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Formula 1
Italian GP
F1 Italian GP Live Commentary and Updates - Race
Minute-by-minute updates for the 2023 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix
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Carlos Sainz beat Max Verstappen to pole position at Monza to delight the home Ferrari fans, as the Dutch driver goes for a record-breaking 10th consecutive F1 grand prix win.
Verstappen will face a two-pronged Ferrari attack with Charles Leclerc starting from third place, ahead of George Russell in fourth for Mercedes.
Liam Lawson continues as stand-in for the injured Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri.
The action at Monza will begin at 2pm BST.
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22 hrs
56 min
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Lawson is the next driver to box, attempting an undercut that could launch him into the points past Alonso.
As is normal for Haas, Hulkenberg is now slipping back rapidly as the tyres cry enough. Lawson is also past for P11 in the sole remaining AlphaTauri.
Sainz remains in the lead with Verstappen glued to his rear wing as the race heads into the pitstop window. Who will blink first?
Alonso is back in the points. Using DRS into the first chicane, the Aston Martin driver breezes past Hulkenberg.
Gasly appears to have sparked something at the rear of the field. Zhou now pits to cover off the undercut.
Gasly is the first man to pit in this race, stopping at the end of lap 10 to fit fresh hard tyres. It's a slow stop and he exits as the last of the runners.
Times are beginning to be deleted for track limits with Norris and Alonso both caught out once. It is unlikely this will be a huge issue during the 51-lap distance.
At the start of lap 11 Russell does brilliantly to out-brake Perez into Turn 1 to keep hold of fourth place.
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Verstappen is told to engage mode 8 on his engine. "They have a lot of top speed for f*** sake," Verstappen replies.
Piastri had pulled a gap in P7 from Norris but team-mate Norris and Mercedes driver Hamilton have now formed a DRS train behind him.
Alonso is 3.3s back on the battling trio.
Alonso is 3.3s back on the battling trio.
Russell is asked by Mercedes for more tyre management but his response is he's battling Perez so can't focus on that for now.
Russell defends the inside line of Turn 1 to keep Perez behind him. So far the Red Bulls don't look able to simply fly past its rivals with the skinner wings and smaller DRS impact.
This fight has kept Leclerc in touch of the front two with seven laps completed. Russell is 1.6s off Leclerc with Perez in close company.
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"That was naughty," Verstappen says of Sainz's defending.
Gaps are appearing between the cars now with DRS being lost by several drivers. Hamilton is just about remaining within one second of Norris, but only just.
At the start of lap six Verstappen makes his first move, a look around the outside of Sainz at the first corner but he gets shown the kerb so he has to back out of it. No 2021 Verstappen vs Hamilton repeat.
A change of position at the back. Magnussen drops behind Stroll into P19. While Magnussen struggles in the Haas, team-mate Hulkenberg is P10.
Verstappen hasn't looked to make a move on leader Sainz yet but he is staying half a second off the Spaniard.
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"He's already sliding a bit so, it's all OK," Verstappen says about Sainz. Ominous words from the Dutch driver.
Verstappen with DRS is closing in on leader Sainz. The gap comes down by three-tenths on lap three.
Neither Alpine driver has made progress in the early stages. After a double Q1 exit on Saturday, Gasly and Ocon have made up one position, this through the retirement of Tsunoda.
Two laps down and DRS is enabled. Sainz leads by 0.9s from Verstappen - so he hasn't broken out of DRS range yet.
Hamilton is beginning to drop back from Norris and he falls further back at the end of Lap 2, running wide at the Parabolica.
On lap two Albon fights back against Piastri to regain sixth at the second chicane. Great move by the Williams driver.
Hulkenberg makes a move on Alonso into the Parabolica. He makes it stick and moves into the top 10.
The top five remain in the same positions, as Piastri moves up to sixth ahead of Albon.
Green flag
Sainz gets away cleanly and retains the lead from Verstappen and Leclerc. Smooth starts all around!
Sainz brings the pack to the grid again and this time we are seconds away from the race starting. Here we go...
Right, let's try this all over again, sadly without Tsunoda. The 19 drivers still in this race get away smoothly for formation lap III.
Given his nine wins on the spin, there may well have been a few people predicting Verstappen would quickly get to the head of the field. So far, it's taken him 19 minutes and counting. Red flags breed useless stats!
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The race distance has been reduced to 51 laps, from 53, due to effectively having a formation lap and then another two laps that are the unexpected extra formation laps.
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The track is clear and the formation lap will start at 3:20pm local time.
So, a false start to the Italian GP as we await further info. The drivers and cars are surrounded by the pitcrews so let's try to do this all again.
The FIA states a five minute signal will be given before the start. Tsunoda's AlphaTauri is on the truck and coming back to the pits now.
Tsunoda is riding passenger in the pick-up truck, while the pitcrews belatedly come on to the grid to attend the cars.
Still no word on the start, as the cars wait on the grid, but nothing has been made clear from race control.
The crews have all run to the end of the pitlane but they have not yet been allowed onto the grid.
Tsunoda's car is still stranded as the drivers come around to the grid for the second time. But this race surely won't start with the car still at the side of the track.
By: Autosport Staff
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