The yellow will not have changed anything. Partially adorned with this color, in homage to the origins of Ferrari, the brand with the prancing horse once again had to bow down in front of the bullfighter Max Verstappen. The latter, driving an almost perfect Red Bull, won the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, September 11, and took another leap towards a second world championship title which is now in his hands.
With now 11 victories on the clock this year, and the first of his career at Monza, the Red Bull driver now has a 116-point lead over Charles Leclerc who is ahead of the always regular George Russell (Mercedes) on the podium on Sunday. Further on, the Frenchmen Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) rank 8th and 11th respectively.
The points scorers at Monza
@nyckdevries #ItalianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/b32FO4rNF8
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 11, 2022
If you want a successful birthday, avoid inviting Max Verstappen. Already the guy is not known for his joviality, but in addition he takes pleasure in spoiling the atmosphere. In front of more than 375,000 spectators who came to cheer on the Scuderia, which celebrated its 75th anniversary this weekend in Monza, the Dutchman once again ruined the red hopes by showing himself to be perfectly intractable.
Starting from 7th position after a penalty following an engine change, Verstappen acted as if this penalty had never existed, or almost. Like an eagle, he swooped down on the prey that preceded him on the track, and, from the 5th lap, he was already up in second position. But, in front of him, Charles Leclerc did not want to finish in the greenhouses of the Dutch raptor. With a dapper Ferrari, which ran in almost the same lap times as those of the Red Bull, the Monegasque driver managed to keep the hunter at a distance. Provisionally?
The Scuderia, already quite exhausted by the critics as to its strategic choices since the start of the season, then tried a new gamble by bringing Leclerc into the pits early. Meanwhile, Verstappen, alone in the world in the lead, was heating up the rubber without stopping. Difficult, at that time, to know which was the winning choice. Halfway through the race, when the Batavian finally cut his effort to put on fresh tyres, the timing response fell: Leclerc was back in the lead, and with a 10-second lead! Had Ferrari finally managed to play Red Bull?
Clever strategy, pit stops on the line, impeccable drivers… The Italian team had everything right for its meeting with its public. Except there’s a variation that Ferrari’s brains can’t master and it’s called Max Verstappen. The world champion is not just a simple unknown in an equation: insensitive, he investigated the lap records to inexorably approach the red single-seater before, without blinking, to pass in front after the second stop of the two single-seaters.
Beaten on a regular basis, Ferrari drank the chalice to the dregs in the last laps of the race when, following a neutralization of the race after a breakdown by Daniel Ricciardo which could have brought Leclerc back in the wheels of the leader, the marshals decided instead to finish this race under the safety car regime. And so it was a long and slow procession to which the tifosi were entitled to conclude “their” national Grand Prix. The temple of speed, nickname of Monza, had rarely been so badly named as in this sad finale.