10th consecutive victory for Verstappen in Red Bull 1-2 at Monza

F1 Grand Prix, GP Italy, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

Max Verstappen wrote history at the Italian Grand Prix by winning his 10th consecutive Grand Prix, beating Vettel's earlier record of 9. Sergio Perez made it a perfect weekend for Red Bull as Sainz ensured Ferrari was still represented on the Italian podium by finishing third.

For Tsunoda the Italian Grand Prix was very short lived however as his engine let go halfway in the installation lap. After he parked his car it appeared difficult to get the car cleared, meaning another installation lap was necessary as the remaining 19 cars had positioned themselves on the starting grid.

Tsunoda was bound to start in 11th place but his absence meant his teammate Lawson was promoted to 11th with obviously everybody behind him also moving up a spot. By the end of the second installation lap the AlphaTauri was still not cleared and the start appeared to get aborted. Mechanics rushed out of the boxes to get back on the grid but it took three more minutes of waiting until they were allowed on the track.

At 15:20 local time the cars were ready to get going again, this time with every remaining car managing to complete their installation lap and take their positions on the grid. Everybody started on medium tyres except for Hamilton, Bottas and Magnussen. Track conditions were great with 43°C on track and virtually no wind.

When the lights went out Sainz cut across and took the lead from pole position. Ma Verstappen followed in second place while Leclerc had a bit of a challenge from Russell at Turn 4.

The top 7 positions remained unchanged as Norris gained a position at the cost of Hamilton. Hulkenberg gained 3 positions, partly thanks to a slow start for Lawson.

Two laps after the start DRS got activated and Verstappen was soon reporting on the radio that Sainz "was already slowing down so it's all OK". On lap 5 the Dutchman made his first attempt to pass the leader round the outside at Turn 1 but Sainz had none of it and happily took the racing line out of Turn 1 to force Verstappen to back out of it. Verstappen did find this "naughty" but it was definitely fair racing.

Further back Alonso rectified losing a position to Hulkenberg and but by then was already 2.7s behind Hamilton. As Hulkenberg lost another position to Lawson 2 laps later it was also clear that Alonso was unable to close in on the Piastri - Norris - Hamilton DRS train ahead of him.

The battles started to heat up in front when Perez and Russell both went off in Turn 1 of lap 15. Perez claimed to have been pushed off while he missed his own braking point while trying to outbrake Russell in the approach to Turn 1. The stewards still decided to penalise Russell as he too failed to make the corner.

One lap later Verstappen seized the lead after Sainz braked a little bit too late into Turn 1. Both men still made it through the turn but as they headed side by side towards Variante Roggia, Verstappen had the inside for the corner and easily took the lead. Sainz as challenging out of the chicane but when the duo passed through the two Lesmo corners it was clear that Verstappen had the better cornering speed and would quickly build a lead in the coming laps. Sainz soon dropped back into the path of his team mate but the latter didn't really find an easy way past.

In the same lap Perez made it past Russell and also quickly distanced himself from the Mercedes to close in on the Ferrari's ahead.

Sainz and Russell soon understood their tyres were pretty much done. This led to both of them pitting on lap 20 and changing to the hard tyres. One lap later Verstappen pitted with Leclerc doing the same. Perez at the time was already breathing in the neck of the Monegasque Ferrari driver.

Leclerc returned to the track just behind his teammate. Perez pitted the next lap and found himself yet again behind the Ferrari duo.

In the battle for third place in the championship Alonso pitted as well while Hamilton of course kept going on the hard tyres he started on. This saw him run in second place, 1.6s behind Verstappen and 2 to 3 seconds ahead of the leading Ferrari. When he eventually pitted in lap 28 he returned to the track in 10th position, slightly less than a second behind Fernando Alonso. Those fresh medium tyres did nonetheless provide enough punch to easily take the Aston Martin in Turn 1 and push on to drop the Spaniard out of DRS range.

As Verstappen continued to build his lead to Sainz, Leclerc had increasing trouble with Perez until getting passed in lap 32. This time around Perez did not manage to go on and close in to Sainz but he rather struggled to drop Leclerc who used his straight line speed and DRS to stick as close as possible to the RBR as he could. Together they slowly closed in to Sainz ahead with Perez starting to challenge Sainz's position as of lap 40.

Hamilton on the other hand slowly came up behind the McLaren duo. He looked set to pass Piastri through the inside of Turn 3 but then seemed to misjudge how far along he was and while trying to go as far right as possible to optimise his turn-in ended up clipping the McLaren front wing. As Piastri pitted for a new front wing and fresh medium compound tyres the stewards investigated the matter and handed Hamilton a 5s penalty. Hamilton went on to pass Norris and Albon in the next few laps and really had to put the hammer down to compensate for the penalty. The three final laps proved to be enough as Hamilton took a 6s lead to Albon while Norris and Alonso did not find a way past the Williams in 7th place.

In lap 46 Perez took second place after several failed attempts around the outside of Sainz. This time however he was so close out of Curva Alboreto that he managed to pass the Ferrari and take the inside line before starting to brake. Perez sprinted away from the Ferrari duo as they kept each other busy in the battle for third place. The battle was so hard that Ferrari had to step in to ask for "no risk", but even with that Leclerc swerved behind Sainz into the braking zone of Turn 1 and blocked both front wheels in an effort to avoid hitting his team mate.

All the antics proved no concern for the race leader. Verstappen crossed the finish line with a comfortable lead and ended up securing his 10th consecutive race win this year.