No Verstappen, no Norris – Monegasque Leclerc is doing it. The Formula 1 Tifosi are over the moon. However, there is a lot of clarification to be done between the World Championship rivals.
In the red smoke on the most spectacular podium in Formula 1 with thousands of Tifosi at his feet, Charles Leclerc enjoyed every second of this famous triumph. With an all-or-nothing drive, he gave Ferrari the emotional high point of the year with the home victory at the Autodromo Nazionale in Monza. The last time the Scuderia won in the Royal Park was five years ago. The winner back then: Charles Leclerc.
“I thought it wouldn’t feel so special the second time, but my God: the feelings in the last few laps were the same as in 2019,” said the 26-year-old: “Mamma mia.” In his best Italian, he also thanked the fans who, as always in Monza, turned the entire start and finish straight into a horsepower party mile. “When it comes to celebrating, we are creative, we are in Italy after all,” emphasised team boss Frédéric Vasseur.
It was a surprising and, above all, outstanding victory from fourth place on the grid – no question about it. Ferrari and Leclerc dared to use a one-stop strategy that could have gone wrong in the final meters. But Leclerc raced to his seventh Grand Prix victory and relegated the rival McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, who were anything but in the best of spirits, to second and third place. Only one was definitely in a worse mood: World Championship leader Max Verstappen.
A week ago, he managed to finish second behind Norris in Zandvoort with the ailing Red Bull. This time, he dragged himself to the finish in sixth place with the RB19, which was continuing to deteriorate and raising more and more questions. In the rankings, his lead over Norris continued to shrink: it is now only 62 instead of the 70 before the Italian race. And there is no improvement in sight. Instead, Red Bull is also taking unusually long downtimes during its usual flagship discipline of changing tires.
“That’s always bad, you lose a lot of time,” said Verstappen. “In general, the whole race was bad. I couldn’t drive the whole race with full engine power, we had problems there too. We have a lot of problems that we have to solve now,” said the Dutchman, who believes he is “in no man’s land” for the time being. In two weeks, Formula 1 will continue on the street circuit in Azerbaijan. Verstappen has now been waiting for his next victory for six races.
Verstappen ultimately had McLaren to thank for the fact that the Red Bull fiasco in Monza was not punished more severely. Norris had started from pole position, which he initially defended, but was then attacked hard by Piastri and overtaken. Leclerc also took advantage of the opportunity on the first lap and worked his way up to second place.
The race then developed into a duel between Piastri and Norris, who both changed tires twice, while Ferrari opted for a one-stop strategy with Leclerc and fourth-placed Carlos Sainz.
A painful second place
“It hurts, I’m not going to lie: It hurts a lot,” said Piastri, who looked like the likely winner for a long time. Norris was even more “disappointed.” Instead of the full 25 points for the winner, he only got 15. And three less than Piastri. Norris did get an extra point for the fastest lap. “We had the chance to win the race, but Ferrari took a gamble and won. We have to be happy with second and third place and have reduced the gap,” said McLaren’s managing director Zak Brown.
However, after the team had already caused some confusion with its racing strategies in Hungary, and Piastri ultimately won there ahead of Norris, these are the next points that could be missing in the World Championship duel between Norris and Verstappen.
There are still eight Grand Prix to go, plus three sprint races. And Leclerc is now getting even closer in the rankings. He is only 24 points behind Norris in third place. “There are still a lot of points on the table,” emphasised Ferrari team boss Vasseur: “Now we will keep pushing.”
Hülkenberg unlucky, Magnussen banned from racing
Future Ferrari star Lewis Hamilton, who like Michael Schumacher has already won five times in Monza, remained in fifth place this time in the Mercedes. His teammate George Russell, who had started from third place, took Verstappen into the Silver Arrows sandwich in seventh place.
The only German regular driver finished 17th. Nico Hülkenberg’s race was already over after the first lap after a strong tenth place in qualifying. After an accident that was not his fault, he fell too far back. His Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen was hit even harder. The Dane, known for his aggressive driving style, received two penalty points for a maneuver and will be banned from the next race because he reached the limit of twelve penalty points, as the race stewards confirmed.
Source: Stern
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