Red Bull Max Verstappen took his fifth consecutive victory in the Formula One Italian GP. The World Cup leader, who has celebrated on the highest podium a total of 11 times this season, has a good chance of breaking Michael Schumacher mixed Sebastian Vettel’s single-season wins record held (13).
The top three in Monza were the same as a week ago in Zandvoort, Holland. The Ferrari that left the pole position Charles Leclerc bent into second place ahead of Mercedes George Russell.
Alfa Romeo’s Finnish driver got off to a bad start Valtteri Bottas was 13th and missed the World Championship points for the seventh time in a row.
Urheilu’s F1 expert Jukka Mildh analyzes the most talked about events of the Italian race weekend.
How did the race end?
Charles Leclerc started from the pole position for the eighth time this season and Max Verstappen, who received a five-start grid penalty, took seventh place. However, the 24-year-old Dutch driver rose to second place in the competition in no time. When Leclerc pitted during the virtual safety car at the start of the race, Verstappen took the lead.
Leclerc later went to get new soft tires, but the ride was not enough against Verstappen’s medium hard tires.
The safety car entered the track on lap 48, when Daniel Ricciardo McLaren froze on the side of the track. The final battle was not seen, as the drivers were driven to the finish line behind the safety car.
– Red Bull had the fastest car on the track. They even drove with higher downforce, i.e. with forces pushing the car in the direction of the track. Despite that, Verstappen was able to drive really hard.
Mildh criticized Ferrari’s pit stop during the virtual safety car.
– Ferrari made the wrong decision again. In its own way, it was an uncontrollable risk that changed the entire dynamics of the race, says Mildh.
Read more: “What does a Ferrari cost?” – from an expert to a full-on amateur performance
What are we talking about?
The most telling issue of the race weekend was the numerous starting grid penalties. As many as nine different drivers were given different penalties, mainly due to changing engine parts. Among others, Verstappen, Bottas, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton.
Usually a few drivers get penalized, so the actual grid is easier to interpret. This season, grid penalties have been talked about before, but Monza saw the culmination of this saga. For several hours after qualifying, drivers, journalists and fans were unclear about Sunday’s starting order.
Among other things, AlphaTauri competition winner Pierre Gasly surprised the situation four hours after qualifying.
– Can someone tell me where I will start tomorrow’s race, Gasly asked on Twitter.
Jukka Mildh says that the cost cap that came into effect for formula one this season is part of the problem. In addition, Monza is a track where you can overtake more easily, so everyone decided to change parts in this particular race.
– After all, it’s confusing and this is getting more and more complicated. The garages have to prove and justify the exchange of parts. They try to justify it so that there will be as few punishments as possible. However, it seems that it is difficult to get rid of this, because savings have to be made and at the same time durability is sought in the engines.
Surprise
The absolute surprise of the F1 weekend was the 27-year-old who received an emergency alert from Williams on Saturday Nyck de Vries, who debuted as a racing driver at the F1 level. The Dutchman patch replaced the one who had to have surgery on his appendix Alexander Albonia.
The plans for the Dutch weekend were suddenly changed. De Vries was originally supposed to do interviews during qualifying.
As recently as Friday, he drove an Aston Martin car for practice.
De Vries, driving for Williams, reached the second section in his first qualifying sessions and beat his team mate, who was robbed a lot By Nicholas Latif. In the race, De Vries reached a sensational ninth place.
De Vries is a talented driver who has won the electric formula series and the formula two world championship during his distinguished formula career. In terms of F1 places, however, he has been left out for the time being.
– All in all, it was a really impressive F1 debut. You rarely get to do something like that. He was lucky in that sense to be able to drive the Aston Martin in Friday’s first practice, and then there was Albon’s appendix problems.
– I would say he drove a 97 percent perfect race. He didn’t make any big mistake in the race situation. I dare to say that with this performance he claimed a place in Formula One for next season, says Mildh.
Frustration
Mildh raises Alfa Romeo’s weak pace for the weekend’s disappointment. Both drivers were again without points.
– Zhou Guanyu didn’t get past Williams either, which shows that the team’s spirit is going into next season.
Even at the beginning of the season, Alfa Romeo was the third fastest team in the series. At that time, Alfa Romeo had an advantage in the whirlwind of new rule changes. Valtteri Bottas, who is tenth in the World Drivers’ Championship standings, has now gone seven times in a row without points.
The Finnish rider had a weak start again and was last in the group after the opening lap.
– He is an unlucky warrior at the moment. Last time the engine went down and now he got 15 frames of penalties. The race went really well already, says Mildh.
The F1 season continues in three weeks in Singapore
Read also:
Verstappen approaches Schumacher and Vettel’s record, top performance from F1 debutant – Valtteri Bottas 13th
Even the Ferrari boss is dumbfounded by Red Bull’s superiority – the expert believes that Valtteri Bottas might have escaped the exit with a better start