Tag Archives: Monza

2023 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Results & aftermath

Verstappen outruns Ferraris to make history at Monza with tenth consecutive win; Perez rights back to take second on magic day for Red Bull; Sainz holds off teammate Leclerc for P3

Despite not starting from pole at Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen simply wouldn’t be denied in his relentless pursuit of history in what is shaping up to be an individual Formula 1 season for the ages. Bested by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz for the top spot on the starting grid during Saturday qualifying and confronted by the rabid, Scuderia-obsessed tifosi in the stands instead of his usual adoring orange-clad army, Verstappen bided his time during the opening laps, just waiting for his car’s inherent advantages to come to the forefront. Running nose to tail with Sainz after the former’s solid start to begin the race kept him momentarily ahead, Verstappen shadowed the Spaniard and kept the pressure on the lead Ferrari even as he began to gap the third place Prancing Horse of Sainz’s teammate, Charles Leclerc. Despite the ultra-rapid pace that F1 cars run at Monza — it isn’t called the Temple of Speed for nothing and is the fastest circuit in the calendar — passing is actually not as easy as at some other tracks, especially since the DRS is not as powerful here.

But, with the confidence in his RB15’s superior tire performance, Verstappen could see early on in the game that Sainz’s Ferrari was starting to squirm around at the rear on its opening set of Medium Pirellis. When Sainz locked up on Lap 15 going into the first chicane past the start-finish straight, Verstappen saw the opportunity and pounced. The runaway points leader made the overtake for P1 coming out of the Curva Grande and finished it off successfully while steaming into the second chicane. Sainz had been game and valiant in defense from the point but Max simply controlled the race from that moment onward, as he has so many times this year, en route to his record breaking tenth consecutive win and giving the Red Bull team their own record setting 15th win on the trot dating back to last season. It’s worth remembering that the drivers’ record for consecutive wins was previously held by Sebastian Vettel, a feat he achieved also driving for Red Bull in the midst of his four straight titles. It certainly looks like nothing is going to stop Verstappen from winning his third World Championship in a row this season and he’s probably already pondering tying Vettel’s four crowns next year.

With Verstappen dancing away in the distance, the real action took place with many riveting battles up and down the order throughout the race’s 51-lap distance (shortened from 53 after the rescue of Yuki Tsunoda’s stationary AlphaTauri required two extra formation laps before the race could get underway). After the dicing with Verstappen was concluded, the major podium duel was between Sainz, the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez and the other Ferrari of Leclerc. Perez, who started P5 after another lackluster qualifying performance, made good use of a slight overcut on the Ferraris for his first and only pit stop and then maximized his second stint on Hard Pirellis to chase down the Prancing Horses. By Lap 31, he was filling up Leclerc’s mirrors and by Lap 32, he had made the decisive overtake on the Monegasque to grab P3.  Pushing hard and driving with precision, the Mexican was soon on Sainz’s gearbox, where the two soon engaged in a many-lap epic ding dong battle, with Sainz using every trick in the book to try to hold off the Red Bull. After several tussles through the tricky first chicane that saw Perez run off the circuit and then give the place back as a result, he was finally able to get by Sainz on Lap 46, gaining ownership of a richly deserved second place on the day. Sainz was then hounded mercilessly by Leclerc for the rest of the contest but was able to hold off his hard charging stablemate to secure the last step on the podium. Three-four is probably not what the tifosi or the braintrust at nearby Maranello were dreaming of after Saturday’s electrifying pole run by Sainz. But the respectable result was about the best the team could do when confronted by the superior race pace of the Red Bulls.

Further down the order, Mercedes also optimized their performance on the day, with George Russell coming home in P4 and Lewis Hamilton crossing the line in P5, albeit nearly twenty seconds adrift of his teammate. The Silver Arrows pit wall used a split strategy, with Russell running the conventional Medium-to-Hard tire one-stopper after qualifying in P4, while Hamilton did the opposite because he was starting from down in P8. It wound up coming good for the team, even after some misgivings by Hamilton over the decision, and both men even survived 5-second time penalties for causing collisions, the latter by Hamilton coming at the expense of the McLaren of Oliver Piastri when he squeezed the young Aussie too much and slapped into the McLaren’s front wing. That destroyed Piastri’s race because he required a nose change on Lap 42 and he wound up finishing outside the points in P12 as a result. Making it a decidedly meh day for the McLaren team, Williams Alexander Albon successfully held off Lando Norris to secure P7, another fine effort by the rapidly improving Thai-British pilot. Aston Martin were pretty much nowhere at Monza and Fernando Alonso had to settle for P9 and a meager two points for the team. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas took the last point in P10 by driving a savvy, veteran race and then watching misfortune strike the faster cars of Piatsri and Esteban Ocon. Special mention should also be given to Liam Lawson, the New Zealand rookie filling in for Mark Webber at AlphaTauri while the veteran recovers from a broken hand suffered at Zandvoort during practice. Driving in his second F1 race, the young Kiwi was solid throughout the day and finished an impressive P11.

