Even F1 drivers struggle with Monza grid conundrum

MONZA, Italy : Formula One took time to do the maths on Saturday after an Italian Grand Prix qualifying bursting with penalties left fans and even some drivers in the dark about who would start where on Sunday.

Nine of the 20 drivers had grid drops attached to their names, including three consigned to a back row that only has room for two.

A 'final' starting grid was eventually issued by the governing FIA nearly three hours after qualifying had ended at Monza - only to be replaced by a provisional one 10 minutes later.

Even then, AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly tweeted: "Can someone tell me in which position I will start tomorrow's race?"

The irony, in a sport bursting with cutting-edge technology and boffins capable of crunching data at warp speed, was apparent.

"I think it's P7. Unless I'm stupid. But I think it's P7," Red Bull's championship leader Max Verstappen told reporters when asked about where he would start after qualifying second with a five place penalty.

That might have seemed evident, and the Dutch driver had got his sums right, but Formula One is not always that straightforward.

In the end, Ferrari's pole-sitter Charles Leclerc was the only driver to retain the same grid position as his qualifying result. Last month in Belgium none of the grid started where they qualified.

RICCIARDO CONFUSED

McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo, last year's Monza winner in a one-two with Lando Norris, admitted to some confusion when he spoke to his race engineer after the top 10 shootout.

"For a moment he said 10th and then he said someone's got a penalty, or someone got a lap deleted, so now you're ninth. And then he goes another one, now you're eighth. It just got better.

"What he told me was fifth but now what the rest of the team tells me is