2026 Italian Grand Prix - Qualifying Report

Monza, Saturday, 5 September

Find out what happened during FP3 and Qualifying in Italy, and get the thoughts of McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, and Team Principal Andrea Stella.

McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team will start Sunday’s 2026 Italian Grand Prix with Oscar Piastri sixth, following a three-place grid penalty, and Lando Norris ninth after a challenging Qualifying session at Monza, where the team was unable to maximise the full potential of the MCL40.

After strong execution from both drivers through Q1 and Q2, the final runs in Q3 did not come together as cleanly, resulting in both drivers being unable to improve their respective times. The team will now turn its attention to maximising all opportunities in Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Ahead of this afternoon’s Qualifying, the team’s preparations throughout Free Practice 3 saw Lando finish fifth and Oscar eighth. Lando set a best time of 1m22.625s, 0.406s from the leading Mercedes of George Russell, with just 0.056s separating the defending World Champion from third place in a closely matched top eight. Oscar was also within six-tenths of the benchmark, although his Qualifying simulation was affected by traffic around the high-speed circuit.

With the leading pack separated by small margins, McLaren Mastercard headed into Qualifying looking for further performance to unlock as the team aimed to optimise the car and make the most of its opportunities in the fight for grid positions.

However, despite showing promising pace and executing effectively through Q1 and Q2, the team was unable to extract the full performance available from the MCL40 in the final Qualifying round. With several cars separated by small margins around Monza, track position and the slipstream had a significant influence on lap time.

Both Lando and Oscar had been positioned effectively earlier in the session, helping them generate strong straight-line speed and progress comfortably into Q3, but the final runs proved more difficult to manage. The team was unable to create the same opportunities on track, while battery deployment was also less effective than it had been in the opening two rounds.

Despite these challenges, Oscar’s opening Q3 effort was enough to secure him the third fastest lap, but a lock-up under braking for the first chicane prevented him from completing his final attempt and challenging for further improvement. The timing of the incident also affected Lando’s run behind, leaving him without the tow required to maximise his lap and improve on ninth.

Following the session, Oscar was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Liam Lawson at Turn 2 after leaving the pits in the final stage of Q2.

Although the team believed a stronger combined result was possible, Oscar and Lando will now look to make progress from their respective grid positions. Attention therefore now turns to race execution, with battery and power unit management expected to play an important role in creating overtaking opportunities across Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Other track action at the Temple of Speed this weekend saw Round 8 of the FIA Formula 3 Championship take place with Matteo De Palo finishing P22 in the Sprint Race. The Italian driver had previously qualified P2 yesterday but was unfortunately disqualified post-race for a technical regulation breach by the team.

Elsewhere in Europe, other McLaren Driver Development Programme members were on track. Dries Van Langendonck took a commanding victory in Race 1 after securing Pole position in British Formula 4 at Croft Circuit and in Imola, Christian Costoya finished P13 in Italian Formula 4’s Race 1.

“It's good to have finished Qualifying in third, even if we will ultimately start the race in P6 tomorrow. When you do your run is always key here, and we knew our pit lane position would put us at risk of getting stuck at the back, so we committed to leaving the garage early and leading the train. The first lap was pretty solid and, looking at the times, only a handful improved on their final runs, so the team made the right call. Congratulations also to Alpine and Pierre on his first Pole position.

“Looking ahead to tomorrow, our long run pace isn't as quick as the Mercedes and the Ferraris, but the first few laps here are usually chaotic and the fastest car won't necessarily be the one leading after that. It could be an interesting one.”

“Today’s Qualifying was frustrating but ultimately what we expected given our car’s performance on this track. Our main weakness is a lack of straight-line speed, which means we are heavily reliant on securing a good slipstream to be competitive. On both of my final runs, I was unfortunate with my track positioning and couldn't get that tow, which cost us a significant amount of lap time. My lap itself wasn't bad, but you pay the price for that deficiency here. We also struggled with a braking issue that compromised confidence, which is never ideal.

“Looking ahead to the race, I'm not expecting a huge amount. It will be tough to fight through the field when we are at a disadvantage on the straights, and our race pace might be even more challenging. However, it's great to see an interesting grid, and congratulations to Alpine and Pierre for their performance. Oscar also did a very strong job to put the car in the top three, showing what was possible with a slipstream. We will analyse everything, try to have some fun tomorrow, and do our best to fight for some good points.”

Andrea Stella

Team Principal

“Firstly, congratulations to Pierre Gasly and Alpine on a fantastic Pole position. Today’s Qualifying was a clear demonstration of how crucial execution is at Monza, where the margins are incredibly fine. From this point of view, we performed very well in Q2, positioning our cars effectively to maximise the slipstream, but unfortunately, we failed to replicate that in the final segment of the session. We struggled to find the right track position in Q3, and a few inaccuracies meant we simply didn't maximise the potential we had.

“This, and the subsequent penalty received by Oscar, will mean that we will have one car on the third row of the grid and another on the fifth. These are not the positions we were hoping for, but we have to focus on extracting the best from this situation. Tomorrow is a long race with many strategic elements at play, particularly with power unit management. There will be opportunities to overtake, and it will be a challenging but interesting race. We are focused on making up ground and delivering a much stronger performance for the team and our fans.”