Charles Leclerc claimed a brilliant home victory for Ferrari in the Italian Grand Prix with an audacious one-stop strategy that saw him triumphant over the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Norris had started from pole but despite a good launch off the line he was slipstreamed by Piastri into the second chicane, a move that also gave Leclerc the opportunity to pass Norris.
George Russell came out worst from this early incident, forced down the escape road with front wing damage. He finished in seventh between the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
For the fourth time this season, McLaren’s Lando Norris led the field to the grid, this time for the start of the Italian GP at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. There was no sign of Max Verstappen without looking back to P7, but Norris still faced threats aplenty. Alongside him was his team mate Oscar Piastri, followed by George Russell and Charles Leclerc ready to pounce from the second row.
Not known for his brilliant starts, Norris actually nailed it this time leaving Piastri battling with Russell. The Mercedes got squeezed out and forced down the escape road, incurring light front wing damage but Piastri found himself in Norris’ slipstream. He took the opportunity to muscle his way past into the second chicane to seize the lead. That baulked Norris, with Leclerc needing no second invitation to pass him into the second Lesmo.
Norris held on to third ahead of birthday boy Carlos Sainz, with Lewis Hamilton in fifth ahead of Verstappen. Russell slotted back in behind him ahead of Sergio Perez, Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso after Nico Hulkenberg tangled with Daniel Ricciardo. Contact sent the Haas into the pits for a new front wing and a change to the hard compound while Ricciardo got a five second penalty for causing a collision. There was s second too-close encounter for Hulkenberg involving an RB, this time with Yuki Tsunoda. Now it was Hulkenberg’s turn to receive a five second penalty while Tsunoda limped back to the pits to become the only retirement of the afternoon.
At the front, Piastri had broken clear of DRS range from Leclerc and Norris, and wasn’t showing any signs of tyre degradation despite the track being almost 54C at the start. It was Russell who came in first on lap 12 for a replacement front wing after losing P7 to Perez.
Norris was advised to pit on lap 15 to undercut Leclerc. He locked up and nearly hit a bollard in his haste before a switch to hard tyres but it had been worthwhile: when Leclerc responded on the next lap, the Monegasque came back out just behind Norris
Piastri was in on lap 17, briefly promoting Sainz into the role of caretaker leader until lap 21 when he handed the baton on to Verstappen and Perez. They were going long, Red Bull having started on the hard compound. Sainz came back out behind Piastri, Norris and Leclerc and ahead of Hamilton.
Verstappen was told to box on lap 22, surprisingly early for a stint on the hard tyres. It was a poor show timed at 6.2s from the usually bullet-proof Red Bull pit crew that dropped behind Hamilton. Staying on the hards meant a second stop was now inevitable. Perez was in on the next lap and got a much smoother service (a more typical 1.5s) but he was still behind Verstappen when he returned to the track in eighth just ahead of Russell.
McLaren had told Norris that he was free to fight Piastri under “papaya rules” (translated as: whatever you do, don’t take out your team mate), but it was beside the point. Piastri was inching away looked impervious to anything Norris could throw at him. Norris was suffering from graining on the left front and went wide into turn 4, and McLaren responded by pitting him on lap 33 for another set of hards, coming back out in sixth between the two Red Bulls. The new tyres meant he was soon rapidly chasing down Verstappen.
That set off a new round of pit stops with Russell but a sluggish stop thwarted his hopes of undercutting Perez, who was himself in for mediums on lap 36. The pair were fighting hard, Russell taking the position the hard way on lap 38 after initially being squeezed wide.
Hamilton had also pitted again. McLaren needed to know whether Piastri felt there was any chance of making it to the finish on a one-stop. “I don’t think so, the front left is pretty dead,” was his response. He he was in on lap 39 right ahead of Verstappen who was fighting to stay ahead of Norris. The older tyres on the Red Bull made it easy for Norris to snatch what was now P4 with Verstappen pitting soon after to fulfil his need to run the mediums.
Leclerc and Sainz were now in the lead, attempting an audacious one-stop strategy. “They’ve rolled the dice,” the McLaren pit wall declared. “So qualifying [laps] now, just ******* drive fast” was the unequivocal instruction to Norris. Sainz had no chance of holding off the papaya onslaught with Piastri passing the Ferrari into Ascari on lap 46, and Norris dispensing the Spaniard two laps later.
But Leclerc was maintaining his lead and ultimately Piastri ran out of laps and had to settle for second with Norris third, as Monza exploded with jubilant Tifosi going berserk. Sainz missed out on the podium and finished fourth ahead of Hamilton, Verstappen, Russell and Perez.
Alex Albon was ninth ahead of Kevin Magnussen who had a ten-second penalty for a mid-race clash with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. Alonso was P11 with Albon’s debutant team mate Franco Colapinto 12th and Ricciardo 13th, after an additional penalty for not serving his original sanction correctly.
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