Ferrari Formula 1 junior Callum Ilott took a maiden Formula 2 pole position at Monza, one week after his Sauber Junior Team teammate Juan Manuel Correa was injured at Spa.
Points leader Nyck de Vries and practice pacesetter Luca Ghiotto ran first on the road on a damp track, but were constantly pushed back by those behind as the track improved.
Ilott initially held pole by over two tenths from fellow rookie and UNI-Virtuosi driver Guan Yu Zhou.
But with 20 minutes remaining, Honda junior Nobuharu Matsushita lost the rear of his Carlin-run car at Variante della Roggia, which brought out a red flag as he got stuck in the gravel. Rain hit at the same time.
Just as cars began to re-emerge, Tatiana Calderon – the sole Arden driver in Monza after the loss of Anthoine Hubert at Spa last weekend – lost the rear and stopped at the exit of the Roggia chicane, like Matsushita.
Attempts at pole recommenced with the first laps arriving with 10 minutes to go, but no one could improve on a slippery track until the final minute of the session.
ART Grand Prix’s de Vries looked the most likely to beat Ilott’s pole time, but he snapped wide at the first Lesmo corner on his last effort. He then pulled to a halt near the Curva Grande with an apparent mechanical issue, which secured pole for Ilott.
Zhou took second – his second front-row start of the season as the championship's highest-placed rookie – ahead of ART pair Nikita Mazepin and de Vries.
Flu-hit DAMS driver Sergio Sette Camara was fifth, beating his title-contending teammate Nicholas Latifi, who could only manage seventh. Matsushita’s time before spinning was good enough to split the DAMS drivers.
Behind Latifi, MP Motorsport's Jordan King was a late mover, jumping up to eighth, while another Ferrari junior, Mick Schumacher, took ninth on Prema's home ground.
Louis Deletraz rounded out the top 10 for Carlin, hindered by teammate Matsushita ruining what was set to be his best lap by bringing out the red flags.
Session results:
Cla # Driver Team Time Gap| 1 | 11 | Callum Ilott | Charouz Racing System | 1'33.887 | |
| 2 | 7 | Guanyu Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | 1'34.030 | 0.143 |
| 3 | 3 | Nikita Mazepin | ART Grand Prix | 1'34.063 | 0.176 |
| 4 | 4 | Nyck de Vries | ART Grand Prix | 1'34.156 | 0.269 |
| 5 | 5 | Sergio Sette Camara | DAMS | 1'34.272 | 0.385 |
| 6 | 2 | Nobuharu Matsushita | Carlin | 1'34.419 | 0.532 |
| 7 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 1'34.885 | 0.998 |
| 8 | 16 | Jordan King | MP Motorsport | 1'34.944 | 1.057 |
| 9 | 9 | Mick Schumacher | Prema Powerteam | 1'35.082 | 1.195 |
| 10 | 1 | Louis Deletraz | Carlin | 1'35.101 | 1.214 |
| 11 | 10 | Sean Gelael | Prema Powerteam | 1'35.148 | 1.261 |
| 12 | 20 | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | 1'35.310 | 1.423 |
| 13 | 15 | Jack Aitken | Campos Racing | 1'35.547 | 1.660 |
| 14 | 8 | Luca Ghiotto | UNI-Virtuosi | 1'35.641 | 1.754 |
| 15 | 14 | Marino Sato | Campos Racing | 1'36.709 | 2.822 |
| 16 | 17 | Mahaveer Raghunathan | MP Motorsport | 1'37.027 | 3.140 |
| 17 | 18 | Tatiana Calderon | Arden International | 1'46.667 | 12.780 |
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