Charles Leclerc won the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix on Sunday in his Ferrari and on the home turf of the legendary Italian team, the 16th round of 24 this season, to the great delight of the tens of thousands of fans gathered around the legendary Monza circuit.
The Monegasque, who started in third position, beat the two McLarens of Australian Oscar Piastri and Briton Lando Norris, with Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), leader in the general classification, only taking sixth place.
Norris, who started from pole position, reduced the championship gap to the reigning triple world champion by eight points, who still holds a 62-point lead with eight races remaining in the season.
But the Englishman can have many regrets because he could have taken many more points from Verstappen, who had only started in seventh position.
“I’m disappointed because our pace was good, but it would have been too risky to attempt a one-stop because of the significant degradation of our tyres. For the championship, it’s the same answer as in previous weeks, I’ll do my best and we’ll see. I’m not here to beg for help,” said Norris.
– delirious tifosi –
Starting in third place, Leclerc won thanks to a one-stop strategy against two for the McLarens. After showing very good pace, the Monegasque then managed his tyre wear very well at the end of the race to win with a 2.6 second lead over Piastri and send the Reds into a frenzy of joy, who had been waiting for a Scuderia victory at Monza for five years.
“This victory is as beautiful as the first in 2019. I didn’t expect to win, I thought we would have difficulty against the McLarens and even the Mercedes. I didn’t have much to lose by trying to make a single stop. Being on the top step of the podium in front of these thousands of tifosi was truly magnificent,” savoured the Monegasque.
Leclerc thus secured the seventh victory of his career, the second of the season after “his” GP in Monaco, and the second in the “Temple of Speed”. Thousands of delirious tifosi invaded the track to attend the presentation of the trophy before singing as one man the Italian anthem played in honour of the Scuderia.
This immense happiness contrasted with the grimace soup that reigned in the McLaren team, aware of having once again let a victory and precious points in the world championships slip away. In the constructors’ standings, the British team is only 8 points behind Red Bull but that remains a small consolation after this new missed opportunity.
At the end of a very difficult weekend, Verstappen will however be able to be satisfied with having limited the damage…and thank Leclerc for having beaten the McLarens.
– “undriveable car” –
“We have to make a lot of changes to the car because we went from a dominant car to an undriveable car in six to eight months. We really have to completely overhaul our car,” the Dutchman insisted.
Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), who also made a single stop, took fourth place, ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Verstappen and George Russell (Mercedes). The top 10 is completed by the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), the Thai Alexander Albon (Williams) and the Dane Kevin Magnussen (Haas).
For the first Grand Prix of his F1 career, Argentinian Franco Colapinto, who replaced American Logan Sargeant at Williams this week, put in a respectable performance, taking 12th place after starting 18th.
There was no miracle for the Alpine single-seaters, who struggled all weekend and had a rather anonymous race since the Frenchmen Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly finished 14th and 15th respectively.
nb/jld
