Italian Grand Prix: Verstappen – Leclerc – Russell

Sunny. Dry. Air +28C, Rail +43…41C

In early September, Queen’s Park was still submerged in summer green, but the weekend was painted in fall yellows and reds. In celebration of the brand’s 75th anniversary, Ferrari made yellow overalls for the home podium at the 100th anniversary circuit in Monza and added yellow paint to the Scuderia cars. Title sponsors of the Pirelli stage, celebrating the 150th anniversary, took up most of the advertising space with red logos on a yellow background.

But there were also mourning colours. On Thursday in the week of the Grand Prix, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain died, commemorative inscriptions appeared on the cars in her honor, team members wore mourning ribbons and before the start there was a second minute of silence for the weekend with the participation of teams , riders and spectators. Monza paused, then the tifosi sang their songs again.

Over the weekend at Williams there was an unexpected change. Team leader Alex Albon was hospitalized with appendicitis on Saturday morning, reserve driver Nick de Vries got behind the wheel and made his Grand Prix debut. He knew the training car in Barcelona and quickly got to work, right in front of his partner.

On Friday the Ferrari drivers were in the lead in training, on Saturday morning Verstappen led the protocol and Charles Leclerc took pole – already the eighth of the season – to the delight of the stands.

However, the placement of the riders on the grid was determined more by penalties than by qualifying results. Nine drivers at once – Magnussen, Verstappen, Okon, Perez, Bottas, Sainz, Tsunoda, Hamilton and Schumacher lost positions for replacing elements of power plants and gearboxes, making the race even more exciting.

Leclerc and Russell, who showed sixth fastest time in qualifying, started from the front row – the rest in the top six were fined, from second – Norris and Riccardo, from third – Gasly and Alonso.

Pirelli brought the “middle” trio of compositions to Monza – C2, C3 and C4 in the role of Hard, Medium and Soft. Leclerc, Russell, Verstappen, de Vries and Ocon started on Soft, the rest opted for Medium.

Leclerc kept the lead at the start. Norris had a system that kept the engine from stalling – he had a bad start and dropped to seventh. Verstappen moved up to third place. Bottas collided with Magnussen from behind, the Finn’s engine lost revs – and he was the last.

Top ten in the second round: Leclerc – Russell – Verstappen – Riccardo – Gasly – Norris – Alonso – de Vries – Zhou – Stroll.

On lap 3 Hamilton overtook Schumacher for 18th place, Mick counterattacked and retook the position, but Lewis took the lead again.

On lap 5, Verstappen overtook Russell for second. Sainz overtook Okon, Vettel and Stroll to move up to 10th place.

On lap 7, Tsunoda passed Latifi for 16th place.

On lap 8, Pérez switched tires and returned to the track last. The right front brake was blocked, he was smoking, but Sergio kept driving.

On lap 9, Sainz overtook de Vries for eighth.

Top ten in round 10: Leclerc – Verstappen – Russell – Riccardo – Gasley – Norris – Sainz – Alonso – de Vries – Zhou.

On lap 11, Ocon passed Vettel for 12th, Hamilton overtook Tsunoda for 13th.

On lap 13 Vettel complained of a loss of power and pulled over to the side of the road. Sainz was ahead of Gasly in the battle for 5th place. The Race Directorate has announced a virtual safety car mode.

Leclerc switched tires and came back third. No one else had time to make a pit stop – green flags appeared and the racers continued to fight.

On lap 14 Sainz overtook Ricciardo for fourth.

Top ten in round 15: Verstappen – Russell – Leclerc – Sainz – Riccardo – Gasly – Alonso – Norris – de Vries – Zhou.

On lap 16, Latifi switched tires.

On lap 17 Hamilton overtook Stroll for 11th place.

The stewards punished Magnussen with a five-second penalty – in the fight against Latifi, he left the track and did not return to the advantage.

On lap 18, Norris overtook Alonso for seventh.

On lap 19, Gasly, Zhou and Stroll made a pit stop, on lap 20 Ricciardo, de Vries, Ocon and Tsunoda, on 24 Russell.

Perez was ahead of Schumacher in the battle for eighth place.

On lap 25 Magnussen was given a penalty and changed tires, on lap 26 Verstappen made a pit stop and returned to the track in second – ten seconds behind Leclerc.

On lap 27 Hamilton overtook Alonso for sixth.

On lap 31 Sainz made a pit stop and got Soft for the final segment of the race.

On the 32nd, Alonso pitted the car and retired due to problems with the cooling system.

On lap 33 Sainz passed Pérez for sixth and Leclerc switched tyres, also soft tyres, and was 19 seconds behind Verstappen.

On lap 34 Hamilton and Schumacher made a pit stop, on lap 36 Norris and Bottas. During the maintenance of Lando’s car, there was a hitch in the mounting of the right front wheel.

Top ten in round 37: Verstappen – Leclerc – Russell – Sainz – Perez – Riccardo – Hamilton – Gasly – Norris – de Vries.

On lap 37 Hamilton was ahead of Ricciardo and Norris ahead of Gasly.

On lap 38 Norris overtook Ricciardo for seventh position.

Leclerc picked up the pace in an attempt to overtake Verstappen, but Max also stepped up to control the gap.

Top ten in round 40: Verstappen – Leclerc – Russell – Sainz – Perez – Hamilton – Norris – Riccardo – Gasly – de Vries.

On lap 41, Stroll stopped the car in the pits due to brake overheating and retired.

Schumacher and Bottas were ahead of Latifi.

On lap 43, Perez switched tires and switched to Soft – Red Bull decided to take the best lap from Leclerc.

On lap 47, Ricciardo retired from the track due to power plant problems.

The safety car drove away. Russell, Sainz, Norris, Verstappen, Tsunoda, Leclerc, Latifi tires changed.

Nick de Vries braked hard in front of Guanyu Zhou’s car, creating a potentially dangerous situation and received an official warning from the stewards after the race.

It was not possible to quickly evacuate Riccardo’s car – the box was stuck and the marshals were unable to roll it back. I had to wait for the crane, which ended the race behind the safety car.

Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix with his 11th win of the season and 31st of his career. Charles Leclerc climbed to the second step of the podium, George Russell finished third.

Nick de Vries finished ninth and became the 67th driver to score points in his debut race – and was named Rider of the Day.

Three weeks later, the battle continues in Singapore.

Race results

best lap: Sergio Perez (Red Bull Racing) – 1:24.030 (lap 47, 248.182 km/h)

Reasons for leaving

Championship position : Individual

Championship position : Constructors’ Championship