For the third consecutive weekend, the Formula One drivers were behind the wheel of their machinery. This time, it was at Monza for the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAN PREMIO D’ITALIA 2022. With Charles Leclerc on pole position in front of the Italian crowd and a grid shuffled by grid penalties it was sure to be an entertaining race.
Off the line, George Russell had a slightly better first phase of the start, but Charles Leclerc’s start was overall faster and he was able to cover off the Mercedes before the first corner. Russell attempted to hang on around the outside of the first corner, but had to cut the chicane to avoid colliding with Leclerc.
Further back, Lando Norris had a horrible start from the second row of the grid, getting really bogged down at the start and possibly going into anti-stall mode. He recovered, but had lost many places.
Even further back, Max Verstappen charged his way through the field on the opening lap of the race, working to recover his race after taking engine penalties that dropped him down to P7 on the grid. By the time he got to the first corner on the second lap, he was already up into the podium positions. Before long, he also made quick work of Russell, beginning to chase down Leclerc.
Sergio Perez was the first driver to pit in the race, changing to the hard compound tyres. When he pulled away from his pit box, his front-right tyre was smoking. His brakes had caught fire. The fire burned for a few laps, but he continued to race and it eventually went out.
On lap 12, the Mercedes power unit in Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin gave up. The German pulled over to the side of the circuit near an escape road, but race control still deployed a virtual safety car. However, the VSC was deployed after the front runners had already passed the pit entrance, preventing them from pitting that time.
The next time around, Charles Leclerc was the only front runner to pit still under the VSC, taking a set of medium tyres and virtually guaranteeing a two stop strategy. The race resumed as he was driving down the pit lane and rejoined the race in P3.
On lap 24, George Russell pitted for hard tyres. He rejoined the race behind Carlos Sainz, who had a spectacular recovery from his start near the back of the starting grid. Max Verstappen pitted for medium tyres two laps later, dropping behind Leclerc.
Sainz finally pitted for soft tyres to get to the end of the race on lap 31, followed by his teammate two laps later. This allowed Verstappen to inherit the lead of the race. Leclerc rejoined the race nearly 20 seconds behind Verstappen, but was making very little progress in the closing stages of the race.
When the race resumed, under threat from Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez made a late pit stop with just ten laps remaining in the race. He lost track position to Hamilton and Lando Norris, although he was ultimately able to get the position back fro Norris before the end of the race.
On lap 47, Daniel Ricciardo’s car ground to a halt in the Lesmo corners with a mechanical issue. This prompted race control to deploy the safety car. Many drivers, including all of the race leaders, took the opportunity to pit for soft tyres for the end of the race.
However, much to the displeasure of the Italian crowd, the race never resumed. Ricciardo’s car was stuck in gear and could not be pushed by the marshals. A crane finally arrived to move the stranded car from the side of the circuit. However, even after the car was removed, the race could not resumed. The safety car had picked up the middle of the field, so there were 11 cars ahead of Verstappen. These cars were finally allowed to pass the safety car with a couple of laps left in the race, but the laps ran out before race control was able to allow lapped cars to overtake the safety car.
After a long triple header, the teams now have three weeks to rest before heading to Singapore on the weekend of October 2.
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| Race Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M. Verstappen | 25 | |
| 2 | C. Leclerc | 18 | |
| 3 | G. Russell | 15 | |
| 4 | C. Sainz | 12 | |
| 5 | L. Hamilton | 10 | |
| 6 | S. Perez | 9 | |
| 7 | L. Norris | 6 | |
| 8 | P. Gasly | 4 | |
| 9 | N. de Vres | 2 | |
| 10 | G. Zhou | 1 | |
| 11 | E. Ocon | ||
| 12 | M. Schumacher | ||
| 13 | V. Bottas | ||
| 14 | Y. Tsunoda | ||
| 15 | N. Latifi | ||
| 16 | K. Magnussen | ||
| 17 | D. Ricciardo | ||
| DNF | L. Stroll | ||
| DNF | F. Alonso | ||
| DNF | S. Vettel | ||
