Formula One migrated from the Dutch coast, across the Alps, to northern Italy for Round 13 of the 2026 World Championship and one of the sport's most historic events. The Italian Grand Prix has been part of the World Championship since its inaugural season in 1950 and, apart from the 1980 race at Imola, every race has been held at Monza. Set within the Royal Park north of Monza, the circuit has hosted more World Championship Grands Prix than any other and its combination of history, speed and passionate Italian tifosi has earned it the nickname – the 'Temple of Speed'. Aston Martin also has history here, first competing at Monza in 1959 with Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby driving the DBR4. Alonso has twice won the Italian Grand Prix, in 2007 with McLaren and for Ferrari in 2010, while Stroll finished third in 2020.
The 5.793km circuit comprises just 11 corners and six major braking points but combines some of the highest speeds and hardest braking demands of any circuit. Cars traditionally run in an extreme low-downforce configuration with skinny wings to minimise drag along Monza's long straights. Maintaining stability under braking and getting good traction out of the chicanes are therefore critical, while the high-speed left-right-left sequence through Ascari and the long Parabolica provide very different challenges. The 2026 active aerodynamic regulations add another dimension, with the cars switching between straight and corner modes, potentially allowing greater aerodynamic load through the corners without paying the traditional penalty along the straights.
For Aston Martin, Monza provided an intriguing examination of the progress made since the summer break. The heavily revised AMR26 introduced in Hungary had shown encouraging signs before Honda's upgraded Spec 2 power unit arrived at Zandvoort, where Alonso produced Aston Martin's strongest result of the season. Monza would be a very different test - straight-line speed had been one of the AMR26's most obvious weaknesses during the season to date and the Temple of Speed would provide the clearest indication of how much Honda's upgraded power unit had addressed that deficit. Prior to the weekend Aston Martin had tempered expectations - Pedro de la Rosa said the team’s simulator work suggested that Monza would be particularly challenging for the AMR26.
Free Practice
Friday's running began in very warm conditions, with air temperatures reaching 34°C and the Monza track registering 56°C – the highest track temperature recorded so far this season. Aston Martin planned to use the two sessions to evaluate all three Pirelli tyre compounds while searching for the optimum low-downforce setup required around Formula One's fastest circuit.
Both Aston Martins headed out promptly when FP1 began, with Alonso wearing a special helmet in tribute to Adrian Campos, his first manager, who had died earlier in the week. Campos had played a pivotal role in Alonso's early career, putting him on Formula One's radar. After the opening 15 minutes Stroll was P15 and Alonso P19, with the Spaniard returning to the garage while adjustments were made to his AMR26. The session was then interrupted when rookie Colton Herta stopped his Cadillac beside the circuit, initially prompting a Virtual Safety Car before the red flags were displayed. The clock continued counting down and valuable practice time was lost before running resumed 8 minutes later. At the halfway point both Aston Martins were back on track on hard compound tyres, with Stroll P18 and Alonso P19, while many of the top teams were already using medium tyres, resulting in the deficit being substantial – Stroll was 3.8 seconds slower than Leclerc's leading Ferrari and Alonso was 4.4 seconds adrift.
With 15 minutes remaining the pair had slipped to P20 and P21. Alonso's programme had been further disrupted by a problem with his front wing, although the team managed to rectify it in time to send him out for the final 10 minutes. The Spaniard subsequently had a brief excursion over the gravel but continued without damage. Both drivers switched to medium tyres for their closing runs and Alonso improved to P18, having completed 21 laps, while Stroll ended P21 with 23 laps under his belt. At the front, the tifosi were satisfied by Leclerc heading Hamilton to complete a Ferrari one-two.
Conditions remained hot for FP2 later in the afternoon, but Aston Martin's difficulties continued. While Stroll headed out Alonso remained in the garage as an electrical issue hampered the start of his programme. After 15 minutes Stroll, running on soft tyres, was only P19, while Alonso was only just leaving his garage. Stroll then attracted the attention of the Stewards and was given notice he would be investigated following a dangerous incident with Norris. The Canadian had been driving slowly approaching a heavy braking zone when he meandered across the track into the path of the rapidly approaching McLaren, forcing Norris to take avoiding action. During that episode Alonso, on soft tyres, initially went P21, 3.1 seconds short of Russell's leading time. At the halfway stage the Aston Martins were near the bottom of the order, Alonso P20 and Stroll P21, as both spent further periods in the garage while the team continued working on setup.
Alonso managed to climb to P19 approaching the final quarter of an hour but Stroll slipped to P22. Neither found the performance necessary to escape the foot of the timesheets and, when the chequered flag fell, they remained 19th and 22nd. Alonso had completed only 18 laps following his earlier electrical problem, while Stroll had managed 26. Russell finished in P1, 2.8 seconds ahead of Alonso’s time. After the session, both Stroll and Aston Martin were summoned to the Stewards to be investigated for the incident with Norris and each received a warning.
