Italian Grand Prix: “Mamma Mia”: Ferrari star Leclerc dupes everyone in Monza

With an all-or-nothing tactic, Charles Leclerc gave the Tifosi the first Ferrari triumph in the Royal Park of Monza in five years. Thanks to the high-risk one-stop strategy, the Monegasque also involuntarily saved Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen in the increasingly weakening Red Bull from an even more serious setback. The winner of the last two years did not manage to get beyond sixth place this time at the Italian Grand Prix.

“Mamma mia,” Leclerc radioed to the pits after crossing the finish line: “Grazie, grazie, grazie.” It was the seventh Grand Prix victory of his career, and this year he had already won his personal home race in Monaco. “It’s unbelievable,” he said amid the deafening noise of the Italian fans.

In the battle for the World Championship, Verstappen’s toughest driver, Lando Norris, missed the maximum number of points despite taking pole. The World Championship runner-up had to settle for second place behind his bold McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri on Sunday, a week after his victory at Verstappen’s home race in the Netherlands. Because Norris also secured the point for the fastest lap, he reduced the gap in the championship by eight points to 62 points.

Not a good day for the only German

Nico Hülkenberg was unlucky: The 37-year-old Rhinelander’s race was affected early on after a strong tenth place in qualifying. He got into an accident on the first lap through no fault of his own and ended up in 17th place in the Haas

This was certainly not how Norris had imagined the start. He got off to a good start for his standards and defended his lead in the first chicane. But before, or rather in, the second tight combination of corners, his team-mate Piastri attacked. A tough wheel-to-wheel duel and the Australian pulled ahead.

Norris struggled with his car. An opportunity that Leclerc did not miss. Much to the delight of the Italian fans, the Monegasque in the Ferrari also overtook Norris. He had already benefited from a braking error by George Russell in the Mercedes, who had already dropped from third place on the grid to seventh place after just a few meters.

The last eight races have shown that pole position – Norris’ fifth – is no guarantee of victory in Monza. The driver who started from position one only won twice on the track in the Royal Park.

The fact that Norris did not mess up the start in his victory in Zandvoort, unlike a week ago, but was put under so much pressure by Piastri, is remarkable in view of the title fight between Norris and Verstappen. The Dutchman did not manage to get beyond the completely disappointing seventh place on the grid in qualifying – an opportunity for Norris to further and perhaps significantly reduce the gap to the three-time champion and defending champion.

Botched tire change at Verstappen’s Red Bull

Unlike Norris and the others ahead of him, Verstappen started on hard tires and not mediums. This also meant that he would be able to stay out longer until the first pit stop. And that’s how it was. In order to get past Leclerc, McLaren ordered Norris into the pits as quickly as possible. The 24-year-old, who had spoken quite openly in Monza about his ongoing nervousness, which means he can barely eat or drink on Sundays, braked hard on the way to the pit lane and hit a bollard.

At least the so-called undercut, where a driver is called to change tires before a rival, worked. He was able to overtake Leclerc, who then went into the pits. After Verstappen had also been in the pits and a jammed wheel had caused an unusually long stop, the order was practically cleared again: Piastri was leading ahead of Norris, followed by Leclerc. Verstappen was sixth.

After McLaren caused confusion and long faces with some team orders at the race in Hungary when Norris had to let Piastri pass for his first win, the two were given the go-ahead via pit radio to race against each other – according to “papaya rules”, as was said over the radio, because the car is mostly painted papaya-colored.

Norris tried to reduce the gap to Piastri by around three seconds, but the 23-year-old countered every time. Instead, Norris made another mistake and then went in for the second tire change well ahead of Piastri. When the Australian also got the next set of tires, he was again ahead of Norris, who now had Verstappen in his way as he tried to get ahead of his teammate.

And the Dutchman got the go-ahead from the command post to fight against Norris, even though he would need new tires. But it quickly became clear how much stronger the McLaren is at the moment. Norris made short work of it.

But now a different question suddenly arose, because Leclerc and his team-mate Carlos Sainz were in the lead. Would they be able to get through with a pit stop? Ferrari took a big risk. But Sainz had no chance against the approaching Piastri with his worn tires, and Norris had a harder time. But neither Piastri nor Norris could catch Leclerc, who had started from fourth place.