Verstappen dominates at Monza to win Italian GP
Following a short fight with Norris early on, Max Verstappen went on to dominate the Italian Grand Prix without the slightest issue. The McLarens were closely matched but finished a distance second and third to the Dutchman, with Norris second and Piastri third.
It's the fastest race of the season for F1 at Monza, but it didn't really get started for Nico Hulkenberg as the German was called in at the end of the installation lap to retire the car. All others normally continued to the grid to kick off the race under the sunny Italian sky.
As the lights went out Verstappen had a solid start but was quickly challenged by Norris. The latter however briefly ended up in the grass due to Verstappen moving over, then still made it to Turn 1 where Verstappen opted to cut the corner and take the lead. At the end of that lap, Verstapppen was told to let Norris past and take the lead.
Behind them, Piastri lost third place to Leclerc, only to take it back round the outside at the Lesmo corners. Before variante Roggia of lap 2, Leclerc took third back, leading to Piastri complaining about movement under braking.
By the end of lap 3 Verstappen was very challenging in the slipstream of the race leader with one lap later properly making it past to take back the lead before Turn 1. Behind them, Russell got past Bortoleto to take 5th. Alonso followed in 7th but was overtaken by Hamilton on lap 5. Hamilton would continue to move up a sport, overtaking the Kick Sauber on lap 7.
One lap later Piastri finally made it past Leclerc again as it was clear Verstappen and Norris were running away at a pace Leclerc couldn't match.
By lap 15, Verstappen had pulled a lead of 4 seconds on Norris with Piastri 5 seconds off his teammate. Leclerc followed 3 more seconds further back with Russell behind him always on the edge of DRS. Hamilton was no threat but eyeing an opportunity at 2.3 seconds.
Bortoleto was 5 more seconds behind, followed by a long DRS train with Alonso, Tsunoda, Antonelli, Bearman, Sainz, Albon, Ocon and Stroll all enjoying DRS from the car ahead. Positions in that train were stale until Antonelli overtook Tsunoda on lap 16 when the latter lost DRS to the Aston Martin.
The next lap, Bearman pitted and exchanged his mediums from the start to hard tyres. Tsunoda was the next driver to get pitted, most probably a reaction to Bearman's tyre change. The Red Bull driver emerged ahead but could not prevent Bearman from getting past him at Turn 3.
One lap later, Bortolato and Alonso pitted at the same time. Alonso had been putting the pressure on the Sauber driver for laps and enjoyed a better pitstop to get out on track ahead of Bortoleto, with Lawson in between them still.
By the end of lap 22, Verstappen had 6.1 seconds in hand over Norris and another 6.3 on Piastri. Curiously, Leclerc followed behind Piastri also round about 6 seconds behind.
Meanwhile Alonso's race ended with a suspension failure after the Aston Martin's right couldn't handle the bumpy kerbstones at the exit of Ascari. The Spaniard clearly wasn't please but kept it brief: "Suspension failure. This is unbelievable".
In front, Leclerc was the first to pit, returning to the track on hard tyres in 6th place, 3 seconds behind Albon. Leclerc immediately questioned the stop but his engineer was brief as well: "We can discuss later".
Two laps later Verstappen was pitted to also change to hard tyres. A flawless stop brought him back out in third, 4 seconds ahead of Hamilton. The latter pitted one lap later and returned right behind Bearman and Stroll, quickly thanking the pitcrew for the swift tyre change. Hamilton cleared both on the next few laps to get back into 6th.
Further back Sainz was eager to recover some positions but ended up coming together with Bearman at Turn 5. Sainz seemed a bit optimistic to turn into the corner while he had not entirely cleared Bearman, sending both into a simultaneous spin. Both could continue but Hadjar happily gained two positions. Bearman though was given the blame, awarded with a 10 second penalty.
On lap 46, with 7 remaining, Piastri was pitted onto the soft tyres. Norris was initially told to pit that lap but after he questioned about a possible undercut and the timing of Piastri's stop it seemed like the team had changed their minds. Piastri's stop was excellent while Norris's took 5.9 seconds, leading to Piastri inheriting second place with Norris 1.5 seconds behind. That gap increased to 2 seconds thanks to Piastri's fastest lap.
With 4 laps remaining, Piastri was then told to let Norris past due to the pitstop problem. Though the Australian questioned that judgement, he complied following which the two were cleared to race from there on. Without a further fight they simply held positions.