Top 10 finishers of the Italian Grand Prix:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 51 1:13:41.143 25
2 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 51 +6.064s 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 51 +11.193s 15
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 51 +11.377s 12
5 63 George Russell MERCEDES 51 +23.028s 10
6 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 51 +42.679s 8
7 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 51 +45.106s 6
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 51 +45.449s 4
9 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 51 +46.294s 2
10 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 51 +64.056s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight’s time — the totally different animal to Monza that is the Singapore Grand Prix. Swap out high speeds for tight confines on that tricky and challenging Marina Bay Street Circuit half a world away and maybe, just maybe Verstappen’s luck will falter and his win streak will end. I still wouldn’t bet on it but hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2023 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Qualifying results

Ferrari’s Sainz bests Verstappen & teammate Leclerc for coveted pole at Monza in front of delirious tifosi

Only a week out from a disappointing showing at the Dutch Grand Prix, team Ferrari was looking for redemption in front of their rabid fans, the tifosi, at their backyard circuit of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza during Saturday qualifying for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix. Fast through all three practice sessions, the Scuderia maximized that impetus to take the fight to the usually supreme Red Bull of Max Verstappen at the famed Temple of Speed. Perhaps trimmed out ever so slightly more than the RB19, it was Carlos Sainz who eked out the very best fast lap of the day in Q3, earning his first pole in a year and the team’s third of the 2023 campaign by a razor thin 0.013 seconds over Verstappen. The Spanish veteran also bettered his teammate Charles Leclerc, who managed the third fastest time in Q3. While Sainz will start from the point and the SF-23 appears genuinely quick here at Monza, it remains to be seen if the Prancing Horses have the genuine race pace to go toe-to-toe with Verstappen, whose long run racing form has been nothing short of otherworldly this season. One thing’s for sure come race day: Verstappen will not give up his shot at a record breaking tenth win in a row without a fight.

Mercedes George Russell was the quickest of the rest with a time good enough for fourth on the grid. That was well ahead of his Silver Arrows teammate Lewis Hamilton, who has frankly struggled with his straight line speed all weekend long so far. The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez was also quite a distance away from team leader Verstappen in P5, nearly four-tenths down on the Dutchman’s P2 time. In contrast, Williams’ Alexander Albon continues to over-perform in what has been a breakout season for the young Thai-British driver. With the Williams quite quick & slippery on the straights, Albon hustled his mount all the way up to a P6 starting spot just a little off Perez’s pace. The two McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris struggled somewhat to put a solid lap together under the stresses of quali and were punished as a result, with Piastri only quick enough for P7 and Norris worse than Hamilton in P9. Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin rounded out the top ten on the day with a rather poky performance in P10.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Italian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:21.965 1:20.991 1:20.294 20
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:21.573 1:20.937 1:20.307 21
3 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:21.788 1:20.977 1:20.361 21
4 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:22.148 1:21.382 1:20.671 21
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:21.911 1:21.240 1:20.688 21
6 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:21.661 1:21.272 1:20.760 21
7 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:22.106 1:21.527 1:20.785 24
8 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:21.977 1:21.369 1:20.820 21
9 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:21.995 1:21.581 1:20.979 23
10 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:22.043 1:21.543 1:21.417 19

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Sainz and Ferrari’s qualifying pace was a one lap mirage or if he can truly hold off Verstappen to send the tifosi home in ecstasy!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Results & aftermath

Red Bull’s Verstappen recovers from P7 start to take victory at Safety Car-shortened Italian GP; Ferrari’s Leclerc P2, Mercedes’ Russell P3

Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen continued his relentless march to a second consecutive World Championship on Sunday, recovering from a penalty-influenced P7 start on the grid to surge to victory at the Italian Grand Prix, relegating the pole-sitting Ferrari of Charles Leclerc to runner-up status in the process. In somewhat anticlimactic fashion, the tifosi at the jam-packed Autodromo Nazionale Monza were denied a potential late race shootout when the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo came to a stop between the Lesmo curves on Lap 47 of this 53-lap contest. Hoping for a potential Red Flag to compress Verstappen’s large lead over  Leclerc, the race officials instead allowed the race to peter out behind the Safety Car in non-competitive fashion, despite the fact that extracting the McLaren its parking place required the use of a crane on the track while the cars were circulating behind the SC Nevertheless, Verstappen was clearly the class of the field on this day, as he has been for the majority of the season, and there was little reason to believe that Leclerc could have matched the Red Bull’s pace in a three or four-lap shootout. For Verstappen, it was his first career victory at Monza but his fifth win in a row and astonishing eleventh victory in the 16 rounds of the F1 season so far. Now with a seemingly unassailable 116-point lead over Leclerc in the Drivers’ standings it looks like all but a formality that the Dutch master will wear his second Formula 1 crown when the twenty-second and final round is run at Abu Dhabi in late November.

