He started seventh on the starting grid, but no one will be surprised to learn that he triumphed. Max Verstappen picked up his fifth consecutive victory and his 11e of the season, Sunday, under the Italian sun.
Posted at 10:30 a.m.
Updated at 11:51 a.m.
The Red Bull driver found himself in hostile territory, in front of a crowd that had eyes only for Ferraris. But the 24-year-old Dutchman isn’t exactly one to be intimidated.
With this victory, his very first at Monza, the reigning champion is further widening his lead over Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ championship. His second title will be within his reach from the next race, in Australia.
“It took a little time to be on this beautiful podium, but we are finally there! launched the winner, smiling, at the F1 microphone after the race, to the boos of the hundreds of thousands of spectators.
The final ranking could have been completely different; at 48e After 53 laps, Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren left the track forcing the safety car to enter the scene. The race ended before the restart, however, which deprived fans of a fight that could have been interesting between Verstappen and Charles Leclec.
Still, the Red Bull was the fastest car on the grid this weekend.
PHOTO JENNIFER LORENZINI, REUTERS
With this victory, his very first at Monza, the reigning champion is further widening his lead over Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ championship. The title will be within reach from the next race, in Australia.
“We had a great race,” said Verstappen. We had a really good race car and we were controlling the gap and then the safety car came out. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a raise. »
Charles Leclerc, who held the leading position, appeared disappointed at the microphone. The Scuderia tried a different strategy to put the odds on their side, without success. The Monegasque had to settle for second place.
“The ending was frustrating,” he said. I would have liked us to finish the race, but unfortunately we were second because of what had happened before. It’s a shame, but I gave it my all today. »
“I would have liked to win in front of all these incredible tifosi, but I couldn’t. »
George Russell, at Mercedes, made his place on the podium for the seventh time in 16 races. A noteworthy accomplishment for the young 24-year-old driver, especially considering the difficulties experienced by the Silver Arrows throughout the season.
Nyck de Vries makes a good impression
The starting grid was very different from what we are used to, while many penalties were handed out in qualifying. However, it didn’t take long for the painting to return to its usual appearance…
Verstappen took advantage of the poor start of Lando Norris, who started 3e on the grid, to gain two places from the start. On the fifth lap, he found himself behind the leader, Charles Leclerc.
The Red Bull driver took the reins of the race for the first time in the 12e lap, when Leclerc entered the pits to switch from soft tires to mediums. Verstappen showed up at the pits in turn on 26ecoming out again behind his great rival this season.
At 33e lap, the Ferrari again changed tires to return to soft. Subsequently, Leclerc was never able to close the gap that had been created with the Red Bull.
Otherwise, this race at the Monza National Autodrome will not go down in history.
The other Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz junior, nevertheless put on quite a show for the crowd all dressed in red; the Spaniard was leaving 18e, but climbed the slope to finish at the foot of the podium. Same for Lewis Hamilton, who was 19e started and finished 5e.
To everyone’s surprise, Nyck de Vries – he replaced Alex Albon, who suffers from appendicitis – gave Williams two points in the championship by finishing 9e in his first career race. The 27-year-old driver also did much better than his teammate, Canadian Nicholas Latifi, who finished 15e rank and has yet to collect a single point in the championship.
Sergio Perez (6e), Lando Norris (7e), Pierre Gasly (8e) and Zhou Guanyu (10e) are the other drivers in the points.
It was a disastrous race for the Aston Martins, as Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll were both forced to retire. Same story in the case of Fernando Alonso, who would probably have preferred to celebrate his 349e career racing in a better way. He joins Kimi Raikkonen as the number one driver with the most starts in Formula 1.
With these results, Max Verstappen now holds a 116-point lead over Leclerc and 125 over Sergio Pérez. Red Bull also leads the constructors’ championship with 545 points, compared to 406 for Ferrari and 371 for Mercedes.