Oscar Piastri will start sixth at Monza after F1 penalty

Oscar Piastri earned the third-fastest qualifying time at Monza, but a three-place penalty will send the McLaren driver to sixth on the grid for the Italian Grand Prix.

Formula One imposed the penalty after judging that Piastri impeded Liam Lawson during the second qualifying session, known as Q2. Lawson is again replacing Isack Hadjar at Red Bull while the French driver continues recovering from a wrist injury.

Pierre Gasly will start from pole position for Alpine, with Mercedes driver George Russell alongside him. Ferrari will fill the second row, with Charles Leclerc third and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton fourth.

Max Verstappen will move up one place to fifth, directly ahead of Piastri. Franco Colapinto, Gasly’s Alpine teammate, recorded the eighth-fastest time, 434 thousandths of a second behind Gasly, but will start seventh after a penalty for Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Antonelli, the Italian championship leader, had qualified seventh but will start from the back after exceeding the permitted limit for power-unit changes. Lando Norris will start eighth. Arvid Lindblad and Gabriel Bortoleto complete the fifth row in ninth and 10th. Carlos Sainz will start 13th, Sergio Pérez 17th and Fernando Alonso 18th. The 53-lap race is scheduled to cover 306.7 kilometers at Monza.