Having already had a shorter race on Saturday, today was the main event for the FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN GRAN PREMIO D’ITALIA 2021 around the fast Monza circuit. It was a race that ended in drama for the two championship contenders and in joy for McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo fans.
Max Verstappen got away well, but Daniel Ricciardo alongside got away better. Ricciardo accelerated himself ahead of Verstappen in the run up to the first corner, leading for the first time since he was racing in a Red Bull car.
Lewis Hamilton also had a good start, challenging Verstappen for P2 in the second chicane. The two drivers were wheel-to-wheel into the corner. They touched tyres and Hamilton was forced to cut the corner over the kerbs, losing a position to Lando Norris.
A little further back, Antonio Giovinazzi also cut the 2nd chicane. He rejoined the track and moved back to the left side of the track, but Charles Leclerc was there. Giovinazzi spun into the barrier after cutting off Leclerc. No other drivers were collected and the incident only required a short virtual safety car period to clear the debris. The stewards gave Giovinazzi a 5 second penalty for causing a collision.
The race returned to green flag conditions after about a lap and the action resumed. The race was rather orderly, with Verstappen stuck behind Ricciardo and Hamilton stuck behind Norris. Both were close to the car ahead, but neither was able to get close enough to launch an attack.
Ricciardo was the first of the leaders to pit, taking the hard compound tyres on lap 23. He rejoined the race in P7 ahead of Valtteri Bottas. Verstappen pitted the following lap for hard tyres, but it was slow stop. An issue with the front-right resulted in an 11 second pit stop and put Verstappen in P10 behind Fernando Alonso.
Lando Norris was the next of the top 5 to pit on lap 25. Hamilton responded the following lap, taking a set of medium tyres, having started the race on the hard tyres. He rejoined the race slightly ahead of Verstappen.
Verstappen braked very late to get mostly alongside Hamilton in the first corner. He had the inside line for the second corner, but he went wide over the inside kerbs, bumping back onto the track and climbing over Hamilton’s Mercedes. The two cars came to a stop in the gravel with Verstappen’s car resting on top of Hamilton’s. Hamilton did try unsuccessfully to free his car from the gravel trap, but it would have been a pointless effort anyway since the car’s rear wing and roll hoop were severely damaged. Whether or not Verstappen was forced off by Hamilton will surely be a heated debate between fans in the days to come and it’s something the stewards will investigate further after the race.
With the safety car deployed during the pit window, a few drivers were able to take a free pit stop. Most notably Charles Leclerc in P2 and Sergio Perez in P4 both benefited by the timing of the safety car.
When the race restarted, Norris tried to make a move on Leclerc on the inside of the first corner. He had to back out of the move as the two touched wheels. Leclerc kept the position, but Norris was able to take P2 with a strong move on the inside of the long turn 3.
Sergio Perez made a move on Leclerc in the second chicane the following lap. He put his Red Bull on the outside, but he ended up cutting the second part of the chicane. Similarly to what we saw in yesterday’s sprint race, he didn’t give back the position. This time, Perez was given a 5 second time penalty for the infraction.
Bottas got by Leclerc a few laps later and started his charge on Perez. Bottas was in a position to make a move on Perez with 10 laps remaining in the race. He used the power of his Mercedes power unit to get by Perez on the inside of turn 3, but went into the chicane too deep. Perez was able to cutback on the exit of the chicane and take back the position.
Nikita Mazepin’s Haas car came to a halt on the outside of turn 10 with a mechanical failure. The virtual safety car was deployed to remove the stricken Haas from the circuit. Critically for the McLarens, the pack does not bunch up during the virtual safety car.
In the last handful of laps, all of the top cars were all pretty evenly spaced out, with no one really managing to make any real gains on the car ahead.
This secured McLaren’s strong 1-2 finish. This marks the team’s first victory since Brazil 2012 and their first 1-2 finish since Canada back in 2010. For Ricciardo, this is his first win since Monaco 2018 when he was behind the wheel of the Red Bull. He also took the bonus point for the fastest lap for good measure. Valtteri Bottas finished on the podium, having inherited the position from a penalized Perez.
The Italian Grand Prix marks the end of this triple header (which was really more of a double header). The teams and drivers will take a week off before putting their cars back around the track for the Russian Grand Prix. The race will be on the weekend of September 26.
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| DNF | ||
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| DNF |
