Lewis Hamilton Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton grabs pole at Monza. Reuters

The 2014 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix at Monza is Sunday, Sept. 7, at 7:30 am EDT. The Italian Grand Prix will be shown on NBC this Sunday morning but for race fans out there that will not have access to NBC Sports when the lights go out, be sure to catch the live stream online by signing up for NBC Sports LiveExtra here.

Just like at Spa-Francochamps, the two Mercedes lock out the front row. This time, it is Lewis Hamilton starting from pole position. This is Hamilton's 36th pole as well as his most dominant pole of the season. The British ace threw down the gauntlet with a jawdropping 1:24.109s, pulling out a 0.4 second gap over his teammate in second. Eventually, Nico Rosberg managed to find a tenth of an improvement on his own time, but was still 0.3 seconds off Lewis.

“I feel excited for tomorrow. I am proud of my guys – the guys on my side of the garage have obviously also been through the difficult times with me. They have done a remarkable job, in terms of every time bouncing back and fixing the car and dealing with the difficulties," said Lewis Hamilton. "We have done this [locking out the front row here] as a team and it is great to have another one-two. I am really proud I could be up there for them."

“To be honest, for the last seven races I have always gone into the weekend thinking it could maybe be a clean weekend. We saw the issue that we had yesterday and again Nico had a problem today. That is definitely an area we are focusing on to try and improve as a team,” Hamilton reflected. "But I am grateful to have got through to qualifying today and to have had, for me, a clean qualifying session for once. It is a great feeling to be up here.”

“[We are] free to race," Hamilton answered, in regards to team orders in the races ahead. "That was the decision last week and so it continues as usual [despite the collision in Belgium],” he stated.

Meanwhile, the Williams team were also breathing down the necks of Mercedes as Valtteri Bottas and teammate Felipe Massa placed third and fourth on the grid. Next, the McLarens found vast improvements to qualify fifth and sixth on the grid. Monza is Ferrari's home race. Unfortunately, Fernando Alonso could do no better than seventh, while Kimi Raikkonen could only qualify 12th. Thankfully, 11th place qualifier Daniil Kvyat will face a 10-grid place penalty, which will promote Raikkonen one slot ahead. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo as well as Force India's Sergio Perez round out the Top 10.

The 2014 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix at Monza is Sunday, Sept. 7, at 7:30 am EDT. Be sure to catch the live stream online by signing up for NBC Sports LiveExtra here.

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