenberg suffered a loss of power after his first run in Q3, so didn't run again.

The German's 1m25.317s was only good enough for ninth on the grid, well clear of the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson, who was the final car in the top 10 shootout.

The second Lotus of Pastor Maldonado missed out on making Q3 by just 0.015s, as just over two tenths of a second covered sixth to 11th places in Q2.

Felipe Nasr ended up 0.441s adrift of Sauber team-mate Ericsson and also missed the cut, winding up 12th fastest overall.

The Renault-powered cars were far too slow to have a realistic chance of making Q3.

The Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz pipped Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull to the 13th fastest time by 0.178s, but they will be hit with grid penalties for various engine component changes this weekend.

Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull required an engine change after a problem in final free practice, and he only took to the track with less than three minutes remaining of the first part of qualifying.

He was a tenth faster than team-mate Kvyat with that single run in Q1, but didn't venture out on track again, so ended up 15th overall after Q2.

Ricciardo's late show in Q1 meant neither McLaren-Honda escaped the first part of qualifying, though Jenson Button leapfrogged team-mate Fernando Alonso (who the team felt was held up in traffic) by 0.096s at the death.

Will Stevens again defeated Roberto Merhi in the private battle of the Manor/Marussias, just under two tenths clear.

Both were trailed by the Toro Rosso of Max Verstappen, who was delayed by an engine change and joined the session too late to set a time.

His only significant contribution to the session was to see his STR10 shed its engine cover at Curve Grande as the first part of qualifying concluded.

ITALIAN GP GRID

*engine-change penalties for Sainz, Kvyat, Button, Alonso, Verstappen, Ricciardo