While Ferrari tried to give Leclerc every strategic advantage, pitting the Monegasque early and cheaply during a brief Virtual Safety Car on L13 to try and gain time on Verstappen in the pits, the on-track pace of the Red Bull was simply too much for the Prancing Horses to handle. Before that final Safety Car, Verstappen’s advantage to Leclerc was some eighteen seconds with only the six laps remaining, an impossible deficit for the P2 Ferrari to overcome under green flag conditions. The second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz did well to haul himself up to a P4 finish after being forced to start from P18 due to engine component penalties, a major issue for not only Verstappen and Sainz but many contenders throughout the field. Mercedes’ George Russell was able to better Sainz for the last spot on the podium in P3 despite running a long stint on the rather poorly performing Hard tires, while Lewis Hamilton drove an outstanding race to recover from a penalty-induced P19 start to a solid P5 finish. Hamilton ran an exceptionally long 34-lap first stint on Medium Pirellis before switching to the faster Soft tires and then carved his way through the midfield and back up to that impressive P5.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez started P13 and finished P6, although he might have done better had the team not been concerned about possible tire failure and called the Mexican in for a late change on Lap 43. Still, Perez was able to nick the point for fastest lap of the race due to that fast and fresh rubber. With Riccardo out after looking like scoring good points, the sole remaining McLaren of Lando Norris salvaged P7 for the team on a day where their closest rivals in the Constructors’ standings, Alpine, scored zero points. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly had a positive P8 finish in what has been a nightmare season for the team that has the talented young Frenchman eyeing a move to the more competitive Alpine team for next season. Rookie Nyck De Vries not only made his F1 debut in the Williams, subbing on short notice for the ailing Alexander Albon who was stricken with appendicitis overnight on Saturday, but the young Dutch Mercedes reserve driver scored points in his first F1 GP by coming home in P9. He showed enough talent and poise to warrant another race start sometime soon and skillfully kept the Alfa Romeo of Zho Guanyu behind him and relegating the Chinese rookie to P10.

Top 10 finishers of the Italian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 53 1:20:27.511 25
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 53 +2.446s 18
3 63 George Russell MERCEDES 53 +3.405s 15
4 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 53 +5.061s 12
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 +5.380s 10
6 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 53 +6.091s 9
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +6.207s 6
8 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 53 +6.396s 4
9 45 Nyck De Vries WILLIAMS MERCEDES 53 +7.122s 2
10 24 Zhou Guanyu ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 53 +7.910s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

After a grueling stretch of three races in a row coming out of the summer break, the next tilt is in three weeks’ time — the return of the dazzling nocturnal Singapore Grand Prix street race after a two-year Covid-induced absence. While nobody seems able to stop Verstappen these days, the tricky and ultra-tight Marina Bay Street Circuit always throws up it’s fair share of surprises. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Qualifying results

Pole for Ferrari & Leclerc at Monza, rest of grid scrambled due to raft of engine & parts penalties for multiple drivers

We’re now at the point of the Formula 1 season where qualifying pace gets negated by the necessity of changing engine and transmission components resulting in grid penalties for the drivers and teams who have burned through allowable parts. This silly system was at its most disruptive after Saturday’s qualifying for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix, which is Round 16 of the championship. While Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc delighted the scarlet-clad tifosi in the stands by hooking up a perfect final lap to claim pole for the GP at super fast Monza, he will be one of the very few competitors starting in the position in which they actually qualified. While the provisional grid for the top ten is included below, as far as true pace it was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who was second quickest, coming home over a tenth ahead of the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. While Verstappen was demoted down to P7 on the grid for his own power unit penalties, Sainz will have to start from way back in P18 due to the magnitude of changes made to his engine and gearbox. Likewise, the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez was demoted from P4 to P13. Mercedes Lewis Hamilton out-qualified his teammate George Russell but, while Russell gets elevated to P2 for tomorrow’s start as a beneficiary of not taking any engine component penalties, the seven-time Champion is relegated to the penultimate place on the grid, P19. For all the out of place runners, strategy will be key come the race, so look for teams so effected to be aggressive with either early stops for Hard Pirellis or starting on Hards and running them as long as possible to try to eliminate one pit stop during the Grand Prix.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Italian GP via Formula1.com:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:21.280 1:21.208 1:20.161 14
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:20.922 1:21.265 1:20.306 16
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:21.348 1:20.878 1:20.429 13
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:21.495 1:21.358 1:21.206 15
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:22.048 1:21.708 1:21.524 17
6 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:21.785 1:21.747 1:21.542 17
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:22.130 1:21.831 1:21.584 19
8 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:22.139 1:21.855 1:21.925 20
9 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:22.010 1:22.062 1:22.648 18
10 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:22.089 1:21.861 17

