Winners and losers from Italian Grand Prix F1 qualifying 2026

Italian Grand Prix qualifying produced Formula 1’s most surprising dry weather polesitter in over a decade.

But apart from him, there weren’t many in the pitlane with reasons to be cheerful.

Here’s our winners and losers rundown.

Winner: Pierre Gasly and Alpine (1st)

A podium is worth 15 points and a pole is worth 'nothing' - Pierre Gasly has gained a pole and lost a podium in the span of this weekend, and yet it feels like the loss of 15 points is an acceptable trade for his F1 CV.

He's now an F1 winner and an F1 polesitter. That feels right. That feels significant. Regardless of what Sunday brings, he's poleman number 109 in F1's history books.

But it's also a big deal for Alpine, which has felt a bit no man's land-y for much of this season but seems to be squeezing out some good juice from its Zandvoort upgrade.

"I don't think we quite got the best out of the package in Zandvoort. It's a bit of a quirky circuit. But we've come here and the car is responding very well," an elated Steve Nielsen, Alpine's managing director, told Sky. 

"We got the gaps right. We got the tows right. The drivers didn't make a mistake. And laptime's clearly in the car. Because both cars were quite quick."

It's not the first midfield car to star on a low-downforce track, and it won't be the last, but compared to the rest of the season it feels even more significant than it usually would. - Val Khorounzhiy

Loser: Max Verstappen (6th)

"This car is made out of paper," was a curious Q3 radio message from Max Verstappen, as the Red Bull’s habit of small but costly breakages continued with a problem that affected its ride height. Not ideal for this kerb-heavy circuit.

He felt that was far more significant than losing his slipstream wingman when Liam Lawson was eliminated in Q2 after coming across the slow-moving Oscar Piastri.

Speaking of which… - Matt Beer

Loser: Oscar Piastri (3rd but penalised)

On pure qualifying results, Piastri was a ‘winner’ category candidate. Third on the grid at a track not great for the draggy McLaren, a long way ahead of team-mate Lando Norris and all despite (but also partly because of) blowing his last qualifying lap with a trip over the first chicane.

But already by that time a penalty was highly likely given Piastri’s inadvertent but massive block on Lawson in the middle of the first chicane in Q2. And, as referenced above, that Q3 error blew the lap on which he was supposed to be giving Norris a helpful tow.

So as third on the grid becomes sixth, that error and messing up the team’s plans means Piastri ends up in the Loser list instead. - MB

Winner: Kimi Antonelli (7th)

Given the championship leader spent all of Monza qualifying as team-mate Russell's tow servant, seventh in the actual results via one tow-less out of sequence solo lap that didn't matter was quite an achievement.

And one that probably suggests a) he'd have been a clear polesitter if he'd participated in qualifying properly and b) he has a shot at a very, very good result even from the back of the grid on Sunday.

One of his title rivals being beaten to pole by an Alpine and the other only qualifying fifth behind his team-mate and hinting at Ferrari team prioritisation angst already is quite good for Antonelli too on a weekend where he has nothing to lose. - MB

Loser: Liam Lawson (14th)

Best-laid plans, and all that.

Red Bull hoped to use Lawson, faced as we now know with back-of-the-grid engine penalties, to tow Verstappen around in Q3. "But obviously you need to get there to be able to do it," reflected Lawson after his elimination, in 14th, in Q2.

That was much calmer than he'd been on the radio during the session. "Dude, what the f***?" he exclaimed as he was baulked by Piastri at the first chicane, which earned the McLaren driver a grid penalty, before telling Red Bull at the end of Q2: "Bro, that's actually appalling. I can't believe how badly you just left me out to f***ing dry!"

Maybe the Piastri block is what stopped him progressing. Maybe it wasn't; Lawson was three tenths away in the end, didn't improve in the final sector, and generally looked borderline - not helped by the fact he'd "spent the whole quali in clean air until that last lap".

"It was the first time I'd sat behind a car and the tyres were super hot," he said. "It just wasn't an ideal situation, so trying to do it for the first time was not ideal. But I think obviously having Oscar in Turn 1 probably hurt more than anything."

Whatever the cause(s), Lawson should really have been in the final part of qualifying. - Jack Cozens

Winner: Ollie Bearman (12th)

Having spent the last four months sliding backwards, Haas needed the upgrade it brought to Monza to show something encouraging.

So for Bearman to declare it "night-and-day different" and feel he had a shot at Q3 as he produced his best qualifying result since Shanghai in March will do nicely.

Bearman was also seven tenths of a second faster than team-mate Esteban Ocon. Only Bearman has the upgraded Ferrari engine, but he felt that was only a marginal difference and that he'd still have been fighting to get out of Q1 if that was the only change on the car for Monza.

Ocon has the same aero upgrades. Asked if they worked, he replied: "They worked on Ollie’s side". - MB

Loser: Yuki Tsunoda (17th)

Tsunoda lost a lot of laptime on the straights and sounded totally bewildered by it, in comments that will sound familiar to anyone who's heard drivers up and down the grid speak about single-lap deployment and optimisation and all that jazz across 2026.

"I mean, if you look at the first sector, I was like seven tenths off - and there's only two corners," he mused. "I don't think I've done anything massively wrong, enough to lose a lot of laptime a lot in basically a straight line.

"I've done a lot of things in practice and it didn't happen like this."

His grid position is far from horrific - but, given that all of this is obviously part of a mission to prove his value to prospective F1 employers down the line, he's unlucky that what will surely be a short stand-in stint includes an energy-starved track like this, whether either a lack of experience with these cars' quirks or a freak deployment issue or both can really, really bite. - VK

Winner: Valtteri Bottas (19th)

"It seems like we're on a better run. Things are working as they should. Like I said, it's also easy to find the rhythm when you can actually get laps with a car that works."

Bottas was talking about the execution of the weekend so far for his side of the Cadillac garage - "not really a single issue" - but his comments may as well apply to the wider picture of his season.

He's on a 6-0 run versus team-mate Sergio Perez in qualifyings, a significant reversal after a start to the season shaky enough on paper to where people started talking about potential replacements for 2027.

Perez had some issues through Q1 and didn't get the tow he would've liked - but also acknowledged Bottas put in a strong effort he "couldn't match".

For tomorrow, both still need to get through the opening stint - with Bottas worried about how the brakes will cope with running in traffic - but amid those continued teething problems for Cadillac things have certainly trended right for Bottas. - VB

Loser: Aston Martin (21st + 22nd)

After the measured optimism the previous two rounds have offered, the Italian GP weekend has been a bruising reality check for Aston Martin-Honda so far.

OK, Fernando Alonso might've outqualified the two Cadillacs (and therefore possibly Alex Albon's Williams) had he made it out for a second run in Q1. Alonso certainly felt there was more laptime to come.

"We only did one set of tyres and the time we set was done with a scrubbed set, after waiting on the pitlane for a long time, cold tyres, etc.," he said. "So I think there was something more to come on the last attempt."

But the reason he didn't get to exploit it, and had to hop out of the car early before Q1 had ended? "The engine didn't start, so we had a problem with the power unit. I don't know if it's the ICE power or the battery or whatever it is, but yeah, it didn't start."

Sunday could be a long, lonely afternoon. - JC