The Temple of Speed welcomed the F1 circus for the last part of the triple-header. The Italian venue is known to demand excellent straight line speed, low aero package and team effort in terms of slipstream. Coming to Monza, Verstappen was the underdog, as the Dutchman has never qualified higher than P5 there.
Qualifying took place on Friday already, as the Italian GP saw the Sprint event for the second time this season. This was why only soft tyre wear was available for the qualifying. The most hair-raising moment of the first session occurred in the last minute, as Latifi in his Williams was just barely able to avoid hitting a jumping rabbit, which was boldly crossing the track.
Traffic is always a key factor at Monza. This time there were close calls both on the pit lane and on the track. Ferrari's Leclerc was struggling with the performance of his SF1000 throughout the qualifying session. Despite the issues with engine braking, the Monegasque and his teammate managed to make it within the top ten. Last year's Italian GP was left in history as the Scuderia's worst performance since 1984, as neither one of the drivers (Leclerc or Vettel) made it within the top ten.
The statistics underlined Verstappen's position as the underdog, as the Dutchman was three tenths slower on the straights compared to McLaren's Ricciardo, who had the fastest straight line speed. In Q3 it all came down to team effort; Perez gave Verstappen tow and Bottas gave Hamilton tow as well. It was extremely tight on the first runs; Hamilton, Verstappen and McLaren's Norris were all within 0.065s! Bottas made a mistake on his first flyer and was only 5th. However, the dying moments of the last segment saw an absolutely magical lap from Bottas, who made on pole by 0.096s to his teammate. Verstappen was left third, being unable to improve at the end, ending up four tenths shy of the Finn's benchmark. McLaren showed brilliant pace as well, as Norris qualified fourth and Ricciardo fifth. Gasly at the wheel of AlphaTauri stood out again being sixth fastest. The Ferrari duo of Sainz and Leclerc qualified 7th and 8th with Red Bull's Perez and Alfa Romeo's Giovinazzi rounding out the top ten. However, the official pole position went to the Sprint's winner.
Bottas took a magical start, giving nobody a chance to challenge him into Turn 1. Verstappen held on to his second place, but behind him there was an intense battle with Hamilton and the McLaren duo. Hamilton failed badly at the start, and was overtaken not only by Verstappen, but by Ricciardo and Norris as well. Ricciardo jumped two positions right at the start and was third in the race. Hamilton, on the other hand, dropped from P2 down to P5.
On the opening lap AlphaTauri's Gasly slightly hit Ricciardo's rear-left tyre, which caused the Frenchman a front wing damage. A piece of the front wing got stuck under the front-left tyre with sparks flying. Gasly ended up into the tyre wall, which ended the race for him. Safety car was deployed.
After four laps behind the safety car, the race was back on. Bottas nailed the restart perfectly and gave Verstappen no chance to get within striking distance. Hamilton was right at the very tail of Norris' McLaren and was able to open the DRS on the straights. However, McLaren's straight line speed was impressive, and Norris handled the pressure well. Red Bull's Perez and Aston Martin's Stroll had a battle of their own further down in the pack, but otherwise it was quite boring 18 laps. Differing tyre strategy, McLaren on the softs and Mercedes and Red Bull on the mediums, played no role in terms of the Sprint results.
Bottas won the Sprint knowing, that he wasn't going to start to tomorrow's race on pole. Mercedes are going to change multiple power unit elements on the Finn's W12, which means starting from the back of the grid. Verstappen, the runner-up of the Sprint, will start to the race from pole, with McLaren's Ricciardo alongside him on the front row. Norris will start from P3 and Hamilton P4, followed by the Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Sainz.
All drivers started to the Italian GP on the medium Pirellis, except for the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Bottas and Alfa Romeo's Kubica. The start was one of the most electrifying ones this season. Ricciardo on P2 accelerated from 0 to 200 km/h in just 4.6s and boldly took the lead from pole-setter Verstappen. Verstappen had an intense battle with Hamilton turning into Turn 1. Hamilton ended up going wide, which made him lose a position to McLaren's Norris. Ferrari's Sainz, on the other hand, touched Giovinazzi's Alfa Romeo, which caused an off for the Italian and dropped him at the very back of the pack.
Verstappen hanged on right at Ricciardo's tail, but not even using DRS helped the Dutchman make a move on his ex teammate. Same applied to the battle between Norris and Hamilton. McLaren's straight line speed was too powerful for Hamilton to try a pass on his fellow countryman. Race leader Ricciardo opened the pit stop roulette on lap 23. A switch to the hard rubber, and the Australian rejoined the track in P7. Would Verstappen have a chance to take the lead after his pit stop?
Verstappen's mediums were so out-worn, that Red Bull called him in on the following lap. But what a disaster the Dutchman's pit stop turned out! There were issues with Max's front-right tyre, and the pit stop took 11 seconds! Max rejoined the track in P10, whilst Ricciardo was now 6th in the race. Hamilton's first stint wasn't massively longer despite the hard tyres, and the Briton came in on lap 26. Everything didn't go to plan for him, either, as the pit stop lasted a bit over 4 seconds. But drama was just about to start.
With Hamilton passing the pit exit, Verstappen was driving right alongside him. They dived into Turn 1 wheel-to-wheel, with Verstappen in the inside of Hamilton. However, there was not enough room in the inside, and Max's RB16B ended up on the high orange sausage kerbs. A collision was inevitable, and both cars ended up on the gravel, with the rear of Verstappen's Red Bull on top of the nose of Hamilton's W12. The slow motion footage showed, that without the halo protective device the incident could have had serious consequences for Hamilton. Without the halo the rear-right tyre of Max's RB16B would have hit Hamilton's head. Both world championship contenders were out of the race! Safety car was deployed.
Ricciardo was leading the race, Leclerc was second and Norris third. Having started to the race from the very back of the pack, Bottas had made his way up to P6 already. Five laps later the safety car came in, and the battle got heated up again. Ricciardo held on to his lead, but Norris and Leclerc had a fiery fight for the second place. Norris managed to squeeze his McLaren into P2, which meant a double lead in the race for McLaren. Charles seemed to struggle with his performance, as Red Bull's Perez snatched the Monegasque's P3, going over the kerb. Only a few laps later also Bottas attacked Charles, jumping fourth in the race. The Finn was at the tail of Perez, but there was no real pressure to get by. The Mexican had been given a 5-second time penalty for cutting the corner earlier and gaining advantage.
Ricciardo ended his dry season in Formula 1 by winning the Italian GP. His last win was in Monaco in 2018 when driving for Red Bull. Norris made it a 1-2 for McLaren, which was an absolutely magnificent achievement. Perez crossed the finish line in P3 but was dropped down to P5 due to his time penalty. Bottas had maximised his performance, starting from P19 and making it onto podium in the end. Charles finished fourth and Carlos sixth for the Scuderia. Both Alpine drivers made it within the top ten (Alonso 8th and Ocon 10th). Stroll finished 7th for Aston Martin and Russell 9th for Williams.
The dramatic battle for the championship continues in Sochi, Russia in a fortnight. I'll look forward to that holding my breath!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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