The drivers and teams were at Monza this weekend for what turned out to be a thrilling FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO HEINEKEN D’ITALIA 2020. Pierre Gasly took his first ever F1 victory in a tight battle late in the race. A penalty for Lewis Hamilton and double retirement for Ferrari are just a couple of the highlights from the exciting race.
Off the line, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had brilliant starts, while Valtteri Bottas struggled from the front row of the grid. Lando Norris tried to overtake Bottas into the first chicane, but wasn’t able to get by. He tried again into the second chicane and was successful after some minor contact with the Mercedes.
Sergio Perez tried to capitalize on Bottas’ slow performance, overtaking him at the Curva di Lesmo when Bottas ran wide on the exit. Daniel Ricciardo also got past Bottas’ slow Mercedes before the first lap ended. Bottas told the team that he believed his had a puncture from his collision, but the team confirmed the tyre pressures were fine and there was no damage on the car. He found himself in P6.
Max Verstappen had lost P7 to Lance Stroll in the first lap. He fought back on the third lap, getting by the Racing Point in the first chicane. He was now free to chase down Bottas.
Sebastian Vettel was the first car to retire from the race, after suffering a brake failure at the start of his sixth lap. He smashed through the polystyrene barriers in the runoff area for the first chicane.
At the front, Hamilton had built a comfortable lead over Sainz in P2. His teammate was struggling with overheating because the Mercedes cars were not designed to run with other cars, seeing as they are usually running in front. Bottas was required to race off line to keep the temperatures down, compromising his pace.
The safety car was deployed on lap 20, to recover Kevin Magnussen’s car that came to a stop on the inside of the Parabolica just outside of the pit entry. Because the Haas was so close to the pit entry, the pit lane was closed.
Hamilton dove into the pit lane from the lead of the race for medium tyres and Antonio Giovinazzi did the same. Because the pit lane was closed, both drivers were given a 10 second stop-go penalty.
When the pit lane opened two laps later, most of the other drivers pitted for new tyres, except for Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly and Kimi Raikkonen. The safety car came into the pit lane at the end of that lap.
The green flags were only out for a couple of laps until Charles Leclerc crashed heavily into the tyre barriers on the outside of the Parabolica. He lost the rear of the car in the high speed corner. The race was red flagged, to allow the marshals to remove the stricken Ferrari and repair the damaged barrier.
The red flag played into the hands of drivers that did not pit for tyres during the previous safety car period and got fresh sets of tyres under the red flag.
The race restarted as a standing start. Hamilton had a good restart from the front. Stroll did not and began falling down the field, falling to P5. In the second chicane, he locked up after severely misjudging the braking zone, very nearly slamming into a bunch of cars. He had to cut the chicane, but was able to maintain his P5 position.
At the end of the restart lap, Hamilton came into the pit lane to serve his stop-go penalty, dropping to the back of the pack.
Verstappen retired on lap 31, pulling into the garage.
Kimi Raikkonen struggled to hold onto his second position, quickly dropping through the field as the faster cars worked their way past. But Raikkonen definitely made it a difficult task for the drivers, putting up a good fight.
With ten laps remaining in the race, Hamilton had managed to fight he way through the field up to P12 and was making solid progress, but time was winding down. He made it into the points by lap 46, reaching P6 by the end of the race.
Eager to get the win, Sainz was pushing hard in the closing stages of the race, but was struggling to get within DRS range to the leading AlphaTauri. He wasn’t able to get within range until the final lap, but it was still not enough to get by Pierre Gasly.
It’s Gasly’s first ever career victory in Formula One, just about a year after being dumped by Red Bull in favour of Alexander Albon. Sainz and Stroll were also on the podium for the second time in their careers, although it’s Sainz’s first time actually on the podium, having won his first podium in post-race for the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix.
In the championship, Hamilton’s championship lead takes a bit of a hit, but not by much because Bottas was not able to score that much more points after his teammate.
With this exciting race now over, the F1 show will be staying in Italy for another race next weekend. But they will be heading about 300km South to the Mugello Circuit, which hosts an F1 race for the first time ever on the weekend of September 13.
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Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
