Piastri suspects ‘interesting’ Italian Grand Prix after grid penalty

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri suspects the Italian Grand Prix will be an ‘interesting one’ after being handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Red Bull Racing’s Liam Lawson.

Feature image credit: McLaren Racing

Piastri will start lower on the grid than he qualified on Sunday’s race day at the Italian GP, held at Monza, after the Australian was slapped with a three-place grid penalty for impeding Lawson during Q2.

Lawson was on a fast lap, just as Piastri was leaving the pits for his final run of that third. The Australian had allowed  Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to pass through the first chicane, but quickly found himself in front of Red Bull’s Kiwi.

Although the McLaren driver tried to move out of the way, the stewards still deemed him to have impeded Lawson and issued the standard three-place drop as punishment. Meaning, he will now start from sixth instead of third.

Despite the pending grid-drop, Piastri is still hopeful that the Italian event will hold out to be an interesting affair, with an expectation on a potentially chaotic start. He said:

“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.”

Gasly shocks Italian GP with maiden pole position

Looking back at qualifying, Piastri had put in the benchmark time after the first runs of Q2, with a 1m 22.017s lap, before the Mercedes championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, pipped him to the post.

During the final stint of qualifying, the Australian was within a shout of securing a front-row start, even though the pending investigation was likely to throw him back a few places.

He and the defending world champion, and teammate, Lando Norris, were the first drivers to venture out onto the track in the final run of Q3, posing a risk that many would follow them out onto the circuit for a chance of a slipstream. However, he believes McLaren made the right call in sending the pair out first.

However, only a few improved their standings in the order, with the likes of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly going fastest to take a shock pole position for the upcoming Grand Prix.

“It’s good to have finished Qualifying in third, even if we will ultimately start the race in P6 tomorrow,” Piastri said. “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.”

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.