For the second time in three weekends, the grand prix grid order will look very different from the Formula 1 qualifying result at the Italian Grand Prix.
But unlike in Spa, the fastest driver in qualifying will start from pole position with Q3 topper Charles Leclerc starting Ferrari’s home race from pole position.
Behind Leclerc, the order will look very different with nine of the 20 drivers taking grid penalties.
Leclerc will share the front row with the Mercedes of George Russell who qualified in sixth place.
That’s because the four drivers in between Leclerc and Russell all have penalties and Russell is promoted to second place as a result.
The Red Bull driver has a five-place grid penalty and contrary to initial suggestions, Verstappen will serve all five of the places and start from seventh place.
Therefore Lando Norris and last year’s winner Daniel Ricciardo will line up on an all-McLaren second row.
The 2020 race winner Pierre Gasly will start from fifth place ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso – the man Gasly intends to replace in 2023. Both drivers had their fastest Q3 times deleted for track limits and initially qualified in ninth and 10th.
Verstappen’s penalty means he’ll start alongside F1 debutant Nyck de Vries who is standing in for Alex Albon at Williams this weekend.
Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu will start from ninth despite qualifying in 14th place and will line up alongside the second Williams of Nicholas Latifi, who was knocked out of Q1 but will start 10th ahead of the Aston Martin duo of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll – the lowest-placed drivers without grid penalties so far.
Italian GP starting grid
1 Leclerc
2 Russell
3 Norris
4 Ricciardo
5 Gasly
6 Alonso
7 Verstappen
8 de Vries
9 Zhou
10 Latifi
11 Vettel
12 Stroll
13 Perez
14 Ocon
15 Bottas
16 Magnussen
17 Schumacher
18 Sainz
19 Hamilton
20 Tsunoda
Sergio Perez’s 10-place grid drop demotes him from fourth to 13th place, in front of Esteban Ocon who has a five-place grid penalty.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas’s 15-place grid penalty only drops him from 12th to 15th, ahead of Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher, who also have 15-place grid penalties.
The last three drivers on the grid all have back-of-the-grid penalties and the fastest of them was third-in-qualifying Sainz, who will start ahead of five-time Italian GP winner Hamilton.
Yuki Tsunoda will start the Italian GP from last place with three different grid penalties. His first 10-place grid penalty comes as a result of him becoming the first F1 driver to exceed the reprimand limit.
His AlphaTauri team then elected to make engine component changes and that triggered a back-of-the-grid penalty, before he picked up a third different penalty for ignoring yellow flags in FP2.
There could be further changes to the grid prior to the race if teams elect to make more engine component changes – which may be particularly tempting to those who are already starting further down the order.
