Esteban Gutierrez has heaped praise on the consistency and effort his Haas team has produced to break into Q3 in qualifying for the first time in its fledgling F1 venture.

The Mexican driver produced a flawless lap around Monza to bump Felipe Massa in the Williams out of the top ten and held on in the final seconds of the intermediate session to secure a first-time berth into the pole shootout for Haas.

Full qualifying results for the Italian Grand Prix

Both Haas and Gutierrez were suitably thrilled by the achievement and the Mexican driver hailed the consistency from the VF-16 so he could push to its full potential at the Italian circuit.

"I'm very grateful and proud of them because everybody has done a great job in achieving the consistency that has allowed us to work on the details that make the difference," Gutierrez said. "In qualifying, for the first time we broke the top-10 barrier by getting into Q3.

"It was an amazing effort from everyone involved in setting up the car throughout the weekend and having the communication and level of understanding to make it work.

"The laps were fantastic. I really enjoyed them and I loved pushing the car. Today we have extracted the maximum from our opportunities and we have to make sure we do the same tomorrow."

Gutierrez will be keen to convert the promising starting position into his first points of the season having finished 11th on four separate occasions.

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