Pierre Gasly claimed his maiden pole position for Alpine at Monza, pulling off one of the shocks of the season, and in the process ending a near nine-year wait to top a Qualifying session. We take a look back at the other drivers who had to wait a long time before finally capturing a first pole position.
9= Mika Hakkinen (94 races)
Mika Hakkinen spent his first two seasons in Formula 1 with the ailing Lotus squad but, having joined McLaren as reserve driver for 1993, got his chance in the closing rounds after Michael Andretti was deemed surplus to requirements.
Hakkinen immediately caught the attention with his speed, but his rise to a race seat coincided with McLaren entering a spell in the doldrums, unable to contend for overall honours.
He was a regular visitor to the podium through 1994, 1995, and 1996, while in 1997 the team made gains and duly re-emerged as a winning outfit. Hakkinen finally landed his breakthrough pole position at the Luxembourg Grand Prix, held at Germany’s Nurburgring, at the antepenultimate round in 1997.
9= Daniel Ricciardo (94 races)
After a half-season at HRT, and two years impressing at Toro Rosso, Daniel Ricciardo joined the reigning four-time champions Red Bull in 2014 – just as Mercedes stole a march under revised regulations.
Ricciardo proved to be a thorn in the side of the runaway champions on occasion, as the only non-Mercedes winner in 2014, but top spot in Qualifying remained elusive, a trend which continued through 2015 amid a challenging campaign for Red Bull.
Mercedes continued to set the benchmark in 2016, but around the streets of Monaco Red Bull had the package to contend for the pacesetting positions, and Ricciardo duly delivered a stunner in Q3 to grab top spot.
8. Nico Rosberg (111 races)
Nico Rosberg stepped up to Formula 1 in 2006 with Williams, as the inaugural GP2 Series champion, but his promotion came just as the team hit a rocky patch. Williams regressed into the midfield, limiting Rosberg’s prospects, and after four seasons he upped sticks and linked up with Mercedes, who had just taken over champions Brawn GP.
Mercedes endured a tricky few seasons as they tried to rebuild an operation that had been pared back in 2009, but by 2012 it had a sporadically rapid car, which found its sweet spot in Shanghai.
Rosberg secured pole position, fronting team mate Michael Schumacher in a front-row lock-out, for Mercedes’ first pole since 1955.
7. Thierry Boutsen (115 races)
Thierry Boutsen joined Arrows in 1983 and remained with the outfit for three further years, before moving across to Benetton in 1987. The team wasn’t in the mix at the sharp end of the grid, while in 1988 McLaren’s supremacy left others with meagre pickings, and in 1989 he was picked up by Williams.
McLaren continued to set the benchmark, though Boutsen’s team mate Riccardo Patrese did pick up a pole in Hungary.
A year later, it was Boutsen’s turn, as he edged Patrese by just 0.036s at the twisty Hungaroring – and it proved to be the sole pole position of the Belgian’s career.
6. Jarno Trulli (119 races)
Jarno Trulli was acknowledged as a one-lap specialist, but swathes of his early career were spent in midfield machinery which he dragged further up the grid than expected. He qualified third for Prost in Austria in 1997, in his rookie campaign, and put Jordan’s EJ12 on the front row twice in 2000, most prominently in Monaco.
Trulli landed a spot at Renault in 2003, alongside Fernando Alonso, and it was the young upstart who captured his first pole positions, while Trulli claimed two more front-row spots.
Finally, in Monaco in 2004, Trulli had his moment at the front, and he put his Renault R24 into pole position with a sublime lap – which laid the foundations for his sole win the next day.
5. Mark Webber (131 races)
Mark Webber’s arrival into Formula 1 with Minardi in 2002 grabbed the headlines for an extraordinary fifth place on debut, and that put him in the shop window. Jaguar recruited Webber for 2003, and across the following years there were one-lap stunners, with Webber second in Malaysia in 2004, a position he replicated for Williams in Barcelona the following season.
A stellar lap in Monaco in 2006 yielded third, while in Britain – having switched to Red Bull – he qualified second in 2008.
Red Bull surged into contention in 2009, rising from a midfielder to a winning outfit, and Webber finally claimed a maiden pole position for the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.
4. Kevin Magnussen (141 races)
Kevin Magnussen famously finished on the podium on his debut with McLaren in 2014 – but it proved to be an anomaly. McLaren were on a downhill slide, Magnussen lost his seat, and a return with Renault in 2016 gave very little reward.
Four years with Haas followed and Magnussen cemented his reputation as a plucky midfielder. Having exited in 2020, Magnussen was re-recruited at short notice for 2022, and in Brazil he and Haas pulled off a shock.
In Q3, Magnussen was first out of the pits and set a rapid time on slicks, just as rain worsened and George Russell spun off to bring out a red flag. By the time the session resumed, the track had been given a soaking, and Magnussen’s time was not beaten – which sparked pandemonium in the Haas garage.
3. Carlos Sainz (151 races)
Carlos Sainz debuted in 2015 and spent the first few seasons circulating the midfield, with Toro Rosso, Renault, and an improving McLaren outfit.
A move to Ferrari beckoned for 2021, but it was one-lap whizz Charles Leclerc who snuck the pole positions when the car was in contention, and when a chance presented itself in a wet/dry session in Russia, former team mate Lando Norris grabbed top spot.
Sainz was second-best to Leclerc in Miami and Monaco in 2022, with Ferrari fast out of the blocks in the ground effect era, and at a wet Silverstone Sainz eventually put his car at the front in Qualifying, lapping just 0.072s clear of Max Verstappen.
2. Pierre Gasly (191 races)
Pierre Gasly on pole for Alpine at Monza? Not many people saw that one coming. Years at Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri had Gasly sporadically pulling off excellent Qualifying displays, most notably in 2021, when he put the car fourth on a handful of occasions.
There were other standouts too, for Alpine, including third on the grid in Las Vegas in 2024, and fifth in Bahrain a year later, despite the limitations of the A525.
Finally, at the venue where he scored his maiden – and so far only – Formula 1 victory in 2020, Gasly and Alpine stunned the paddock by displaying rapid pace throughout Qualifying, going on to top the pack in Q3. In the process Gasly went from having the second-most starts in history without a pole position – a list fronted by ex-team mate and Haas racer Esteban Ocon – to the second-most starts before a pole position.
1. Sergio Perez (216 races)
Sergio Perez had a canny knack of undertaking superb Grand Prix drives in underdog machinery, but driving for those midfield teams – such as Sauber, a year at a struggling McLaren, and Force India/Racing Point – meant pole positions were never truly in the offing.
When Perez was signed by Red Bull he slotted in alongside Verstappen – and the Dutchman duly held the upper hand more often than not. Perez came close early in his first campaign for Red Bull, finishing just 0.035s shy of pole at Imola in 2021, but that was as near as he got.
In 2022, around the streets of Jeddah, Perez defeated Leclerc – by just 0.025s – to at last score his first pole position.