Pierre Gasly driving the Alpine A526 in 2026 ahead of his maiden pole at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza

Italian GP Preview: Gasly Pole, Antonelli Starts 20th at Monza

September 05, 2026

Italian GP Storylines: Gasly's Shock Monza Pole and Antonelli Starting 20th

Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing Formula 1 Race Preview - the storylines and what to watch, one day before lights out.

Pierre Gasly driving the Alpine A526 during the 2026 Formula 1 season ahead of his maiden pole at the Italian Grand Prix — Pierre Gasly and the Alpine A526 in 2026. On Saturday at Monza he put it on pole, the first of his career. (Photo: Der Alf, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Short Version

The Italian Grand Prix runs Sunday at Monza, 53 laps, green at 9 a.m. ET (3 p.m. local). Pierre Gasly stunned the paddock on Saturday by taking the first pole of his career in his 190th start, at the exact track where he scored his only win six years ago to the day. Behind him, championship leader Kimi Antonelli qualified seventh and will start 20th after Mercedes fitted a brand new power unit. The Italian teenager leading the title has to carve through the field at his home race, and the Frenchman nobody expected leads the whole thing away.

Gasly Waited Nine Years for This, and It Came at Monza

Pierre Gasly has started 190 Grands Prix. Until Saturday he had never started one from the front. He put the Alpine on pole with a 1:21.786, beating George Russell by 0.060 of a second and Oscar Piastri by 0.180. Alpine had not scored a pole since the Enstone team last did it with Fernando Alonso in Hungary in 2009. Neither Alpine car had even reached Q3 at Silverstone or Spa.

The timing is the part that gets you. Gasly's only Formula 1 win came at Monza on September 6, 2020. Sunday is September 6, 2026. Six years to the day, at the same circuit, from the best starting spot he has ever had.

It also came 24 hours after the worst news of his season. On Friday the FIA International Court of Appeal reinstated his two five-second pit-lane speeding penalties from Monaco after McLaren and Red Bull filed cases, taking his podium away and dropping him from third to seventh. He answered it with a pole lap.

UNBELIEVABLE!!! PIERRE GASLY TAKES POLE AT MONZA!!!! #F1 #ItalianGP
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 5, 2026

First ever F1 pole position!
— Pierre Gasly (@PierreGASLY) September 5, 2026

Nobody thinks Alpine has the fastest race car. One lap in clean air is not 53 laps with Mercedes and Ferrari behind you. But he starts first, and that is a real chance.

The Championship Leader Starts 20th at Home

Kimi Antonelli is Italian, he is 20 years old, and he leads the Formula 1 world championship by 59 points with six wins. Monza is his home race. He qualified seventh. He will start 20th.

Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes during 2026 Formula 1 qualifying, the championship leader who starts 20th at the Italian Grand Prix — Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes earlier in 2026. He leads the title by 59 points and starts 20th at his home Grand Prix. (Photo: Liauzh, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mercedes took a full new power unit on his car. A fifth internal combustion engine is 10 places, a new energy store is five, new control electronics is five, and anything 15 or more sends you to the back. The team did it here on purpose. Toto Wolff said the calculations pointed to Monza as the best track to take it: long straights, four real overtaking zones, and a 59-point cushion. Take the pain now instead of in Singapore or Las Vegas.

Antonelli's own line was simple. Starting last means full attack. His teammate George Russell and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton are tied on 183 points, so a bad Sunday for Antonelli plus a good one for either of them changes the shape of this championship in a hurry.

One more layer: no Italian has won the Italian Grand Prix since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966, and no Italian has won any Grand Prix since Giancarlo Fisichella in 2006. The tifosi know it. So does he.

Ferrari Has the Best Grid Slots and a Schumacher Tribute

Ferrari looked quick all weekend and then faded when it counted, with Charles Leclerc fourth and Hamilton fifth in qualifying. Penalties moved them up: Leclerc starts third, Hamilton fourth. Ferrari sits second in the constructors' standings on 338 points to Mercedes' 425.

The weekend carries weight beyond the result. It is 30 years since Michael Schumacher joined Ferrari and 20 years since his final Monza win in 2006, and Hamilton and Leclerc are running special race suits with his logo and seven-star helmet design. Leclerc has won here twice, in 2019 and 2024, the only two Italian Grands Prix Ferrari has won since 2010.

The Storylines Card

Five storylines heading into Sunday at Monza. Graphic: Happy Hour Racing.

Verstappen, McLaren, and the Rest of the Grid

Max Verstappen starts fifth and still has no win in 2026. He has 112 points and zero victories through 12 races, which would have read like a typo in any of the last four seasons. Monza has been his track lately, with wins in 2022, 2023 and 2025. If the new rules ever click for him, this is the weekend the noise stops.

McLaren had a rough Saturday. Oscar Piastri qualified third and dropped three places for impeding Liam Lawson in Q2, so he starts sixth. Lando Norris only managed ninth in qualifying and starts eighth, which is a hard place to be one race after winning at Zandvoort from pole. Our Friday data preview picked Norris, and that pick just got a lot harder to defend from row four.

Red Bull's second seat is still in flux. Isack Hadjar was hurt, Lawson filled in at Zandvoort and finished seventh, and here Lawson starts 22nd on his own engine penalty with Alex Albon 21st for the same reason.

What to Watch for on Sunday

Weather is not going to save anyone. The forecast is dry and hot, up to about 34C, with almost no chance of rain. That means a clean, fast, strategy race with no rain lottery to hide behind.

Watch the tow. Monza is 5.8 km of straights and chicanes, and a car in the slipstream can carry a huge run into Turn 1 and the Roggia. That is why a first-time polesitter in a car that is not the fastest is not safe on lap 1, and it is also why Antonelli can genuinely move forward from 20th. It is also why the first chicane produces contact almost every year.

Watch tire strategy too. Monza is usually a one-stop, and a team that gambles on an offset stop can jump three cars at once.

The fan debate: was Mercedes right to burn Antonelli's engine allowance at his home race? The engineering answer is yes. The Italian fans who bought tickets to watch their guy lead the championship at Monza are going to have a different opinion at about 9:05 a.m. ET.

The Bottom Line

Monza owes Pierre Gasly nothing and has given him everything. He leads a Grand Prix field for the first time in nine years, one day after losing a podium in a courtroom, at the only track where he has ever won. Behind him a 20-year-old Italian starts 20th at home with a championship lead to protect. That is a race worth setting an alarm for.