Italian GP: Hamilton grabs record pole ahead of Stroll, Ocon

Qualifying was delayed for more than two and a half hours, after a heavy crash for Romain Grosjean's Haas on the pit straight caused the session to be halted and then suspended as heavy rain deluged the Monza F1 circuit.

The intensity of the rain varied throughout qualifying when it finally resumed, and a break in the rain in the closing minutes of Q3 allowed Verstappen and Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo to lock out the front row before Hamilton's late show.

Though exciting, the battle was rendered meaningless by grid penalties for both Red Bulls for making illegal engine component changes ahead of Friday practice.

Verstappen is set to receive a 20-place penalty and Ricciardo a 25-place penalty, which will promote Williams rookie Lance Stroll to a sensational front row start for Sunday's race.

Stroll lapped inside the top five in Q2 and was fourth fastest in Q3, only three tenths slower than Verstappen.

Force India's Esteban Ocon was fifth fastest, while Hamilton's Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who set the pace in Q1, abandoned his final flying lap and wound up only sixth on the final timesheet.

That was one place better than the Ferrari drivers managed, with Kimi Raikkonen seventh and championship leader Sebastian Vettel eighth as the Scuderia struggled for grip on the Pirelli wet tyres.

The second Williams of Felipe Massa and Stoffel Vandoorne's McLaren-Honda rounded out the top 10.

Sergio Perez looked to have joined Force India teammate Ocon in making Q3 after a late improvement in Q2, but his lap was 0.002s slower than Ocon's and failed to get the job done after a last-gasp effort from Vandoorne.

Perez should start inside the top 10 anyway, owing to those grid penalties for the Red Bull drivers.

Nico Hulkenberg sat inside the top 10 after the initial Q2 runs, but his Renault struggled for grip on intermediates on his second run and slipped to 12th. He will drop further back thanks to a 10-place grid penalty for changing his MGU-H before final practice.

Fernando Alonso, who faces a 35-place grid penalty of his own, made only one run in Q2, but it was good enough to put his McLaren-Honda 13th, ahead of Toro Rosso pairing Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz, who also faces a 10-place grid penalty.

Kevin Magnussen's Haas, Jolyon Palmer's Renault and the two Saubers were eliminated in Q1, along with Grosjean.

Magnussen made a late improvement on intermediate tyres after the initial runs on full wets, but this was not enough for him to escape the drop zone.

The Haas driver finished up 0.701s adrift of Sainz's Toro Rosso, while Palmer's Renault was bumped to 17th.

Palmer is set to take a 15-place grid penalty for engine component swaps ahead of final practice, so will drop behind Marcus Ericsson, Pascal Wehrlein and Grosjean in the final reckoning.

Ericsson trailed Sauber teammate Wehrlein by almost a second after the wet-tyre running, but beat him to the 18th quickest time by 0.143s with a late improvement on intermediates.

Grosjean didn't take part in the restarted session after his earlier crash.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'35.554
2	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	1'37.032	1.478
3	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	1'37.719	2.165
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'37.833	2.279
5	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'37.987	2.433
6	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'38.064	2.510
7	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	1'38.251	2.697
8	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Honda	1'39.157	3.603
9	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	1'37.582	2.028
10	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Renault	1'38.245	2.691
11	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	1'40.489	4.935
12	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	1'41.732	6.178
13	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	Ferrari	1'41.875	6.321
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	1'38.059	2.505
15	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	1'36.702	1.148
16	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Renault	1'38.526	2.972
17	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	1'36.841	1.287
18	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	1'40.646	5.092
19	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	1'38.202	2.648
20	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	1'43.355	7.801