Provisional grid after penalties are factored in via Autosport.com:

Cla Driver Chassis Engine Time Gap
1 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari Ferrari 1’20.161
2 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes Mercedes 1’21.542 1.381
3 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 1’21.584 1.423
4 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren Mercedes 1’21.925 1.764
5 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri Red Bull 1’22.648 2.487
6 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine Renault
7 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull Red Bull 1’20.306 0.145
8 Netherlands Nyck de Vries Williams Mercedes 1’22.471 2.310
9 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo Ferrari 1’22.577 2.416
10 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes 1’22.587 2.426
11 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin Mercedes 1’22.636 2.475
12 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin Mercedes 1’22.748 2.587
13 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull Red Bull 1’21.206 1.045
14 France Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 1’22.130 1.969
15 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Ferrari 1’22.235 2.074
16 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1’22.908 2.747
17 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas Ferrari 1’23.005 2.844
18 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari Ferrari 1’20.429 0.268
19 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Mercedes 1’21.524 1.363
20 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri Red Bull

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. With so many drivers once again out of position and determined to speed to the front, it should be a wild and wooly affair — hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Results & aftermath

MADNESS AT MONZA: Ricciardo wins, Norris second for shock McLaren 1-2; Hamilton and Verstappen take each other out mid race; Bottas salvages P3 for Mercedes after Perez penalty

In a stunning result for the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, beleaguered McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo shocked the Formula 1 paddock by passing the pole-sitting Red Bull of Max Verstappen when the lights went out to start the race and somehow held on to take the win when the full 53 laps of this classic contest at Monza had been run. Better yet for the team, their second car, driven by the talented young Englishman Lando Norris, was able to keep pace with his older teammate, tucking in right behind Ricciardo to cross the line in P2 as the checkers flew. So, not only was it the completely rebuilt team’s first victory since 2012 but that made it the first 1-2 for McLaren since back in 2010 when Lewis Hamilton was still driving for them, and Ricciardo’s first win since 2018 when he was Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull. A truly amazing renaissance for the Aussie in Italy!

Meanwhile, behind the top two papaya colored McLarens the slow burning antagonism between this season’s top two championship contenders came to an unfortunate and dramatic new inflection point. With Verstappen and his chief rival for the drivers’ title, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, splitting their tire strategies to start the race, Verstappen pitted first on Lap 24 to doff his initial set of Medium Pirelli tires in favor of the Hards. But it was an uncharacteristically awful start for the normally crisp Red Bull pit crew when a problem either with the gun or the nut of the right front led to a whopping 11 seconds stationary for the Dutchman instead of the usual 2.5-3 seconds. After already losing the lead to the hard charging Ricciardo on the opening lap, that left Verstappen fuming even more as he rejoined down in P10. Meanwhile Hamilton, who had started on the Hards, pitted two laps later for fresh Mediums, ostensibly giving him the performance advantage for the remainder of the race. But Hamilton’s stop was also on the slow side, some 4-seconds, which combined with Verstappen’s incredibly slow stop, saw Hamilton reemerge from the pit lane behind Norris and nearly alongside Verstappen, who was streaking down the start-finish straight.

With Hamilton leading into the Turn 1 chicane complex by half a car, Verstappen tried to stuff his Red Bull into the tightening radius of the curves. Hamilton didn’t give a millimeter and Verstappen wound up plowing through the big sausage curbs at the edge of the chicane, launching his Red Bull directly on top of Hamilton’s Silver Arrow. Thankfully the Halo device once again did its job and showed its merit, because the full weight of the Red Bull landed on top of the Mercedes’ roll hoop and cockpit area, cracking the floor of Verstappen’s mount in a fierce spray of carbon fiber. Verstappen’s rear will did appear to make contact with Hamilton’s helmet but thankfully the Halo deflected any more serious impacts and both drivers emerged unscathed. Their races, however, were shockingly over in that instant, with Verstappen netting only two points on the weekend in Italy due to finishing second in Sprint Qualifying on Saturday and Hamilton getting exactly zero on a day when he had the pace to perhaps challenge for victory. Verstappen now leads Hamilton by 5 in the Drivers’ in a a rivalry that has officially reached the boiling point with a planned eight more rounds to go. For those who’ve wanted a return to the good old days of Prost versus Senna, it appears those dreams of fierce conflict are coming true in the season long Hamilton-Verstappen rivalry. All eyes will surely be on these two fiery competitors when racing resumes in Russia in a fortnight to see just what happens next.

