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Italian Grand Prix Qualifying

F1 Italian Grand Prix qualifying hit with delay

A crucial qualifying session took place on Saturday

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 6 September 2025 16:30 Updated: 16:40

Qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix was delayed due to a huge amount of gravel on the Monza track.

Between Q1 and Q2, marshals headed out onto the track to sweep away gravel that had been sprayed across the track at the second Lesmo due to a number of drivers going wide in Q1, including Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.

The start of the Q2 session was delayed by around five minutes, after Isack Hadjar, Lance Stroll, Franco Colapinto, Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson were all knocked out of the first part of qualifying.

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Q2 got back underway at 4:27pm local time (CEST), as the crucial Monza qualifying session sought to find a pole sitter for Sunday's main event.

Gravel causing chaos in Italy

The Italian GP weekend was plagued by gravel being on the track, being picked up by drivers on their tyres throughout the three practice sessions.

While this didn't cause too much disruption in terms of red flags and delays in practice, in qualifying the marshals made the decision to head out and sweep it all away.

It was being caused by drivers just dipping one of two tyres into the gravel traps, which are very close to the main track asphalt.

If all four tyres go over the white track lines, driver lap times are deleted, as Racing Bulls star Lawson found out as he ended qualifying down in P20.

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