Monza roars again, and on a day drenched in nostalgia and chaos, the 2026 Italian Grand Prix has already delivered a storyline worthy of the Temple of Speed.
Gasly on pole, Russell on the hunt
The build-up carried a different kind of electricity. Pierre Gasly, on pole for the first time in his F1 career, sat on the front row with George Russell’s Mercedes alongside and a sea of red behind them. The Ferraris lurked on row two, desperate to make amends in front of their own tifosi after a disappointing qualifying. Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri waited just behind, both sensing an opportunity if the front row blinked.
On the grid, Flavio Briatore leaned in with a few final words for Gasly. The Alpine driver knew what was at stake: convert this into a second grand prix win, or watch Russell slice into his championship deficit to Kimi Antonelli, who faced the long slog from the back after a miserable Saturday.
Medium tyres on the front row, softs on the Ferraris. Risk versus reward, played out at 350 km/h.
Lights out at the Temple of Speed
Four lights. Five. Monza held its breath.
Gasly launched and immediately chopped across to the inside, defending the lead into Turn 1. Behind, chaos flickered. Lewis Hamilton found himself muscled out onto the gravel at the first chicane, squeezed wide by Charles Leclerc in a move that might have looked brave from the cockpit and rash from anywhere else. Hamilton could only wonder if patience would have paid more than aggression.
Behind them, Verstappen and Piastri went wheel-to-wheel into the second chicane. Piastri threw his McLaren down the inside, but Verstappen held firm, the Red Bull clinging to the place and then switching focus forward, sizing up Leclerc ahead.
Gasly survived the opening lap. Just. The Frenchman had his nose in front, but the wolves were already circling.
Formation lap tension, nostalgia in the air
Even before the start, the day had felt heavy with history. Thirty years on from Michael Schumacher’s first Italian Grand Prix win for Ferrari, Monza had been treated to a rolling memory: Rubens Barrichello and Sebastian Vettel taking the legendary Ferrari F2002 back around the circuit. Barrichello drove the V10 monster on Saturday, Vettel took over on Sunday, the scream of the engine cutting through the modern hybrid soundtrack and through the nostalgia of a crowd that once took that sound for granted.
The present, though, promised something those early-2000s processions often didn’t: unpredictability. A surprise pole-sitter. A shaken-up grid. A title fight with Antonelli starting from the back and Russell scenting blood.
When Gasly led the field away on the formation lap, he knew the first corner could define his afternoon. He weaved, braked, accelerated—one last rehearsal for the drag to Turn 1, one last chance to picture himself still leading when he came up for air at the Rettifilo.
Russell strikes, Verstappen charges
The opening stint settled into a tense rhythm. Gasly clung to the lead, but Russell stalked him, the Mercedes looming larger with every lap. Both Haas drivers had muscled their way into the top 10, with Oliver Bearman ahead of Esteban Ocon. Franco Colapinto climbed to fourth, ahead of Piastri, delivering on the promise that had earned him his place on the grid.
Further back, the recovery drives began. Antonelli, starting 19th, carved his way through the field, already up to 12th and hunting more. Liam Lawson, released from the pit lane, had surged to 15th. The race was barely settling, and yet the order already looked nothing like the grid.
The pressure at the front finally broke. Russell fired his Mercedes down the inside of Gasly into the first chicane and made it stick, taking the lead with a decisive move. Gasly tried to cling on, but the momentum had shifted. Behind them, Leclerc briefly snatched a place at the chicane as well, only for Gasly to bite back through Curva Grande and reclaim second.
Verstappen, as ever, refused to wait. He lined up Leclerc and launched a move at Ascari—an overtake you don’t often see pulled off there. The Red Bull swept through, Leclerc left with nothing but the Ferrari’s twitching rear end and the roar of the crowd as witness.
Leclerc’s huge crash stops the race
Then came the moment that ripped the air out of Monza.
Piastri attacked Leclerc through the Parabolica, the Ferrari on the edge as it tried to cling to position. On the outskirts of the corner, Leclerc lost the rear. The car snapped, skated sideways, and slammed into the wall with a sickening impact. The Ferrari ricocheted along the barrier, carbon fibre exploding, the wall taking the full force.
Silence, then a collective exhale.
Leclerc climbed out. Shaken, but on his feet. He walked away from the wreck and took a moment to himself, standing alone, looking utterly forlorn in front of his home crowd. The scale of the crash was obvious. The relief that he was unhurt was immediate.
The safety car came out first. Then the red flag followed. The wall was too badly damaged; the race had to be stopped.
At the time of the stoppage, Russell led from Gasly, Verstappen had hauled himself into third, and Colapinto sat an impressive fourth ahead of Piastri. Both Haas cars remained inside the top 10, Bearman ahead of Ocon. Bortoleto ran 11th, just in front of Antonelli, whose charge from 19th had already caught the eye. Lawson, from a pit-lane start, had climbed to 15th.
The race paused, but the tension did not.
A race reset, and a title picture in flux
So here Monza stands: a damaged wall, a shaken home hero, and a grand prix split in two.
Russell holds the lead and a golden chance to slash his championship deficit to Antonelli, who still has work to do in traffic. Gasly, chasing only his second F1 victory, must now nail another start under even greater pressure than the first. Verstappen lurks in third, the kind of position from which he has built entire seasons.
Colapinto, Piastri, the Haas pair, Antonelli, Lawson—they all have fresh life breathed into their races by the stoppage.
The 2026 Italian Grand Prix is not done. It has only been interrupted. The question now is simple: when the lights go out again, who has the nerve to own the second act at the Temple of Speed?
