Esteban Ocon was disappointed to miss out on a podium in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix but concedes sixth place was the 'maximum he could achieve'.

Ocon grabbed third place from Lance Stroll at the start but predictably failed to hold station, passed by Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen.

The wait goes on, then, for the Frenchman's first career podium, but he was satisfied with an eight-point haul.

"I really enjoyed the race and I’m happy with our performance," the 20-year-old said.

"At the same time I’m a little disappointed because I really wanted to finish on the podium today.

"But you have to be realistic and we didn’t have the pace to match Mercedes and Ferrari, so I think sixth place was the maximum we could achieve."

"At one stage we were racing against Raikkonen and I thought we could keep him behind, but he was just too quick.

"I also had a good battle with Stroll for most of the race and I had to work hard to keep him behind me.

"With the strong qualifying yesterday and the sixth place today, it’s been a great weekend.

"I have to say a big thanks to the whole team for all their hard work and for giving me such a competitive car."

Ocon is now just three points behind team-mate Sergio Perez in the championship. 

Sebastian Vettel was at a loss to explain his struggles in a wet qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix after slumping to eighth.

The German failed to deliver a competitive lap in Q3 and was forced to settle for P8, though he will start from sixth given Red Bull's hefty engine penalties.

Vettel admitted after qualifying that he was shocked by the pace of his rivals, with Ferrari left to investigate the cause of their woes.

"I’m that surprised by how quick the others went," the championship leader said. "So, clearly we couldn’t go the same pace.

"At this stage we don’t know why. I’m sure there are a couple of things we will look into and try understand."

In stark contrast to Saturday's washout, the race is expected to bring clear skies and warm temperatures.

Vettel, then, is confident of gaining ground as he looks to protect a slender championship lead over pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton.

"We have a good car so we don’t need to be afraid," he said.

"Obviously today didn’t go the way we wanted but for tomorrow I think we can make up a lot of ground, the car is quick.

"We know that. You can overtake here so it should be a fun race."

Kimi Raikkonen will line up one place ahead of his team-mate in fifth but was left bemoaning a total lack of grip.

"We're not fast enough," he conceded. "Obviously – at least for my car, I don’t know about the other car – I struggled a lot with the grip.

"Either we didn’t make the tyres work or whatever it is, it was worst for grip.

"Especially with this low downforce you cannot put a lot of load into the tyres and then it’s the never ending story."

Though appearing unlikely just a week or two ago, a deal between McLaren and Renault for engines from 2018 does appear increasingly possible after bosses from both parties were seen in talks at Monza on Friday.

The British team is seemingly making a significant last effort to try and split from current partner Honda, with whom they have struggled with since re-collaborating in 2015. Renault remains the last option on the table as both Mercedes and Ferrari rejected a supply deal, but even then, success seems based on whether Red Bull can be convinced to do a deal with Honda for Toro Rosso.

McLaren has made it clear a decision will be made this month and potentially before the Singapore Grand Prix in two weeks time but, as Executive Director Zak Brown explained to Sky Sports, there is still a long way to go.

"It is very complicated," he admitted. "There are a variety of pieces to the puzzle - some in our control, some not. If everything was done we would have a decision and an announcement to make. There are some challenges ahead of us that we need to navigate.

"It can still go either way. It's probably one of the biggest decisions McLaren have ever had to make."

After the presence of Motorsport Managing Director Ross Brawn was also seen in the talks between McLaren and Renault bosses in their motor-home, given the rules and the commercial aspect that has to be accounted for when changing supplier, that led to some thinking a deal was on the brink.

But Brown would reject that, responding: "We don't have an agreement in place with anybody."

Another key factor in talks could well be Fernando Alonso, both due to his previous associations with Renault and the feeling his continuation with McLaren depends on a Honda divorce.

Though quiet amid the Renault speculation, Honda F1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa suggested the Spaniard didn't have an interest in remaining with their project when talking to reporters on Friday.

“It is very clear that currently, he doesn’t want to stay with Honda – this is very clear,” he said. “Also, he agreed that [once] he has some, how do I say, hope to Honda, or some expectation, or some possibility that Honda can improve… as soon as we can show him, maybe he [will] change his mind.”

As for the man himself, the 36-year-old is thought to be wanted by Williams for next year and commenting on his future claims he has some potentially competitive offers for next year.

"I'm going to have to sit down with all the options that we have and decide what's the best one," he said at Monza. "I believe there are options in the market to be winning next year and that's going to be my only intention, and if I can't find them or see them, I'll try to win wherever I go, but I think it will go well and I'm optimistic," he added. 

Red Bull grabbed their best qualifying result of this season at the Italian Grand Prix but it's bittersweet as both cars will be starting near the back of the grid after being handed grid penalties for power unit and gearbox changes.

The team has struggled throughout the year and was not able to catch up with the leaders especially in qualifying, but on a soggy Saturday at Monza, they were able to make use of the tricky conditions in the best way possible.

Max Verstappen was able to beat his teammate and claim second, looking as if he could become F1's youngest pole sitter at one stage, and the young Dutchman is remaining positive after being satisfied with the outcome.

"It was quite a good qualifying, everything was working well," said Verstappen. "In Q3 I was maybe not as happy as I was in Q1 and Q2, I was sliding round more, especially in the last sector.

"The final lap was really okay, I heard I was on pole, my engineer was telling me sector times and I said, 'Stop, just tell me what Lewis is doing', and he was going purple.

"At the end of the day, to be second here with the package we have means we did a very good job, it was nice again to drive in the wet."

Verstappen’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo had an opposite run in the qualifications as he struggled to find pace in the first two sessions before improving in Q3. However, the Australian was not totally impressed expecting a better outcome from the car under such conditions.

"In Q1 and Q2 I was nowhere; if you heard my radio, I wasn't too impressed with the level of grip," he said. "I was struggling with everything, it just felt like the tyres… it was as if we didn't have blankets on, they were cold and slippery.

"We got into Q3, so we were not nowhere, but normally for our competitiveness in the wet, we were just struggling. In Q3 on extremes on the out lap I had a lot more grip than Q1 and Q2, it was a different car in Q3, I think we topped it, [but] Lewis and Max came through with a charge at the end.

"It was alright in the end, a good recovery, and it's nice to be up here on Saturday, [but] obviously we're a bit way back tomorrow."

Felipe Massa was able to top the timesheets for Saturday’s final practice session ahead of the Italian Grand Prix as heavy rain hit the 'Temple of Speed' at Monza.

The usual final hour of running was condensed to just 16 minutes as the session was delayed due to the conditions. Once the light did go green, only seven drivers would post timed laps as man opted to complete a simple installation lap.

Carlos Sainz would stay out, however, setting the first time followed by Toro Rosso teammate Daniil Kvyat, with the Italian team having fond memories of this circuit in the wet.

As the rain started to pour harder, Nico Hulkenberg would then remind everyone of his performance in Brazil back in 2010 taking the top spot.

Williams was the last team to go out on the track and used the slight improvement in conditions to go to the top with Felipe Massa ahead of teammate Lance Stroll, a sight that F1 has not seen for a while.

Hulkenberg’s time would hold on to third in the Renault and get him third followed by Sainz. Jolyon Palmer would grab fifth followed by Marcus Ericsson as Kvyat completed the list of drivers setting timed laps, but the final three were some three seconds off the pace of the others.

The two Ferraris looked as if they could go top, with both Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel heading out late and setting fastest times in the first two sectors before deciding to abort it and head back to the pits.

With the rain still falling, however, it could well offer the Scuderia their best chance at beating Mercedes if the track remains wet for qualifying and, as we saw in 2008, the other teams could well spring a surprise too.

Daniel Ricciardo was pleased by the race pace of his Red Bull in practice as he set the target of points from the back of the grid with penalties looming for engine changes at the Italian Grand Prix.

Both the Australian and teammate Max Verstappen will have to fight back through the field, as both exceeded their season allocation of four of each power unit component at Monza.

That meant, though while both drivers finished both practice sessions in fifth and sixth with the Dutchman ahead in both, much of the emphasis was on ensuring a quick race car as they ran very skinny wings for top speed and analysed tyre performance.

“With fuel in it felt pretty good,” Ricciardo said. “We still obviously want to be quicker over one lap but more so this weekend, starting at the back, we want to be quicker on the long runs and the race on Sunday.

“We look good there, we only had one lap on the Supersoft this afternoon on low fuel. We could definitely do better with that, but our priority was the long-run, and we're in a better place with that, so not bad.”

Asked what his expectations are for the Grand Prix, Ricciardo, who finished fifth from the back at Silverstone in July, is eyeing a repeat of that performance.

“I'll never say it's out of reach,” he replied weighing up the possibility of a podium, “but I've never got a podium here starting from fifth or sixth. So a podium from call it 19th or wherever I will be, the odds are against us.

“I don't know, maybe the weather's getting delayed. It was supposed to bucket down today but it didn't. It might get pushed to Sunday and we'll have a chance, but otherwise, a bag of points.”

When the same question was put to Verstappen about podium aspirations, he commented: “Well if two cars crash in front of us after overtaking all of the other ones, which is already a big task, then we have a chance but normally not.”

When reflecting on the pace he had in practice, Max wasn't too concerned as expectations at Monza are typically low for the Red Bull team

“[It’s] More or less what we expected. It’s hard for us on this track with a lot of straights and then we have to combine it with a very low downforce setting,” he said.

In the days following his sixth retirement of the year at Spa, there has been a lot of comments both on the engine situation at Renault, with Managing Director Cyril Abiteboul and Advisor Alain Prost both apologising to the 19-year-old and his future with the Milton Keynes team.

When it was suggested the extra pain of the grid penalties this weekend was worth it for a better race in Singapore, the lack of confidence did seep through.

“I hope so," Verstappen said. "I hope from now on we can finish the rest of the season like this but you never know.”

Lewis Hamilton became the sole record holder for most pole positions in Formula 1 history after grabbing top spot at the Italian Grand Prix in a delayed qualifying session.

The Mercedes driver proved once again why he is perhaps the best wet-weather driver on the grid, posting a 1:34.660s to lead the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

However, engine penalties for both drivers will see them fall to the back of the grid and promote Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon to second and third respectively as both put in tremendous performances to end fourth and fifth fastest overall while Ferrari struggled at their home Grand Prix.

After a 16-minute final practice due to the weather, qualifying, which began on time, only had around five minutes of running before Romain Grosjean saw his Haas aquaplane on the main straight causing a red flag and a delay of two hours and thirty minutes before Race Director Charlie Whiting declared the track driveable again.

At the restart, all drivers went out on the full wets but it was only a matter of time before we saw the blue stripes replaced with the green-striped intermediates, however, that change was not a positive one for everyone as some drivers struggled to heat their treaded tyres.

The end result in Q1 saw Kevin Magnussen finish 16th, meaning both Haas cars failed to make it into the second part of qualifying, followed by a struggling Jolyon Palmer, who is another of the six drivers to take penalties. The Sauber duo couldn’t make it into Q2 once again and finished eighteenth and nineteenth with Marcus Ericsson beating his teammate Pascal Wehrlein as Grosjean watched on unable to rejoin the session.

The drama continued into Q2 as Sergio Perez missed on Q3 with just 0.002s, dropping back to 11th in the last few moments due to a last lap by Stoffel Vandoorne. Nico Hulkenberg followed with both drivers failing to pick up the right tyre choice at the right time and then struggling with the intermediates.

Alonso finished 13th but has the largest engine grid penalty of those which will drop the double world champion to the back. The McLaren was followed by the Toro Rossos with Daniil Kvyat finishing 14th and Carlos Sainz 15th.

Going into Q3, rain started to pour again meaning drivers had to decide between inters and the full wet once again. It soon became clear the full wet was the right choice again with Mercedes and Ferrari having to return back to the garage for new set.

The Red Bulls would take an early lead in the session before Hamilton would start lowering the benchmark time once on the right tyres. At the same time, Ferrari, who had been on the pace in the first two segments, were left struggling as both Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel sat at the bottom of the top 10.

Stroll and Ocon shined in the difficult conditions improving on each lap, eventually sitting behind the impressive Red Bulls in fourth as Verstappen jumped to the top.

Any hope he had of replacing Sebastian Vettel as the youngest F1 pole scorer ended, however, as Hamilton, who pitted for fresh wet tyres before his final lap, roared around Monza to claim pole for the eighth time in 2017.

Behind the top five, Valtteri Bottas was only sixth fastest in the second Mercedes with Kimi Raikonen seventh followed by Sebastian Vettel as all three struggled for grip.

Felipe Massa was the second Williams in the top 10 in ninth, ending a series of Q1 exits for the team, with Vandoorne using McLaren's strong chassis to his advantage for his second Q3 appearance in three races.

Sebastian Vettel is sure Ferrari has plenty to improve on their car in an effort to catch Mercedes after a reasonable practice day at the Italian Grand Prix on Friday.

The German claimed third in both sessions at Monza in front of an expectant Tifosi and ended the day less than two-tenths off the pace set by Valtteri Bottas as once again the Scuderia looks capable of competing around a layout many expected the Silver Arrows to dominate on.

With a stronger car in Sunday's race, the most likely way to beat his main title rivals and end Ferrari's seven-year wait for a win at their home race, the long run in the afternoon was an important indicator, however, as several drivers hit problems, the four-time world champion admits the disruption made it hard to make a decisive analysis.

“For the first part we had mostly the Soft [tyre] on and I’m not entirely happy because we had a bit of a mixed run with a lot of traffic and the Virtual Safety Car,” he explained. “It wasn’t the ideal long run we were looking for but I guess it was the same for everyone."

Despite that, Vettel was still sure the team is heading in the right direction, claiming: “I think we’ve done good steps today but I haven’t seen much yet [comparisons]. We will focus on ourselves and aim to improve the car here and there, there is a little bit still missing, we will go from there.”

The unique layout of Monza means engineers have to create a setup especially for this race with smaller wings and reduced drag, as a result, it does take time for drivers their style to cope with the light feeling of the car and finding that comfortable place is something the championship leader is also trying to perfect.

“There are a couple of things that we need to do better like with the car balance and the stability under braking which is important around here to get the confidence,” he said.

“With the low downforce here you need to have the confidence to just throw the car in and stop thinking about it. We are not where I think we can be yet but I think we should be a bit better tomorrow.”

As for Kimi Raikkonen, usually, the oversteery nature of a car at Monza should suit the Finn's driving style but even he admits the balance is not ideal after claiming fourth in both sessions.

Asked if there was a reoccurrence of his understeer problems, he said: “Not really the front-end, just better parts overall. It wasn't an easy day. Obviously, some work to be done tomorrow. It's a normal story.

The 2007 world champion enjoyed a better weekend at Spa last weekend, a circuit he has always excelled at, and commenting on if that form has moved to Monza, he added: “We'll see tomorrow and Sunday.

"It's the first two practices, times are times, but we don't know what people are doing. To be honest, it didn't feel very easy for me today, so I'm sure we can improve.”

An enthused Lewis Hamilton says his record-breaking pole position at the Italian Grand Prix is "proof dreams come true".

Hamilton delivered a breathtaking lap at the end of a sodden Q3 to secure his 69th pole position, eclipsing Michael Schumacher's long-time record.

The Briton, who lapped 1.1 seconds faster than nearest challenger Max Verstappen, could scarcely put his feelings into words after qualifying.

"It will take a while to sink in," the 32-year old admitted. "I wish l was better with words and l had something iconic to say.

"Growing up, watching the sport, witnessing greatness in other individuals, such as Michael, [I was] dreaming of doing what he was doing.

"We are proof that dreams come true. I am very proud. It's crazy."

"It's an honour and a privilege to be in the sport, growing up I couldn't have even fathomed all the things I would eventually achieve.

"But what l did consistently believe in was my ability and what l could do if l just put my mind to it."

Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda heaped praise on Hamilton, insisting it is "not hard" for him to deliver the goods.

"Lewis' lap was unbelievable," Lauda said. "It is not hard when you are a driver like Lewis. He can put everything together and do a fantastic lap."

Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas split the honours leading one practice session each as the Silver Arrows dominated the top of the timesheets on Friday at the Italian Grand Prix.

The morning began under dark skies and a threat of rain which meant most of the drivers completed much of their running early in the 90-minute session. As a result, It didn't take long for Hamilton and Bottas to establish themselves at the top of the timings with the Briton setting a strong pace of 1:21.537s, over four-tenths clear of his teammate.

Ferrari opted not to push from the get go in front of their adoring Tifosi at Monza and would end the session over a second off the pace with Red Bull on their tails.

The Scuderia have little to fear from behind as the two RB13's are set to start from the back of the grid on Sunday as both Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen take new engine components and go over their allocation of four.

Therefore, there is a real opportunity for the midfield teams to potentially capitalise and in the morning it was the embattled Force India who, despite their internal driver feud, continue to be the 'best of the rest' with Sergio Perez ahead of Esteban Ocon as they finished seventh and eighth. 

Two teams with poor recent results are McLaren and Williams but both had cars in the top 10 throughout the day, with Stoffel Vandoorne ninth and Felipe Massa 10th in the first session. 

 A rain shower towards the end would dampen the track just enough with around 25 minutes to go that lap times didn't improve and meant it was a subdued start to the action at the 'Temple of Speed'.

The afternoon would bring clearer skies and sunshine, the more typical conditions expected in Italy in September, but with it no real change in the order from the morning.  

As the engines were turned up and a little fuel taken out for the qualifying simulations, it would be Ferrari who gained the most in terms of performance from the Soft tyre to the Supersoft rubber as Sebastian Vettel improved by almost a second with Kimi Raikkonen not too far back. 

That would bring them back into contention with Mercedes as they only improved by a tenth from Hamilton's best time in the morning and Bottas found around half a second to just beat his teammate by less than 0.05s with a 1:21.406s. 

Vettel would be within two-tenths in third and Raikkonen less than four-tenths behind in fourth as another tasty battle is again brewing between the top four cars. 

As for Red Bull, they focused on race pace in the afternoon but do remain the third best team despite the straights of Monza not usually suiting their underpowered Renault engine.

Both drivers would do just a single flying lap on the Supersoft tyre as Max Verstappen was fifth but a second slower than the leading pace with his teammate Daniel Ricciardo a further three-tenths off in sixth.

The final four positions in the top 10 were covered less than four-hundredths of a second but it was McLaren who would emerge as the surprise leaders in the midfield based on the times from the afternoon.

Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso would simulate the slipstreaming tactic they used at Spa during their low fuel run which would see the Belgian claim seventh with his teammate, who will also drop back due to engine penalties, right behind in eighth.

Ocon and Massa, like Vandoorne, would also maintain what would be Q3 and points-paying places on Sunday, in ninth and 10th for Force India and Williams respectively.

Carlos Sainz is also already set to join Alonso and the two Red Bulls at the back of the grid due to engine-related penalties but the Spaniard would suffer another failure with half an hour to go in the afternoon just to add insult to injury.

The Toro Rosso driver was 11th quickest overall with the two Renaults having work to do if they want to maintain their recent strong form with Nico Hulkenberg, who's day was cut short by a hydraulics issue, 12th and teammate Jolyon Palmer 13th.

Sergio Perez slipped back to 14th in the afternoon in the second Force India ahead of a struggling Lance Stroll, who's most memorable moment was a spin at Ascari before continuing in the Williams.

Romain Grosjean headed Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen in 16th and 17th, with the latter causing a Virtual Safety Car as the Dane came to a halt with suspension damage caused on the exit of the Lesmo bends.

Daniil Kvyat struggled with drive-ability problems in his Toro Rosso in 18th as Marcus Ericsson was four-tenths clear of Pascal Wehrlein as the two Sauber's continue to bring up the field.