Lewis Hamilton was peerless during qualifying for tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix at Monza, while the many Ferrari fans in attendance were electrified by a solid performance by Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, who qualified second and third respectively.
Here's how the three stages of qualifying went.
Q1
Even though some of the rubber on track had been washed away due to showers in the morning, which had affected the final practice session, Hamilton still had the pace to turn a fastest time of 1:24.251 on prime tyres.
The woes continued for McLaren Honda at F1's high speed circuits, as Jenson Button was the first man eliminated in Q1, just a tenth of a second faster than his teammate Fernando Alonso, but ultimately three-tenths slower than Daniel Ricciardo, who needed just one lap in his Red Bull to get himself into Q2 - he'd spent much of the session in the garage after a power unit issue early in FP3. Will Stevens, a winner at this circuit in Formula Renault 3.5 Series last year, outqualified Manor teammate Roberto Merhi - and seem poised to be promoted further up the order than row nine.
Max Verstappen was not able to set a flying lap, and while doing an "installation lap" with a new power unit, his engine cover exploded off the back of his STR10, bringing a spectacular end to Q1.
Q2
Hamilton finally broke into the sub-1:24 region with his first run on soft tyres, and held the top spot all session long - but the Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen were able to split the Mercedes duo, as Nico Rosberg struggled to match Hamilton's pace running an older-model power unit due to an issue with his upgraded power unit in FP3.
Missing the cut in Q3 by less than a tenth of a second was Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado, the first man out, and ahead of the Sauber of Felipe Nasr. Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat had only limited runnings as their Renault power units struggled to stay together, and Ricciardo neglected to run in Q2 with grid penalties looming.
Q3
Ultimately, there would be no denying Lewis Hamilton of his eleventh pole position, and the forty-ninth pole of his career, as his 1:23.397 lap time stood as the fastest lap of the afternoon.
But the tifosi were overjoyed as Raikkonen qualified second-fastest, just 0.054 seconds ahead of Vettel, giving Raikkonen his first front row start since the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, and putting Ferrari in prime position to attack Mercedes from the start in tomorrow's race. They again out-qualified a power-deficient Rosberg, who was fourth, ahead of the Williams Martini Racing duo of Felipe Massa in fifth, and Valtteri Bottas in sixth.
Sergio Perez of Force India, and Romain Grosjean of Lotus, qualified in seventh and eighth places. Nico Hulkenberg was only ninth - he lost power at pit entry after his first flying run, and Sauber's Marcus Ericsson - who will take a three-place grid penalty for impeding Hulkenberg in Q1 - was last among the top ten qualifiers.
Full results to follow.
