Monza Gets Its Tifosi Sunday, and the Championship Leader Starts at the Back of It
The Italian Grand Prix begins on Friday with the championship leader already knowing where he will line up on Sunday: somewhere near the back. Kimi Antonelli takes a full power-unit change at Monza, a penalty Mercedes has been carrying since Barcelona and has chosen to pay in front of his own crowd. "Our calculations say that that's the best track to take it," Toto Wolff said — and the calculation is defensible, because Monza's straights suit the Mercedes engine and its braking zones make a recovery drive plausible. Defensible is not the same as popular in Italy.
He can afford it. Antonelli leads on 242 points, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton tied 59 behind on 183 and Lando Norris a further 24 back after winning at Zandvoort. Mercedes lead the constructors' championship 425 to Ferrari's 338 — a gap of 87 that Ferrari have spent the whole summer failing to close, and which they now have to look at from the middle of the grandstand that cares about it most.
Maranello will lean on the past instead. This weekend marks thirty years since Schumacher's first Monza win for Ferrari and twenty since his last, and Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will run special suits carrying his logo and seven stars. Behind them, Red Bull still cannot confirm its own line-up: Isack Hadjar's wrist injury is unresolved and Liam Lawson, thrown into the car at Zandvoort with barely any running, qualified within touching distance of Verstappen and finished seventh. Lights out at 15:00 local, 13:00 UTC.
Palou Has Won It Again, So Laguna Seca Is Racing for Everything Except the Title
Alex Palou closed out the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series championship before the season did, becoming only the second driver in the history of American open-wheel racing to take four titles in a row — Sébastien Bourdais, 2004 to 2007, is the other. At 29 he is the youngest five-time champion the series has had, and the only names above him on the all-time list are A.J. Foyt on seven and his own team-mate Scott Dixon on six.
Which leaves the Grand Prix of Monterey to sort out the rest, and there is a genuine scrap in it: David Malukas on 374 holds second by four points from Kyle Kirkwood, with Christian Lundgaard on 353 and Pato O'Ward on 336 both still in range of the runner-up spot. Green flag Sunday, 2:30pm Eastern — ninety minutes after Monza, and half an hour after the WEC field goes to work in Austin.
Around the Paddock
Márquez takes the Aragón double and is suddenly 19 points off the lead
Sprint and grand prix, a sixth straight MotorLand win, and second place in the championship taken off Marco Bezzecchi on the way past. Jorge Martín leads on 256 to Márquez's 237 and Bezzecchi's 232, with nine rounds left and Misano next weekend.
Preece wins the only race he could have won, and van Gisbergen goes home
Thirty-one points adrift and winless in twenty-five starts, Ryan Preece took the sixteenth and final Chase berth by winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 outright. Denny Hamlin banks the regular-season title and the top seed. The Southern 500 opens the playoffs on Sunday.
Pajari makes history with a third straight win, and cuts the gap to 20
Estonia, Finland, Paraguay — the first crew whose first three WRC victories have come consecutively. Elfyn Evans leads 216 to Pajari's 196 with three rounds to run; Toyota are 554 to Hyundai's 381. Rally Chile Bio Bío starts Thursday week.
Five points, six hours, and the only WEC round on American soil
Toyota lead BMW 132-127 in the manufacturers' championship after Sao Paulo cut a 36-point gap to nothing much, with Ferrari third on 88. René Rast and Robin Frijns are dead level with the #7 Toyota crew on 75. Lone Star Le Mans, Sunday, 1pm Central.
The silly season went quiet, which is its own kind of news
Verstappen extended with Red Bull through 2030 over the break, Norris re-signed at McLaren, Sainz and Albon both committed to Williams and Colapinto stayed at Alpine. Only Aston Martin, Haas and Racing Bulls have unresolved 2027 seats left to argue about.
Baku will run its grand prix on a Saturday
At the promoter's request, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix moves off Sunday 27 September to avoid Remembrance Day, taking the whole weekend with it: practice Thursday, qualifying Friday, race Saturday 26 September. The first Saturday championship round in decades.