Hamilton takes pole position for Italian GP

Lewis Hamilton took pole position for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix after setting the fastest time in qualifying, while teammate Jenson Button made it a McLaren one-two.

As speculation about his future and a possible switch to Mercedes continued, Hamilton took his fourth pole of the season in a time of 1 minute, 24.010 seconds, just over a tenth of a second faster than Button.

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was third, but championship leader Fernando Alonso had another disappointing day. The Spaniard, who was just a thousandth of a second behind Hamilton in the final practice, will start way back in 10th position.

On Friday, Alonso endured a suspected engine failure in the first practice and a brake problem and gearbox failure during the afternoon session. His problems seemed to be behind him in the morning, but more technical issues saw him finish nearly 1.5 seconds behind Hamilton in qualifying.

It could be another troublesome weekend for Alonso, who saw his lead over Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel cut to 24 points last weekend after his race was ended following a wild multi-car accident caused by Lotus driver Romain Grosjean at the start.

There will be some consolation for the Spaniard in that Red Bull has struggled as well so far at Monza. Vettel finished outside the top 10 in all three practices, although the defending champion was sixth in qualifying.

Paul Di Resta qualified fourth, but will be pushed down to ninth because of five-place grid penalty for changing gearbox.

A gearbox is supposed to last five consecutive races under FIA regulations, but the Force India team was forced to place a new one in Di Resta's car after last weekend's Belgium Grand Prix.

Five-time Monza winner Michael Schumacher, who was fastest in the first practice session, finished fifth. He moves up a place because of Di Resta's penalty, as do Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen and Kamui Kobayashi.