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Every pole time of the 2026 season in one table, with the average speed each lap was run at. Monza's 1:21.786 is the fastest lap of the year. Monaco's is not the slowest.
Every pole lap of the 2026 Formula 1 season, the driver who set it, and how fast it actually was.
Thirteen rounds have been run. All thirteen qualifying sessions were dry, which is unusual and useful: it means these times can be compared with each other without the caveat that normally ruins this kind of table.
| Round | Grand Prix | Circuit | Pole | Time | Average speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
| Australian |
| Melbourne |
| Russell |
| 1:18.518 |
| 238.1 km/h |
| 2 | Chinese | Shanghai | Antonelli | 1:32.064 | 211.1 km/h |
| 3 | Japanese | Suzuka | Antonelli | 1:28.778 | 218.1 km/h |
| 4 | Miami | Miami | Antonelli | 1:27.798 | 218.8 km/h |
| 5 | Canadian | Montreal | Russell | 1:12.578 | 213.8 km/h |
| 6 | Monaco | Monaco | Antonelli | 1:12.051 | 163.0 km/h |
| 7 | Spanish | Barcelona | Russell | 1:14.679 | 222.6 km/h |
| 8 | Austrian | Spielberg | Russell | 1:06.113 | 233.1 km/h |
| 9 | British | Silverstone | Antonelli | 1:28.111 | 237.5 km/h |
| 10 | Belgian | Spa | Antonelli | 1:44.361 | 238.8 km/h |
| 11 | Hungarian | Hungaroring | Norris | 1:17.207 | 201.8 km/h |
| 12 | Dutch | Zandvoort | Norris | 1:11.163 | 214.1 km/h |
| 13 | Italian | Monza | Gasly | 1:21.786 | 257.2 km/h |
Antonelli six, Russell four, Norris two, Gasly one. Every pole this season has gone to Mercedes, McLaren or Alpine. Ferrari and Red Bull have not taken one. Why that is, and what the qualifying data says about it, is measured in Mercedes took 10 of 13 poles.
This is the part worth understanding before you read any pole time table, including this one.
Monaco's pole was a 1:12.051. Silverstone's was a 1:28.111. Monaco's lap is sixteen seconds quicker, and Monaco is the slowest circuit in Formula 1.
The reason is obvious once stated and invisible until it is: a lap time measures a circuit's length at least as much as its speed. Monaco's lap is 3.337 km. Silverstone's is 5.891 km. A short slow lap beats a long fast one on the clock every time.
That is why the last column exists. Divide the real distance the car covered by the real time it took and you get average lap speed, which is comparable across circuits in a way lap times never are:
Monaco is 94.2 km/h slower than Monza on the same weekend's machinery. The full ranking is in the fastest F1 circuits.
The quickest pole time of 2026 in absolute terms is Spielberg's 1:06.113. The Red Bull Ring is short, 4.318 km, and it takes barely more than a minute to lap.
The fastest pole lap of 2026 is Monza's 1:21.786, fifteen seconds longer on the clock and 24 km/h quicker on average. It is also the highest full-throttle share we have measured anywhere, at 84%.
Both facts are true and they answer different questions. If you want the shortest qualifying lap on the calendar, that is Spielberg. If you want the fastest, it is Monza.
The 2026 regulations changed the cars, and pole times moved accordingly.
We measured the fastest legal qualifying lap at ten circuits raced dry in both seasons. 2026 poles are 2.93% slower on average, a median of 3.05%, and every single one of the ten was slower. On a ninety second lap that is most of three seconds.
Monza is the exception worth knowing. Its 2024 pole averaged 260.2 km/h against 257.2 this year, a drop of only 1.15%. That is not a measurement error, it is the physics: these cars lost downforce, and Monza spends 84% of its lap not using downforce. Losing it costs least where you use it least. The full comparison is in are F1 cars getting faster.
Twelve of the first thirteen poles went to Mercedes or McLaren. The thirteenth did not.
Pierre Gasly took pole at Monza with a 1:21.786, beating George Russell by 0.060 seconds. It is his first pole in Formula 1 and the first in Alpine's history since the team took that name in 2021, at the circuit where he won his only Grand Prix in 2020. Both Alpines made the top eight, and the two fastest opening sectors of the session belonged to them.
The session, the grid penalties that followed it, and what the telemetry says about how Alpine did it are in the Italian GP qualifying results.
Worth stating plainly, because pole time tables are easy to get subtly wrong.
The pole time is the official classified pole position time, which for the top ten means the Q3 lap. That matters: a driver can set a faster lap earlier in the session and still not be on pole. At Monza, Kimi Antonelli's Q2 lap of 1:21.882 was the second fastest lap of the entire session, but his Q3 lap was a 1:22.093 and he qualified seventh. Ranking a qualifying session by each driver's best lap of the day produces a different and wrong order.
Average speed is measured from the pole lap's own telemetry: the real distance the car travelled on its racing line, divided by the real lap time. That distance is always shorter than the circuit's advertised length, because the racing line cuts corners.
Deleted laps are excluded everywhere. So are wet sessions, when comparing seasons, though 2026 has not needed that caveat yet.
Pole is decided in hundredths, and most of what decides it never reaches the broadcast.
The Formula Dream app runs a live Dashboard through every session: every car on the circuit map, and a timing tower with lap times, gaps and intervals, tyre compound and age, plus flag and safety car alerts as race control calls them. In qualifying the column that matters is sector times, because that is where you see a lap being built or lost before the time appears. You also get live driver radio as it is broadcast, and every FIA document of the weekend as it is published, which is where deleted laps and grid penalties appear before anyone reports them.
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1:21.786, set by Pierre Gasly for Alpine. It averaged 257.2 km/h, the fastest qualifying lap of the 2026 season.
Monza, at 257.2 km/h average. In absolute time the shortest pole lap is Spielberg's 1:06.113, but the Red Bull Ring is a much shorter circuit, so the two questions have different answers.
1:44.361, set by Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes, at an average of 238.8 km/h. It is the longest pole lap of the season in absolute time because Spa is the longest circuit.
1:12.051, set by Kimi Antonelli. Despite being one of the quickest pole times on the clock, it is by far the slowest lap of the season at 163.0 km/h average, because the Monaco circuit is only 3.337 km long.
Kimi Antonelli, with six from the first thirteen rounds. George Russell has four, Lando Norris two and Pierre Gasly one.
Yes. Across ten circuits raced dry in both seasons, 2026 poles are 2.93% slower on average, and every one of the ten was slower.
Russell topped final practice at Monza with a 1:22.219, but the number that will worry everyone is 21 deleted laps in a single hour, most of them at Turn 1.