That elite double DNF left it to both team’s number two drivers to salvage what they could on the day. While Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who was officially jettisoned from the team for next season just this past week, did yeoman’s work to drag himself up from the rear where he was forced to start due to a host of engine component change penalties, the Finn finally found himself bogged down at P4 and trailing the lone surviving Red Bull of Sergio Perez. While it looked like Bottas had finally overtaken Perez on Lap 43, the Red Bull was able to fight back and retake the position when Bottas overcooked the move just a little too much. But Perez was assessed a 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and then gaining an advantage during an earlier pass by the Mexican on Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. That meant that in the end Bottas was elevated to P3 and the last spot on the podium after his remarkably good recovery drive and Perez was demoted to P5 behind Leclerc, who also benefitted greatly from the failure of Verstappen and Hamilton to finish. Carlos Sainz slotted in at P6, making it a good enough day for Ferrari in front of their home fans, but perhaps a little less than totally pleasing, as they watched McLaren, their closest rival in the Constructors’ Standings, grab a terrific haul of points with their spectacular 1-2 finish.

Lance Stroll came home in P7 in his Aston Martin, the two Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were P8 and P10 respectively and George Russell, who will leave Williams for Mercedes next year, finished in P9.

Top 10 finishers of the Italian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 1:21:54.365 26
2 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +1.747s 18
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53 +4.921s 15
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 53 +7.309s 12
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 +8.723s 10
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 53 +10.535s 8
7 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 53 +15.804s 6
8 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 53 +17.201s 4
9 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 53 +19.742s 2
10 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 53 +20.868s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two week’s time, the Russian Grand Prix from the visually stunning Sochi Autodrom on the Black Sea.  Look forward to seeing you then to find out how Verstappen and Hamilton recover from their latest contretemps!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Sprint Qualifying results

Bottas wins Sprint Qualifying race at Monza but P2 Verstappen inherits pole due to Mercedes engine penalties; Hamilton finishes down in P5 after poor start, as McLaren take advantage with Ricciardo finishing P3 and Norris P4

The second of Formula 1’s experimental and somewhat gimmicky Sprint Qualifying races this year took place on Saturday at the fabled Temple of Speed, the Autodromo Nazionale in Monza, Italy, and it demonstrated once again what a risky proposition it can be for the top contenders. After Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton earned P1 and P2 for the Sprint race during the normal three-round knockout “qualifying’ that is moved to Friday for these events with the extra mini-race, the team was feeling positive when they kept Red Bull’s Max Verstappen starting behind their men in P3. But Hamilton got a dreadful start in the Sprint when the lights went out and dropped from P2 down to P5, behind not only Verstappen, his only serious title rival, but also the two Mercedes-powered McLarens of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris. To complicate Hamilton’s day even more, a Safety Car was deployed before the end of the first lap when Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri speared off the road with a broken front wing and so Norris’ McLaren was therefore able to run several laps at slow speed while the track was cleared, saving his Soft Pirellis significant wear and tear. This, then, enabled the talented young Englishman to keep Hamilton at bay for the remainder of the race because his tires never reached a critical drop off in performance. While Bottas, who is officially out at the Mercedes factory team for next season, swanned away and easily kept Verstappen behind him, Hamilton spent the remaining laps of this 18-lap Sprint trying in vain to get around Norris’ McLaren and somehow make up the positions he threw away at the start. But despite pushing hard throughout, Hamilton could never get close to an overtaking move on Norris and had to settle for a disappointing P5 finish. And while Bottas was able to secure the Sprint win and grab three Championship points, it was almost entirely a pyrrhic victory because the Finn will not start from pole in tomorrow’s Grand Prix but rather from the back of the grid as penalty for replacing several high mileage engine components in his Silver Arrow.

That left Red Bull’s Verstappen the biggest winner of the day because even though he came home P2  he will start from pole in the Grand Prix. He also earned two valuable Championship points to Hamilton’s zero on the day and Hamilton will be mired back in the second row in P4 when he lines up on the grid for the race. The only potential saving grace for Lewis and Mercedes is that they seem to have a genuine pace advantage over Red Bull at this ultra-high speed circuit with its seemingly endless long straights and blindingly fast, sweeping curves. But as the Mercedes team saw today, it’s actually not that easy to pass here at Monza, especially when Hamilton is going to have to first get by both McLarens, which have essentially the same power units under their hoods as Hamilton.

Sprint Qualifying results Top 10:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 18 27:54.078 3
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 18 +2.325s 2
3 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 18 +14.534s 1
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 18 +18.835s 0
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 18 +20.011s 0
6 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 18 +23.442s 0
7 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 18 +27.952s 0
8 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 18 +31.089s 0
9 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 18 +31.680s 0
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 18 +38.671s 0

Complete Sprint results available via Formula1.com.

