Monza GP2: Pierre Gasly claims pole in another all-Prema front row

A week ago at Spa it was Giovinazzi who came out on top of a similarly tight battle, but this time Red Bull Formula 1 protege Gasly held on.

Gasly had held provisional pole initially with a 1m31.812s, which Giovinazzi then beat by a tenth and a half.

Moments later, Gasly came through with a 1m31.532s on a second attack with his initial set of tyres and took pole back by 0.110 seconds.

He blew that away with a 1m31.199s when he returned for another run at the end of the session, and Giovinazzi could only close in rather than deposing him.

Artem Markelov produced a GP2 career-best qualifying performance in third for Russian Time.

His team-mate Raffaele Marciello had been a pole contender at home initially, but choosing to take his last run in the lull when the rest were in the pits backfired and he tumbled to 13th as others went quickly at the end.

Arthur Pic continued Rapax's progress with a late run to fourth, while Mitch Evans showed Campos's best qualifying form since Monaco in May to take fifth.

Behind sixth and seventh-placed Britons Jordan King and Alex Lynn, there was another breakthrough result as Nabil Jeffri made it into the top 10 on the grid for the first time with eighth.

Title contenders Sergey Sirotkin and Norman Nato completed the top 10.

QUALIFYING TIMES: