Good afternoon, all, and welcome to our LIVE coverage of qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix. Practice has been interesting this morning, with Nico Rosberg cutting short his run due to a gearbox issue, which Mercedes have since confirmed was electronic and won't affect the car for the rest of the weekend. Lewis Hamilton dominated third practice - but will he repeat that when it counts?

Formula 1 | Italian Grand Prix

Autodromo di Monza | 06.09.2014

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Qualifying

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ByThe Editorial Team

Updated 06/09/2014 at 13:05 GMT

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Exciting stuff. Join us tomorrow for the race!

So it's a Mercedes front row, and Bottas and Massa of Williams on the second. Magnussen starts fifth, with Button in sixth and Alonso in seventh, and the Red Bulls of Vettel and Ricciardo in eighth and ninth.

Hamilton, however, is in pole. The team inform him over the radio, and he quickly responds: "Did anyone else improve?" Who could you mean, Lewis?

Rosberg finishes in P2, with Bottas in third. Magnussen does brilliantly and takes fifth, with Massa in fourth.

He's quicker than Hamilton in the first sector, but he's losing the time in the second and third.

Rosberg is making one last effort...

Rosberg is told not to "pass the Williams", which is Bottas - evidently the plan is to take advantage of the slipstream.

Hamilton pops back in as well, as does Ricciardo, who's down in a rather disappointing ninth at the moment.

Massa's back in the garage.

Button's gone faster than Vettel and Alonso! 1'25.397 for him, and he's into fifth.

Rosberg gets a 1'24.5, with Bottas very close in P2. Meanwhile, Hamilton is absolutely caning through the track, and that's going to be 0.4 seconds quicker than his team-mate.

Rosberg is out there and cutting into Perez's time already.

A 1'26.23 for Perez first out, then - not bad for a starting point.

10'

Perez's team tell him that they expect him to record a better time in Q3 than in Q2. Not in a stroppy way, in an encouraging way, assessing the conditions and stats.

11'

Sergio Perez is out there, though, making the most of an empty track.

Q3 12'

Ready for Q3 then. Vettel for one is still having his car fussed over, so is Lewis Hamilton, and the temperatures are rising on the track.

Christian Horner, principal of Red Bull, admits it's very tight in the middle, but says, "Hopefully we might be able to get close to Jenson and Fernando."

And again, it's Mercedes and Williams in those top four places. Fernando Alonso slips in at fifth, with Jenson Button managing to take sixth.

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