It was a sobering first day at a circuit expected to provide an indication of the progress made by Honda's upgraded power unit. Although Honda reported that the changes made had improved driveability, the stopwatch demonstrated that a considerable performance deficit remained. Alonso's AMR26 recorded the slowest speed-trap figure of the field that day – a yawning deficit of 52km/h to Hamilton's fastest speed in a Ferrari. Alonso was quite sanguine, acknowledging that while the revised chassis had demonstrated improved cornering performance since Hungary, the benefits from Honda's Spec 2 power unit were proving harder to detect. Nevertheless, he remained confident in the manufacturer's ability to deliver, insisting that he had "100%" trust that Honda would ultimately get it right. We would see.
Saturday's final practice session got off to a quiet start, with only an Alpine venturing on track initially. For Aston Martin, the priority was finding more speed after a difficult Friday at a circuit where outright straight-line performance is fundamental to lap time. Alonso and Stroll eventually headed out, 12 minutes into the session, both on soft tyres. Alonso initially placed his AMR26 in P4 before slipping to P7, with Stroll P11, although 10 drivers – including several of the expected front-runners – had yet to record representative times. Once the rest of the field joined the action they set times that pushed Alonso down to P18 and Stroll down to P22 at the midway point. Alonso returned to the garage shortly afterwards, where the mechanics removed the nose of his car and made suspension adjustments in an attempt to give him some extra speed.
Both Aston Martins returned to the circuit but, as the session entered its final quarter, there was little improvement, with Alonso and Stroll occupying the bottom two positions. Alonso had another brief excursion over the gravel while following Lawson. A late improvement eventually lifted Alonso to P19, but Stroll remained P22 when the chequered flag fell. Russell again recorded the fastest time.
Qualifying
Qualifying got underway later with Aston Martin knowing that the circuit characteristics would not suit its car package. Nevertheless, the drivers headed out relatively early in Q1, aiming to get 3 fast runs in. Both attempted to position themselves behind other cars to gain the benefit of a slipstream along the circuit's lengthy straights so as to improve their times. Stroll's opening lap was particularly slow and once all the first representative times had been set he was last, in P22, with Alonso in P19. They returned to the pits, made adjustments and went out again for a second attempt, but Alonso slipped to P20 and Stroll only managed to get to P21. With several minutes remaining the team noticed an issue with Alonso's car and had to investigate it which cut his running short and prevented him from using a fresh set of tyres before the chequered flag. Alonso climbed out of the AMR26, which confirmed his elimination, while Stroll was sent out for one final attempt. The Canadian failed to improve and Pérez subsequently went faster, leaving the Aston Martins occupying the final two positions – Alonso P21 and Stroll P22. Alonso was 2.5 seconds slower than Gasly, who remarkably topped Q1 for Alpine ahead of Verstappen and Norris. It looked like Aston Martin had regressed back to where they were 2 months ago.
With Aston Martin's afternoon already over, Q2 developed into a remarkably close contest. Red Bull set the early benchmark, then Piastri and Norris occupied the top two positions before Antonelli went fastest with his final attempt. The partisan home fans saw the Ferraris narrowly survive elimination, Hamilton squeezing into the top ten by just one one-thousandth of a second.
The remaining ten then headed out to decide pole position. After the opening runs Russell held provisional pole ahead of Piastri, with Gasly continuing Alpine's unexpectedly strong afternoon in P3. But on the final runs Gasly produced a sensational lap to put the Alpine on pole position for the Italian Grand Prix. Russell would line up alongside him in P2, with Piastri 3rd fastest.
However, this would not be the race starting order. Piastri received a 3 place grid penalty for impeding Lawson during Qualifying and there were penalties for Antonelli, Albon and Lawson, who would all start towards the rear of the grid after exceeding their permitted allocation of power-unit components and other parts.
Race
Initially, for Sunday's 53 lap race, Alonso was allocated to line up in P18 and Stroll in P19, thanks to those grid penalties. However, Alonso's car required power unit components to be changed after Qualifying, meaning the team broke Parc Fermé conditions. Consequently, he started the race from the pit lane in P21 and Stroll lined up in P18, with Antonelli and Albon behind him and Lawson behind Alonso. Aston Martin chose to split its starting strategy, with Stroll beginning the race on soft compound tyres while Alonso opted for the hard tyres.
