Daniel Ricciardo has explained the conversation he had with his race engineer following qualifying as he gradually rose up the grid thanks to penalties for others.
McLaren have the opportunity to score a decent haul of points this weekend at Monza with Lando Norris lining up in P3 and the Aussie starting from P4, with both profiting from the likes of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen having grid penalties for today's race.
Indeed, nine drivers actually have sanctions this weekend at Monza and so we have quite the mixed up grid, with it causing a fair bit of confusion after the session as to where everyone would be starting.
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The two McLaren cars have locked out row two, though, and Ricciardo gave some insight into the conversations he had around his starting position in the moments after qualy, with it seemingly getting better and better as they worked out who'd be going where after penalties applied:
"For a moment [my race engineer] 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 fourth."
Fourth indeed it is for the 2021 winner of the Italian Grand Prix and, though he won't be expecting the same result, he will feel as though he has every chance of still achieving something positive given where he begins the race from.
MONZA, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 09: Daniel Ricciardo of Australia driving the (3) McLaren MCL36 Mercedes on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Italy at Autodromo Nazionale Monza on September 09, 2022 in Monza, Italy. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
He wouldn't have expected to win the 2021 race in all truth at the start of the Grand Prix, either though, so perhaps there's cause for optimism for him this afternoon at Monza.
A mixed up Italian GP grid
We're in for quite the intriguing race with several drivers out of position this afternoon at Monza.
Charles Leclerc leads the field away from P1 alongside George Russell, but further back there are drivers all over that are in positions you'd perhaps not expect them to be.
Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton must surge through the field from P18 and P19 respectively whilst Red Bull pair Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez line up in seventh and 13th.
The two Williams cars are inside the top ten, with stand-in debutant Nyck de Vries starting an impressive 8th, and so there's a lot to look forward to unfolding this afternoon.