Raikkonen set to start Italian GP from the pit lane

It has so far not been the smoothest of weekend’s for Kimi Raikkonen at Monza. First he crashed in opening practice, then he crashed again in qualifying. The latter caused significant damage, with Alfa Romeo forced to change a series of components and as a result, the Finn will start the Italian Grand Prix from the pit lane.

Raikkonen was set for one of his best grid slots of the season but got it all wrong on his first run in Q3, losing the C38 at the Parabolica, leading the session to be red-flagged.

During the rebuild on Saturday evening, it became clear Raikkonen – who was 10th on the provisional grid - required a new gearbox, which triggered a five-place grid penalty.

With the Finn set to start towards the back anyway, Alfa Romeo took the opportunity to change his internal combustion engine (ICE).

As they opted to replace the old specification Ferrari power unit with the upgrade that made its race weekend debut at Spa with the two Haas cars and Raikkonen’s team mate Antonio Giovinazzi, a pit lane start is required as per the sporting regulations.

Meanwhile, Sergio Perez has taken a new ICE, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K after a power unit issue forced him to stop out on track in the first segment of qualifying.

It triggers a host of engine penalties, which will see him start towards the back of the grid along with Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris who have also have grid penalties for exceeding their respective power unit allocations.