And this is the actual Top 10 starting grid for tomorrow’s race after Bottas’ penalties are factored in:

POS NO DRIVER CAR
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA
2 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES
3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI
7 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI
8 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA
9 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES
10 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT

Tomorrow’s Italian GP airs live beginning at 9AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Hamilton can claw his way back to the top step or Verstappen will take his lucky pole and convert it into another victory!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Results & aftermath

Gasly takes Cinderella victory at Italian GP after pivotal penalty plunges Hamilton down the order; Sainz a hard-fought P2, Stroll P3 to complete topsy turvy youth power podium

A funny thing happened on the way to the latest Lewis Hamilton coronation during Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix at the ultra-high speed Monza circuit. With the Mercedes ace was once again leading easily and dominating from the front, he and the team made a fatal blunder when they pitted during a Safety Car on Lap 21 while the pits were closed. The lighted signals on the outside of Parabolica en route to the pits are admittedly not that easy to discern for a driver at speed but that cut no ice with the stewards, whose key concern was the safety of the marshals as they pushed the disabled Haas of Kevin Magnussen back towards pit entry in order to clear it as a hazard on track. The verdict hung over Hamilton’s head for some time due to another Safety Car and a resultant Red Flag period after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed out in scary fashion deforming the tire barrier at that same Parabolica on Lap 25. But eventually Hamilton was assessed the dreaded Stop and Hold penalty +10 seconds for his illegal stop, a drive and park in pit lane to be served under green flag conditions when racing resumed despite his and the team’s protestations.

That put the cat amongst the pigeons for a truly topsy turvy result, as Hamilton was shuffled all the way to the rear of the field investigators he served his penalty, opening the door for some of the usual midfield runners to earn a level of glory that has been nearly impossible to achieve in this long Mercedes-Red Bull-Ferrari big three era. The greatest glory was seized by Frenchman Pierre Gasly for the Italian AlphaTauri team, who drove the last half of the 53-lap race after a second standing restart to end the Red Flag period as if his very career depended on it. A year after he was demoted from the senior Red Bull team the 24-year-old Gasly must have given the Red Bull brain trust second thoughts about that decision, as he held of the determined effort of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz to take an improbable Cinderella victory at Monza. It was Gasly’s first career F1 victory, the first by a Frenchman since Olivier Panis at Monaco in 1996 and his team’s second-ever win — the first since some kid named Sebastian Vettel won for Toro Rosso back in 2008 at this very same circuit.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Sainz fought desperately to try and get his own maiden win but came up just short as the laps ran out on him and the tenacious Gasly hung tough against his onslaught ahead. Still, the P2 finish was the 26-year-old Spaniard’s best ever result and he drove a splendid and composed race all around. He has got be having some serious doubt now about his decision to move to Ferrari next season, though, The resurgent McLaren and the pokey Prancing Horse look to be heading in two opposite directions in terms of performance. Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, just 21, claimed the last podium position in P3, making up a very young and unexpected top 3 for this crazy race. To be honest, it was good to see Mercedes get shut out of the victory and podium positions and even if it was a somewhat flukey, one-off result these three young men will carry the glory of this special day with them for the rest of their lives. A few more unpredictable results like this could also be just the tonic that Formula 1 needs to entice a new generation of fans. It’s only too bad that due to COVID-19 precautions there weren’t any actual tifosi in the stands to witness this stunning result.

Sainz’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris took P4 ahead of the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas to complete a quartet of young guns at the head of the field. Bottas struggled mightily all day, dropping like a stone at the start from P2 to P4 at the end of the opening lap and never looking all that racy afterwards. While the veteran Finn may have picked up some damage as cars rubbed by him he looked to be the driver most affected by the new restrictions on in-race engine mapping and he had a hard time just getting to and then maintaining his final P5 position. The Mercedes Achilles heel of overheating while running behind other cars and not in clean air also may have balked his progress. But at least he can take some small comfort in the fact that he bested his normally superlative teammate’s finish, as Hamilton fought gamely from last after his penalty by passing the nine cars left in front him but could only drag himself up to P7 before the laps ran out. Renault had another good day, if not quite as good as their overachieving midfield rivals and saw Daniel Ricciardo come home P6 and Esteban Ocon P8. The second Racing Point of Sergio Perez took the last point in P10.

As off-kilter a day as Mercedes may have had their two historic rivals had it far worse, Red Bull leader Max Verstappen got off to an uncharacteristically bad start that saw him actually lose positions on the opening lap and was mired in the midfield after the post-Red Flag restart before having to retire his car on Lap 31 for preemptive engine preservation reasons. His teammate Alexander Albon, who all will continue to note replaced Gasly at Red Bull midseason last year, tangled with the eventual race winner going into the first chicane on Lap 1 and was penalized for not leaving a car’s length during the encounter. But the bigger penalty was the damage he picked up in the skirmish and he came home a dismal P15, second to last of the cars still running. It was even worse for Ferrari at their home Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel suffered terminal brake failure on Lap 6 and had to limp home to retire the car. And as mentioned, Leclerc had a high speed, high-G shunt on Lap 25, which looked to be driver error but that he was thankfully able to walk away from. So as bad as it was that there were no fans to share in Gasly’s improbable run to glory from Ferrari’s perspective it’s probably just as well there weren’t any to witness this latest ignominy for the fabled Scuderia from Maranello.

