Lewis Hamilton held off the challenge from Ferrari to claim his 49th career pole position for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix.

The world champion, who has topped every session so far this weekend, will be joined on the front row by Kimi Raikkonen with his Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel in third.

Hamilton's title rival Nico Rosberg will start only fourth in Monza after his qualifying session was plagued by an engine problem.

Hamilton, whose pole in Monza was his seventh in a row, paid tribute to the Ferrari pair of Raikkonen and Vettel.

"These guys did a great job and they were very close so it is nice to see them put up a good fight," he said.

"The car has been feeling good all weekend so many thanks to the guys back at the factory - they made improvements to the engine and they have brought that here."

Raikkonen added: "We probably surprised ourselves. We expected a strong weekend, but it is nice to be here - especially a home race for us and our best qualifying this year as a team. We want a good result result not just for ourselves, but for our fans and Ferrari people behind us."

Vettel, a two-time winner this season, said: "It is a fantastic result, second and third and very close to Lewis. That is the main positive of the day which makes us confident for tomorrow."