Hamilton secured his fifth pole at Monza by nearly half a second from his Mercedes teammate, who had to settle for second place.

Rosberg, who has been trailing Hamilton for most of the weekend, admitted he had no problems during his Q3 runs.

"I think my best explanation is he did some good laps," Rosberg said about the big gap to Hamilton.

"I had a decent weekend so far and did some decent laps, but not quick enough.

"[There was] no problem, no. The problem was he had his best qualifying in a long time. That is it."

Hamilton, meanwhile, conceded that both his laps in Q3 were almost perfect.

"It felt great," said Hamilton. "Through qualifying the lap was getting better and better. In Q2 the first lap was so so and again, didn't finish it off.

"The last two laps were fantastic. The first one was great – the last lap was super clean. I didn't have any locks-up.

"I definitely did it the best I had done it all weekend. Parabolica is such an amazing corner and the grip that can carry speed through is phenomenal."