Top 10 finishers of the Italian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 53 1:47:06.056 25
2 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 53 +0.415s 18
3 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 53 +3.358s 15
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 53 +6.000s 12
5 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53 +7.108s 10
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 53 +8.391s 8
7 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 +17.245s 7
8 31 Esteban Ocon RENAULT 53 +18.691s 4
9 26 Daniil Kvyat ALPHATAURI HONDA 53 +22.208s 2
10 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 53 +23.224s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time — the inaugural Tuscan Grand Prix from the Mugello Circuit, the first time this test track has ever been used in an F1 GP. Perhaps the strange surroundings will produce another entertainingly bizarre result since the drivers are all starting from scratch there. More than likely, Hamilton and Mercedes will return to their dominating form. Hope to see you then to find out either way!

2020 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Qualifying results

Hamilton pips Bottas for pole at Monza and another Mercedes front row lockout; McLaren’s Sainz and Racing Point’s Perez qualify a surprising P3 and P4, relegating Red Bull’s Verstappen to third row

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton’s dominant season continued when he was able to outpace his teammate Valtteri Bottas by a mere six one-hundredths of a second to grab pole for the Italian Grand Prix at the classic high speed Monza circuit during Saturday qualifying. Hamilton, who has now earned living legend status while remaining at the top of his game, extended his F1 pole record to 94, seemingly able to turn up the wick to fend off his hard charging Finnish teammate despite this being the first weekend of the FIA-mandated ban on “party modes” and other performance enhancing engine mapping tricks. Mercedes have now locked out the front row of all but one of the eight Grand Prix this season and the Silver Arrows continue to be on another level from the rest of the field with Hamilton essentially on his own planet at this point.

But, as predictable as the blistering pace of the Mercs was, the rest of quali managed to serve up several surprises. The superb Red Bull RB16 found the limits of its supreme downforce design when the ace pilot Max Vertsappen could set no better than the fifth fastest lap of the final session at this temple of outright speed. That opened the door for the Renault-powered McLaren of Carlos Sainz and the Mercedes-fired Racing Point of Sergio Perez to secure their places in the second row with fast laps good enough for P3 and P4 respectively, pushing Verstappen back into the foreign-for-him third row on the grid. Simply put, Sainz and Perez’s mounts simply had the legs on the Red Bull, at least for one-lap pace, and it wouldnt be totally surprising if one or both maintained that advantage in tomorrow’s race where over 60 percent of a racing lap is taken at full throttle. The second McLaren of Lando Norris will line up alongside Vertsappen after earning a P6 spot on the grid, while the factory Renault of Daniel Ricciardo qualified P7 and the second Racing Point of Lance Stroll set the eighth fastest time. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Alexander Albon struggled all day with strict enforcement of track limits by the stewards and could muster only the ninth fastest time, while AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was the last the top ten starters.

Finally, Ferrari’s dismal 2020 continued in ignominious fashion when Charles Leclerc drove the wheels of his Prancing Horse in Q2 and still did not advance. He’ll have to settle for P13 on the grid. Meanwhile Sebastian Vettel got bounced in Q1 again after getting tangled up in a gaggle of other midfield runners all trying to inhabit the exact same space on the circuit for their final runs in the first session. It is actually a good thing there were no fans at Monza to witness this year’s Ferraris’ brutal lack of pace. One can be sure, however, that the corporate chieftains at the factory in Maranello just up the road from here were watching today’s woeful proceedings with a rather jaundiced eyes.

Top 10 qualifiers for then Italian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:19.514 1:19.092 1:18.887 18
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:19.786 1:18.952 1:18.956 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 1:20.099 1:19.705 1:19.695 16
4 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:20.048 1:19.718 1:19.720 17
5 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:20.193 1:19.780 1:19.795 17
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN RENAULT 1:20.344 1:19.962 1:19.820 18
7 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 1:20.548 1:20.031 1:19.864 16
8 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:20.400 1:19.924 1:20.049 19
9 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:21.104 1:20.064 1:20.090 19
10 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:20.145 1:19.909 1:20.177 20

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Can anyone stop Lewis Hamilton’s assault on the Formula 1 record book? I wouldn’t bet on it but hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Results & aftermath

Leclerc holds off two Mercedes for second consecutive win in front of delirious Ferrari fans at Monza; Bottas P2, Hamilton P3; Vettel spins out of the points early

