Formula One 2026: Italian Grand Prix qualifying – live

Updates from qualifying for the Italian GP at MonzaLewis Hamilton aims for ‘phenomenal’ win | Mail Philip Italy loves Formula One. It is home to the most storied team in the sport’s history: Ferrari’s total of 16 constructors’ world titles is six better than McLaren’s, double the number of Mercedes’s. The first world championship race, at Silverstone in 1950, was won by Giuseppe Farina in an Alfa Romeo, and he went on to take the title; in 1952 and 1953, Alberto Ascari became the first driver to win back-to-back titles, and did so driving in a Ferrari.Yet 73 years after Ascari’s second triumph, he remains the last Italian to win the drivers’ title, albeit the American Mario Andretti, the 1978 champion, was born in 1940 in what was then Italy, but is now Croatia. Only Michele Alboreto has come remotely close, finishing second in 1985 but a distance behind Alain Prost, who became France’s first champion with two races to spare.The last Italian to win the world championship was Alberto Ascari in 1953 and the country has embraced their wunderkind in the German marque wholeheartedly. For all that Ferrari is a religion in Italy, in Monza Antonelli has brought Mercedes into the faith.Thi…

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