2023 Italian Grand Prix

## Lap Leaders

The **2023 Italian Grand Prix** (officially known as the **Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio D'Italia 2023**) was the fourteenth race of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship, held at Autodromo Nazionale di Monza on the weekend of September 1 to September 3, 2023.

## Background

### Championship standings before the race

Going into the weekend, Max Verstappen leads the World Drivers' Championship with 339 points, 138 points from his teammate Sergio Pérez, second, and 171 from Fernando Alonso in third. Red Bull Racing, with 540 points, lead the Constructors' Championship from Mercedes by 285 points and Aston Martin by 325 points.

### Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list. The only exception of Daniel Ricciardo, who replaced Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri from the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards, was substituted also for this Grand Prix by Liam Lawson, following Daniel Ricciardo's injury during the second practice session of the preceding Dutch Grand Prix. Felipe Drugovich drove for Aston Martin in place of Lance Stroll, during the first practice session.

### Tyre choices

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C1, C2 and C3 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.

### Tyre usage

A reduction in allocated tyre sets from the standard 13 to 11 was trialled during this Grand Prix, with the intention of making tyre usage more sustainable. The usage of tyre compounds during qualifying was mandated as hard in Q1, medium in Q2 and soft in Q3, assuming that the weather is dry.

## Qualifying

### Qualifying Report

Qualifying was held on 2 September 2023, at 16:00 local time (UTC+2).

Max Verstappen topped the first session, which was to be set on hard tyres, ahead of Alexander Albon and Charles Leclerc while Zhou Guanyu, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen and Lance Stroll did not advance to the second session. Zhou, Oscar Piastri, who would recover by recording the eleventh-fastest time, Fernando Alonso and Verstappen had their lap times deleted due to track limits violations.

The second session, set to medium tyres, was also topped by Verstappen, ahead of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. This time, Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson, Nico Hülkenberg, Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant did not advance to the final qualifying session.
Alexander Albon appeared in the third session, which was set to soft tyres, as Verstappen's left-rear snapped into the gravel but set the provisional fastest lap. However, the Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Sainz beat Verstappen to pole – Leclerc beaten out by Verstappen and Sainz winning out by 0.013s and taking pole position in front of the Tifosi.

## Race

### Race Report

The race was held on 3 September 2023, and was scheduled at 15:00 local time (UTC+2), but was delayed by 20 minutes due to an aborted start procedure.

The formation lap was aborted after Yuki Tsunoda broke down on track; his car was wheeled off via truck. Due to this, a 20-minute delay was imposed. During this time, members of the teams' pit crew went to the track. The two formation laps resulted in the total laps being shortened to 51; a third formation lap would be run.

Polesitter Carlos Sainz Jr. had a good start and held off second-placed Max Verstappen for the first 14 laps. Even when Verstappen was allowed DRS, he was unable to make an overtake as Sainz continued to hold a strong defence. However, Sainz locked up coming into the first corner on lap 15, giving Verstappen a fighting chance. He eventually passed Sainz and led the race for the next five laps until he came in for a stop. Meanwhile, George Russell and Sergio Pérez were having their own fight for fourth place behind Charles Leclerc. On lap 14, Pérez was able to pass Russell at the first corner, but both cars missed the chicane and Pérez had to give the position back. Due to another incident against Esteban Ocon at the same corner after his stop, Russell was given a five-second penalty.

Outside of Verstappen, the other drivers were having close battles, with Pérez and Leclerc having a duel at the second corner. Lewis Hamilton made an error trying to pass Oscar Piastri, granting the McLaren driver a broken front wing. Due to this, Hamilton was given a five-second penalty, which would drop him behind Fernando Alonso. Hamilton would make easy work of Alexander Albon, who was sizing up Lando Norris and defending against him. Meanwhile, Sainz would run out of room at the first corner. He was forced not to only take the run-off area, but give Pérez second place. As the race was reaching its closing stages, Leclerc locked up twice and almost collided with Sainz. There was a risk of a double Ferrari retirement at their home race, but Sainz kept a cool face throughout as he pulled away. Sainz himself would lock up into the first corner as Verstappen won his second consecutive Italian Grand Prix. With ten consecutive wins since the Miami Grand Prix, this new record broke Sebastian Vettel's 2013 record of nine consecutive wins in a row – and a new record for Red Bull Racing with fifteen consecutive races won in a row as a constructor since the previous 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

## Notes

1. ↑ The race distance was scheduled to be 53 laps before being shortened by two laps due to an aborted start procedure.
2. ↑ George Russell received a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. His final position was not affected by the penalty.
3. ↑ Lewis Hamilton received a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Oscar Piastri. His final position was not affected by the penalty.
4. ↑ Oscar Piastri finished 11th, but he received a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
5. ↑ Logan Sargeant received a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Valtteri Bottas. His final position was not affected by the penalty.
6. ↑ Yuki Tsunoda did not start the race due to an engine failure during the formation lap. His place on the grid was left vacant.