Rising star Charles Leclerc earned his second consecutive win and a permanent place in the hearts of Ferrari fans with a hard fought victory at Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy on Sunday. Coming off his first career win at historic Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium a week ago Leclerc arguably topped that personal first by fighting off both formidable Mercedes to take the win in front of the delirious tifosi at what Ferrari and Italians in general have always considered the most important race of the year. Using every defending skill and trick in his arsenal to hold off the Silver Arrows of first Lewis Hamilton and then Valtteri Bottas, Leclerc delivered the first Monza win for the famed Scuderia from just up the road in Maranello since 2010 when Fernando Alonso took the honors. The Ferrari SF90 now has reliably superior straight line speed to the Mercedes and the ultra-fast Monza circuit was the perfect proving ground for that, confirming the post-summer break trend that began at Spa. While it is too late for Leclerc to come anywhere close to challenging Hamilton for the title this season the talented Monegasque served notice that he could be the English 5-time champion’s biggest rival in the coming years.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Leclerc led from pole and he and Hamilton made their first stop for tires a lap apart, with Hamilton boxing on Lap 20 just one lap before Leclerc came in on Lap 21. But Ferrari opted to put Leclerc on the Hard Pirelli compound while Mercedes opted for Medium tires. It was an intriguing decision by Ferrari with potential pitfalls if Leclerc could not make the Hard tires work effectively for the remainder of the race. He was the only driver that opted for this strategy. The two contenders on their different tire compounds promptly began battling for the lead in spirited fashion and when Hamilton tried to make the pass on Lap 23 after closing the gap to within a whisker’s distance Leclerc essentially shoved Hamilton off track to maintain his lead. Leclerc was shown the black and white flag for that but that only serves as a caution against future behavior and is not a penalty. Similarly, when Hamilton had reloaded and made another go at Leclerc on Lap 36 after two brief Virtual Safety Car periods Leclerc locked up through the edge of the chicane and drove straight over the curbs. But the stewards ruled that he gained no real advantage over Hamilton even while rejoining in front of the Mercedes. By this time Hamilton’s tires were going off and his teammate Bottas, who had stayed out longer on his first stint than the two frontrunners and pitted on Lap 28 for his own set of Mediums, was closing down both of the leaders from his P3 position. When Hamilton had a lockup of his own on Lap 42 of the 53 lap contest and had to take the escape route into the chicane it was clear his tires were shot. Bottas easily inherited P2 without any internecine warfare and set about trying to catch Leclerc to try and take the victory for himself.

But Leclerc had other ideas on this day. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Qualifying results

Ascendent Leclerc grabs second consecutive pole as Ferrari look strong for home race; Hamilton P2 & Bottas P3 in messy quali as teams get timing wrong for late runs in Q3

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc grabbed his second pole position in a row in a strange Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix. In front of the rabidly pro-Ferrari tifosi in the stands of the legendary Autodromo Nazionale Monza, the fastest of F1 circuits, Leclerc laid down a storming lap early in Q3. That ended up as the best time when nearly all the teams inexplicably left it too late later in the session and all but McLaren’s Carlos Sainz failed to make the start line prior to Q3 expiring. It was a strange ending but the Ferrari faithful will take the result of having their young Monegasque hero on the pole even if the confusion at the end of Q3 prevented Sebastian Vettel from bettering his P4 time. The two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas split the Prancing Horses and will start P2 and P3 respectively. Hamilton will be looking to put young Leclerc back in his place while Leclerc will be looking to maximize the SF90s newly superior pace to score his second consecutive win tomorrow. With the two elite teams of the sport lining up side by side in the first two rows the start could well be the pivotal moment of the race.

Further back on the grid, Renault found startlingly good pace with their chassis’ downforce defects turning into advantages at ultra-quick Monza. Daniel Ricciardo set the fifth fastest time while his teammate Nico Huikenberg was P6. Sainz pulled his McLaren up to P7 by dint of persistence and running the most laps of any other runner, while the Red Bull of Alexander Albon could do no better than a P8 time in his second qualifying effort for the team since being promoted for the Belgian GP a week ago. His more heralded teammate Max Verstappen barely made an appearance in Q1 and will start at the back of the grid due to engine penalties. Racing Point’s Lance Stroll earned a solid P9 on the grid while Kimi Raikkonen, who caused a longish red flag period in Q3 after losing it in the Parabolica and backing into the barriers, is slated to start P10 but may face grid-spot penalties if he damaged his gearbox in the incident.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Italian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:20.126 1:19.553 1:19.307 18
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:20.272 1:19.464 1:19.346 16
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:20.156 1:20.018 1:19.354 17
4 5 Sebastian Vettel FERRARI 1:20.378 1:19.715 1:19.457 17
5 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT 1:20.374 1:19.833 1:19.839 13
6 27 Nico Hulkenberg RENAULT 1:20.155 1:20.275 1:20.049 14
7 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN RENAULT 1:20.413 1:20.202 1:20.455 20
8 23 Alexander Albon RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:20.382 1:20.021 DNF 15
9 18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES 1:20.643 1:20.498 DNF 19
10 7 Kimi Räikkönen ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 1:20.634 1:20.515 DNF 16

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Ferrari can win in front of the home fans or if Mercedes will spoil the Prancing Horses’ party!