Race Summary - Monza!

What a great race in Monza. A great use of strategies and hard racing. This is peak F1. The championships are closing. Lets take a look.

Qualifying

The qualifying session was insane with less than 2 tenths between the top 6. McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes made for an extremely close qually. Norris put in a great lap being a tenth ahead of Piastri

Start of the Race

What happened on that start? The McLarens launched nicely however luckily for them Russell managed overshoot into the 1st corner damaging his wing and taking the exit route. This hurt Russells race resulted in losing several positions into 7th. Norris then lost 1st position in corner 4 to Piastri and even bigger bite 2nd to Leclerc. Top 5 on end of first lap were PIA, LEC, NOR, SAI, HAM.

Stint 1

The top 10 all started on the medium tyre with the exception of RedBull. Redbull went for an alternative strategy starting on the hard compound then try to extend to first stint. There was 40% chance of rain at the start so this could’ve had an impact on their decision to be able to wait for the rain.

Hulkenburg was the victim of a team red bull being pushed off the track by Ricciardo (Was given 10 second time penalty) however he was them the cause of Tsunoda’s retirement as he drove straight into his side pod.

Norris came in on lap 15 for the Hard compound and a change of downforce on the front wing. This early stop indicated that Norris was going for the 2 stop strategy contrary to his Teammate. Leclerc and Hamilton respond on Lap 16. Norris Successfully undercut Leclerc and a significant chunk out of Piastri to close the gap.

Stint 2

The Second stint saw the medium tyre be replace for the hard. The McLaren out in the net lead were essentially towing the Ferrari of Leclerc. The hard compound of the RedBull was showing sign of graining around lap 20. I imagine this put some doubts into the other teams aiming for a one stop or did i? It is worth noting that the second stint saw track temperature significant drop meaning that the RedBull data would likely be showing a harsher view of tyre degradation.

Verstappen & Perez started their 2nd stint on another set of hards meaning they confirmed at least a 2 stop race as they need another compound as per regulations. A poor pit stop for VER (over 6 seconds) allowed for Perez and Russell to close in. The McLaren of Norris was given orders that they are able to race each other still however he couldn’t quick seem to close the gap enough.

Norris made a mistake in to corner 4 having to take the escape road. This gave LeClerc a nice dose of DRS. Norris also lost crucial time to Piastri.

Stint 3

Norris initiate the 3rd stint by pitting on lap 32 for another set of hard compounds however he came out behind Verstappen. Verstappen was racing Norris still hurting his chances of gaining positions. It was also a slow stop for Norris losing even more time helping Leclerc. Now roll on the series of slow stops.

Russell was next to pit abandoning his battle with Perez in pursuit of an undercut however in was another slow pit stop over 4 seconds. Perez followed suit on lap 36 to cover off Russell. Perez almost caused a massive collision on his fresh mediums with Russell from moving under braking however unsurprisingly no penalty for Perez.

Piastri also had a bad pit stop however Norris’ battle with Verstappen allowed Piastri to keep his buffer.

Lap 42 Verstappen came into the pits for his mediums. RedBull at this stage are trying to plan for damage limitations in both championships.

Ferrari had a trick up their sleeve and went for the one stopper. This meant McLaren had to put in the fast laps to eat the time out of the Ferrari. Piastri managed to take Sainz for second however it seemed to take Norris a lot longer to get Sainz. He finally took 3rd on the 48th lap. This left Piastri 9.2 second and Norris 13 second to get Leclerc in 5 laps.

We saw racing all the way to the finish line. McLaren were slowly eating the time of the Ferrari of LEC however it just was not enough. Piastri ended up 2 seconds behind and Norris 5. The one stop prevailed in Monza!

Summary

This was a great race overall. A big mixture in strategy from tyre choice and pit stops. This is the racing we want to see. Great to see Ferrari back up there however it is Ferrari fashion to only upgrade the car for a certain race. Lets hope the competitiveness extends to Baku. Congrats to Leclerc great race from him and a well deserved driver of the day.

The race was McLaren’s to lose and for sure they did. Norris managed to get fastest lap at the end however he will be kicking himself he didn’t take the full 26 home. especially with Verstappen in 6th.

Mercedes showed promise in the 2nd and 3rd stint however they just didn’t quite have the pace for McLaren and Ferrari. They looked good against the RedBulls even with Perez nearly causing a collision and getting away with it.

Looking forward to Baku in a couple of weeks. I am sure you are too.

Watch Highlights Here

Standings

Redbull are still ahead however gap is definitely getting closer and will massively close over the next few races. Redbull need to sort out their balance issue if they want to keep the constructors lead and Max will need to massively outperform the car.

News Podium

1 - Magnussen is set to receive a race ban.

2 - Lando Norris criticises McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri over first-lap overtake at Monza

3 - Verstappen Believes The Whole Car Needs To Be Changed To Be Competitive

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