Australia’s Oscar Piastri has been hit with a three-place grid penalty at the Italian Grand Prix after he was found guilty of impeding another driver in qualifying.
Piastri finished third in qualifying but will start from sixth on the grid at Monza.
Stewards decided on the grid drop after finding the McLaren driver had impeded Red Bull’s Liam Lawson.
Piastri, seventh on the drivers’ standings, is on the third row alongside Red Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen.
The decision means Ferrari holds down the second row with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, behind surprise pole sitter Pierre Gasly and George Russell.
Gasly, who won at Monza in 2020, upset the favourites to grab a stunning career-first pole position with Renault-owned Alpine.
He seized pole from Mercedes’s George Russell with a lap of one minute and 21.786 seconds.
Pierre Gasly will start from pole for the first time in his career. (Getty Images/Formula 1: Dom Gibbons)
His effort was 0.060 quicker than the Briton.
“It’s been nine years trying to chase the opportunity to get a pole,” said Gasly, who was the last of the pole contenders to complete his final flying lap.
“I won my first race in Monza and got my first pole at this track. It’s something special around here.”
Gasly had already hinted at something special in the earlier phases, leading Q1 and fourth fastest in Q2.
His mechanics erupted in jubilation as the pole was confirmed, a day after he had been stripped of third place at last June’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Russell, a title contender, hailed an incredible performance by the 30-year-old Frenchman.
“We were finishing a game of chess about 15 minutes before qualifying and he beat me there and I went, ‘Well, I think I will beat you in qualifying,’ and here we are, he’s ahead of me again,” Russell said.
“I was disappointed to not get pole position. It was a bit messy with Verstappen opening the lap. I did the lap very close, but Pierre and Alpine have been super fast.”
Mercedes’s championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who is 59 points clear of Russell and Hamilton, qualified seventh but will start towards the back due to engine penalties.
Reuters
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