Round 15/23: Review of the Italian Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen won his 10th straight Grand Prix breaking the record for most consecutive Grand Prix victories held by Sebastian Vettel since 2013. Sergio Perez finished P2 in the second Red Bull while Carlos Sainz finished in P3 ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc by just over a tenth of a second. George Russell in the Mercedes rounded up the top five.

Yuki Tsunoda had a mechanical failure and had to stop on the formation lap extending the formation by one more lap. Since the car was stuck in gear it required further delay and the start procedure was mandated again which resulted in a 20-minute delay and a reduction of two laps from 53 to 51. All the drivers chose to start the race on the mediums except Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen who went for Hards.

The race began with the top 5 keeping their places intact but Russell kept pressure on Leclerc throughout the first lap. Nico Hulkenberg gained three places while Oscar Piastri overtook Alex Albon only to be overtaken by Albon flexing the straight line speed of the Williams. Sainz managed to keep Verstappen behind but could not pull away the gap to over 1 second at any point as Verstappen enjoyed the luxury of DRS throughout his time behind Sainz.

For the next 15 laps, it was all about Verstappen keeping the pressure on Sainz while Perez kept pressure on Russell. Overtaking at Monza proved to be difficult especially with Ferrari opting for a low downforce setup. On lap six, Verstappen managed to get alongside Sainz at the end of turn 1 but had to bail out as Sainz was aggressive on the defense squeezing him out. It was almost a repeat of the incident from 2021 between Hamilton and Verstappen but Verstappen was smarter to avoid and wait for another chance.

Lap after lap Verstappen managed to keep relentless pressure on Sainz hoping for a mistake from the Ferrari driver and he finally succeeded on lap 15 when Sainz locked up going into turn 1 as Verstappen got better traction and ended up overtaking Sainz. Perez with a quicker car couldn’t overtake Russell as Russell managed to outbreak Perez continuously going into turn 1. On lap 14, both Perez and Russell went over the chicane in turn 1 with Perez managing to overtake Russell out of the track. Smartly, Perez handed over the place back to Russell and he pulled a clean overtake on lap 16 on the inside line of Russell.

Sainz was the first to pit amongst the top 4 on lap 19 while Verstappen and Leclerc pitted on lap 20 and Perez on lap 21. Leclerc ended up coming out of the pits side by side with Sainz who was on his out lap and the two Ferraris battled it out for the lead with Sainz prevailing on warmer tires. Perez benefited due to the battle between the two Ferraris as he could close down the gap in a few laps.

It was a three-way fight for P2 between Sainz, Leclerc, and Perez with Leclerc and Perez enjoying the advantage of DRS. Once Leclerc lost the advantage of DRS, Perez overtook him on lap 31 and later overtook Sainz for P2. The Ferraris kept fighting for the final podium position amongst themselves and Leclerc almost took both of them out of the contest on the final lap as he locked up going into turn 1.

Elsewhere, there was also a three-way fight between Albon, Piastri, and Lando Norris. Norris managed to get the team approval for a priority pitstop undercutting Piastri but not before they touched battling for position. For the remainder of the race, Norris kept continuous pressure on Albon but couldn’t manage to overtake the Williams driver. Fernando Alonso managed to finish P9 on a circuit that didn’t favor the Aston Martin car.

Valtteri Bottas finished in P10 claiming the last point while Liam Lawson finished an impressive P11 in the Alphatauri. Lawson has made the best use of the chances given to him and he has proved his worth as a driver. Russell and Hamilton had 5-second penalties due to minor incidents on the track but could still finish P5 and P6.

Position Driver Constructor Time Points
1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 01:13:41 25
2 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT +6.064s 18
3 Carlos Sainz FERRARI +11.193s 15
4 Charles Leclerc FERRARI +11.377s 12
5 George Russell MERCEDES +23.028s 10
6 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES +42.679s 8
7 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES +45.106s 6
8 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES +45.449s 4
9 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES +46.294s 2
10 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI +64.056s 1
11 Liam Lawson ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT +70.638s 0
12 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES +73.074s 0
13 Logan Sargeant WILLIAMS MERCEDES +78.557s 0
14 Zhou Guanyu ALFA ROMEO FERRARI +80.164s 0
15 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT +82.510s 0
16 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES +87.266s 0
17 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI +1 lap 0
18 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI +1 lap 0
NC Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT DNF 0
NC Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT DNS 0

References

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