After McLaren’s teammates got caught up in the race debate the fastest race in Formula 1 history, Max Verstappen ruled the Italian Grand Prix before Rando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Norris got a better launch from the second on the grid, running Poregitter’s Verstappen lined up on the first turn, using his position on the inner line to take up the full width of the track.
Verstappen cut Chicane to hold the lead, but the steward focused on the incident and his team told him to hand him the place to avoid a penalty.
Piastri and Leclerc were bottled in the melee on the first turn, allowing Ferrari to cut under McLaren to take third place. But it was a short-lived victory. Piastri resumed positioning with a bold sweep of the outside of Leclerc at 130 mph on the first Resmo.
Leclerc got another shot with the Australian when he began his second lap. Piastri saw Verstappen’s outside and outside to Rettifilo Chicane, but with the Dutch defense, McLaren made a concession and, by chance, opened the door for Leclerc to take him once more.
Their duel allowed Norris and Verstappen to build a gap in their leads until the Red Bull Racing driver made a great run on the front straight at McLaren. After the brakes he narrowed Norris down to the curb inside the entry and took the lead neatly.
Verstappen’s slightly superior straight line speed gradually opened up his advantage through the opening stint, as he climbed the road from there and smashed Dr. Norris on the next lap.
Piastri eventually passed Leclair on a six-lap six, moving the fully executed Ferrari outward move outside the Rettifilo Chicane, resuming his top-4 starting position, but by then he was 3.5 seconds behind Norris.
The battle for victory entered the standoff phase, with no leaders willing to settle in the mid-pack, where field spreads were limited, mainly thanks to being bottled behind Gabriel Boltreto in the seventh.
Leclerc tried to force the problem with a 33m lap and switched from medium tires to hard compound, but with about 7 seconds on Piastri, there was no immediate response from the previous trio. Instead, both McLaren drivers were thinking of running deeper into the race before switching to softer with a shorter final stint.
However, Verstappen was not that comfortable. Slow motion television photos suggest a potentially dangerous bulging with his aged rubber, and at lap 37 he switched medium tires for hard. He was ferocious on the new rubber, with 10 laps remaining, and he closed 12 seconds off the lead and placed comfortably in the main McLaren pit window.
McLaren pulled the trigger on lap 45, but Norris told the team to pit lit the piercing line first, despite the lead driver being normally given priority. The Australian car was repaired in 1.9 seconds and rejoined the race in third place.
Norris pits on the next lap, but his stop was a disastrous 5.9 seconds due to a wheel gun issue on the front left. He rejoins the back of Piastri and drops McLaren into a difficult situation.
The pitwall told Piastri to switch positions as Norris promised that he would not undercut by piting second.
“Are there any slow pit stops in the race?” he said in a brief argument, but he quickly acquiesced to the phone.
The Australian initially threatened him, but with similar tires and the same machine he was unable to pass his teammates and settle for third place.
However, both were outclassed by Verstappen. His first stint left him with a completely trouble-free 19.2 seconds winner, leaving him with his first victory since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in May. His total race time was the 73M 23S, the fastest Grand Prix in Championship history.
“It was a great day for us,” he said. “We were flying.
“The car was really fun for me. I managed the pace very well through that first stint. We pit at the right time and then with hard tires at the end, we can push a little more.
“A great run of everyone on the whole team. I think the whole weekend was on it.
Norris admitted that the second is as good as McLaren was trying to get on a rare weekend when the team was covered in rivals.
“It’s not the speed we are today, not the pace of Max and Red Bull,” he said. “It was one of the few weekends we were a little late, but it was fun and still a good race, so I enjoyed it.”
However, he could hardly say anything about his slow stop.
“Sometimes, we make mistakes as a team. Today we were one of them.”
Piastri was similarly genuinely embarrassed about the team’s orders, but the Australian said McLaren’s lack of pace was a more important factor in the outcome.
“A last little incident, but it’s fine,” he said. “It wasn’t a bad weekend, obviously I would have loved to perform a little better.
“I struggled a bit in the first part of the race. The car wasn’t my favorite way. Once the tires left, I actually felt a little better. This is by no means a great sign.
A 2-3 finish puts McLaren at an emotional distance from the Constructors Championship. He will lead Ferrari 337 points and after the next race in Azerbaijan, he will need a 346 point lead to win the silverware.
Leclerc finished McLaren Driver 4.2 seconds in a decent but calm show at Ferrari’s home race, and comfortably saw George Russell in fifth place.
Lewis Hamilton scored 20 points over Mercedes from 10th to 6th to 6th to 6th to 6th to 6th to 6th to 6th to 6th to 2nd in the Constructors Championship.
Alex Albon beat Gabriel Boltreto in the best midfield in seventh place, moving up to seventh in his starting position. His race pace at Old Hard was so strong that he appeared before Boltreto, who led the midfield in the first stint, but a 20 pit stop was not enough to dodge the Thai challenge.
Andrea Kimi Antoneri lost a handful of places from the line and recovered to an eighth before a volatile driving penalty dropped him to Isack Hadjar’s ninth place.
Carlos Sainz spun with a hit and 12 laps from the finish and scored him.
Bearman was punished for the collision and finished 12th in the lead-up to Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Guthrie, Franco Colapinto and Lance Stroll.
Fernando Alonso retired early in the race due to a stoppage failure, while Nico Halkenberg was unable to get off to a start thanks to hydraulic issues.
result