When the lights went out Gasly held off Russell around the opening corners but the superiority of the Works Mercedes was revealed on the next straight and Russell passed Gasly for the lead. Behind them the two Ferraris became embroiled in battle at the first corners, with Leclerc winning out. Further back Stroll had a poor start – he was easily outmanoeuvred by Antonelli and Albon, as well as Alonso and Lawson, who’d started from the pit lane. At the end of the first lap Stroll had dropped to the rear of the field, with Alonso just ahead, in P21. At the end of the next lap Leclerc barely put a tyre on the white line marking the edge of the track at the high-speed Parabolica, lost grip and flew at full speed into the triple-tyre wall. Yellow flags were initially displayed before Race Control stopped the race and the Safety Car guided all the remaining cars back into the pit lane. Fortunately, Leclerc climbed out of the car unaided but the Ferrari was terminally damaged – this was Leclerc’s 4th crash of the season! Aston Martin used the suspension to reverse its tyre strategy. Stroll switched from soft to hard tyres, while Alonso abandoned his starting hard tyres for a set of new softs. After a delay of half an hour, while the ravaged Ferrari was recovered and repairs were made to the tyre wall, the field headed out for another formation lap and another standing start. That all had to be repeated as Tsunoda was found to be out of position and the cars were sent around for another lap. They eventually set off cleanly with the two Aston Martins, starting at the back, initially making some progress. Both passed Bottas, while Alonso also overtook Albon and briefly climbed to P18 before the Williams driver reclaimed the position. Bottas regained his place from Stroll on lap 8, so that by lap 10 Alonso was P19 and Stroll P21. At the front Russell, Verstappen and Gasly were the top 3.
The most remarkable progress, however, was being made by Antonelli. Having started 19th, behind Stroll, he had already climbed to 6th on the opening lap and continued charging through the field. Verstappen took the lead from Russell at the beginning of lap 12, before Russell reclaimed it 3 laps later, with Antonelli rapidly joining the battle. The progress of the Aston Martin drivers was less barnstorming. Alonso closed to within a second of Pérez but seemed stuck there, although both Aston Martins gained a place when Lawson came into the pits for fresh tyres. Alonso kept piling on the pressure and finally passed the Cadillac on lap 19. Pérez responded and reclaimed the position, leaving Alonso to begin the chase again. Four laps later the Spaniard attacked once more and this time made the move stick at the same time as Antonelli and Russell were trading places for the lead of the race. Alonso headed into the pits at the end of lap 23 but it started to look worrying when he remained stationary in his pit box for an extended period, while the mechanics were attending to his car. It then became clear that the team would not be sending him back onto the circuit and the AMR26 was retired due to suspected floor damage. As if that wasn’t cruel enough for the team, it was about to get worse. At the half distance point of the race Stroll was instructed to stop his car after the team had detected a hydraulic problem. The Canadian pulled off the track but not entirely and a Virtual Safety Car was deployed to allow his stranded AMR26 to be recovered. Aston Martin's Italian Grand Prix was over, with both cars retired before the race had reached its closing stages.
However, the fans were about to be treated to a thrilling contest to decide the winner. Antonelli took advantage of the VSC to pit for fresh medium tyres, which dropped him down to 6th place. But armed with fresh rubber he was on a mission and sliced past Norris, Hamilton, Verstappen and Piastri and with 5 laps remaining got to within a second of Russell. His first attempt to take the lead almost ended his outstanding achievement - he locked up while attempting to pass Russell, ran onto tyre marbles, lost grip and slid into the gravel, but recovered without significant damage. Undeterred, he closed again and on lap 49 finally completed the pass to take the lead, much to the delight and cheers of the tifosi. Antonelli controlled the remaining laps and crossed the line to complete a momentous victory, becoming the first Italian to win the Italian Grand Prix at Monza since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966. It was a result that will be talked about for years to come and could well prove to be the victory that secures Antonelli the 2026 World Championship. Russell finished second with Verstappen completing the podium.
For Aston Martin there was no such cause for celebration. Stroll was ultimately classified P20 and Alonso P21, bringing an extremely difficult Italian Grand Prix weekend to a premature conclusion with another double DNF.
Reaction and Comment
There really wasn’t very much to say after the race as there was huge disappointment all round. Lance Stroll’s comments were brief, "We had to retire the car with a suspected hydraulic issue, but we were struggling in the race anyway. We know we don't have the power we need at the moment and today was further proof of that. On paper, Madrid looks slightly better for us so the focus shifts to that now." Fernando Alonso was also looking ahead, "My race today ended early after I picked up some damage to the car when I hit a kerb. We decided to stop to make sure there was no further damage. Until then, I was battling with the Cadillacs and trying to get the most out of the car. Now we look ahead to Spain next week and a new circuit for all of us."
And that’s all I’m going to do – the inaugural race in Madrid is less than a week away and I will be there for it. It’s a complete unknown to the drivers and teams and we can only hope that our Spanish matador is more familiar with it than most.