The legendary Autodromo Nazionale Monza was the setting for the final European round of the 2017 Formula One season. The FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO HEINEKEN D’ITALIA 2017 may have also been a tipping point in the World Drivers’ Championship battle, as a new leader takes over.
The weekend began with the first free practice session on Friday morning. All eyes were on Ferrari, driving in front of their home crowd with the World Drivers’ Championship lead firmly in their hand. The opening session was fairly routine, with Mercedes leading Ferrari, Red Bull and Force India. As expected with a track so dependent on speed, there was not a lot of mixture in the time tables. Lewis Hamilton led the session by just under half a second, showing that he was up to giving Ferrari a serious challenge in front of the Italian fans.
The second free practice session in the afternoon was pretty much as uneventful as the session previous. This time Valtteri Bottas found his way to the top of the time table, with Hamilton finishing close behind. The top three teams were again Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, but McLaren also managed to hop the Force India drivers. One second covered the top five drivers, showing that there wasn’t much of a gap between the top contenders.
The start of the final free practice session on Saturday morning was delayed nearly 45 minutes for heavy rain. The session was started, lasting just over 15 minutes. Many drivers ventured out on the Pirelli wet weather tyres, only to return to the garage due to the undriveable conditions. Only seven drivers managed to set a lap time, with Carlos Sainz having run the most laps with a total of only five. Williams was able to set the pace, although the lap times meant very little because of the adverse conditions.
Qualifying was also held in the rain, although the conditions weren’t as bad as they had been in the morning. The session started on time, but a spin by Romain Grosjean after less than five minutes put a halt to the activities. After more than two and a half hours, the session was resumed, although still wet. Q2 was chaotic, as the teams and drivers rushed to set lap times before the forecasted heavy rain returned to the circuit. The rain also returned for Q3, with drivers originally using the intermediate tyre compounds, but then switching onto the full wet tyres. Rain, along with many grid penalties, shuffled the grid dramatically. Hamilton earned another pole position this season, with Lance Stroll becoming the youngest driver to start on the front row of the grid, thanks to grid penalties awarded to both Red Bull drivers. Esteban Ocon started on the second row, alongside Bottas.
Luckily for the fans, the rainy weather had disappeared by race day, although the rain had washed away any rubber that the teams had laid down on the track during the practice sessions on Friday. Despite a great start to the race, Stroll quickly lost a position to Ocon. Further down the grid, Felipe Massa made contact with Sergio Pérez in the first chicane, causing minor damage to the Force India. Räikkönen was able to challenge his fellow Finn, Bottas, at the start of the race and get past him, although Bottas later took the position back with some help from his Mercedes power. Max Verstappen made a great recovery from his low grid starting position, but was involved in a collision with Massa and received a puncture. He was able to get to the pits and rejoin the race, but his day was virtually over.
Sebastian Vettel swapped places with Räikkönen early on in the race, allowing the World Drivers’ Championship leader to chase down the Mercedes cars ahead. He was the first of the top three drivers to pit for tyres, triggering a chain reaction from Mercedes. Mercedes retained their position at the front after the pit stops, while Vettel lost a position to Ricciardo. Ricciardo pitted later, but his ability to stretch his stint put him in a position to overtake Räikkönen and challenge Vettel. He was unable to overtake the leading Ferrari, while Hamilton cruised home to take the first back to back victory this season and the lead in the championship.
As Formula One now leaves Europe for the rest of the season, the next race on the calendar is the street race in Singapore. The circuit is vastly different than the previous two rounds of the championship, which have been based mostly on high speed. A low speed, high downforce circuit gives Ferrari a chance to answer to Mercedes’ victory in Italy. The 2017 Singapore Grand Prix is to be held the weekend of September 17.
