The 2023 Italian Grand Prix promised us a lot and it certainly did live up to its promise. A Ferrari on pole position(not the one which people usually expect to be on pole) in the hands of Carlos Sainz ,the other Ferrari in P3 and Max between them in P2. For the first 14 laps , it was a classic slugfest between the two former Toro Rosso team mates with Sainz aggressively defending his lead including a very aggressive defence going into T1 on lap 6 which Max called "naughty".
But on Lap 15 Sainz locked into the first corner, Max got a better exit and he swooped by through the Curva Grande into a lead which he would never relinquish. Behind him a lap later , his teammate got past the Mercedes of Russell and started his chase to the podium. He got past Leclerc on lap 32
Next up was Sainz who once again defended hard and on the edge against Perez but once again in vain as Perez finally made it past on lap 46 to make it a Redbull 1-2 at the home of the Scuderia
What followed next was a monumental battle for the final podium position between the Ferrari's in a gloves off, hammer and tongs manner reminding many of the famous Dijon 1979 battle between Rene Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve. Sainz locked up ,cut the chicane, nearly went into the back of his team mate risking everything to hang onto that podium which had eluded him this season and he did get in the end by a mere tenth of a second.
Mclaren's eventful race
Mclaren were not expecting to have a great race at Monza with their car not suiting Monza and getting outqualified by a Williams. Piastri and Norris were running 7th and 8th in the first stint with Lando thinking he could go quicker.
Norris pitted to avoid being undercut by Fernando Alonso. Oscar pitted a lap later. Oscar had a slightly slower pitstop and that meant when he came out of the pit, Norris was alongside and both contested the position going into the first chicane and the inevitable contact happened. "This is not acceptable" said team Principal Andrea Stella but was careful not to blame any driver for the contact.
Piastri's race was later ruined by Lewis Hamilton who made contact with the Australian going into the Della Roggia chicane and getting a 5 second penalty for it. But Hamilton overcame it to finish 6th , finishing 20 seconds behind his team mate Russell.
Other Action in the race
Alfa Romeo who were running a special livery this weekend got a hard earned point courtesy of Valtteri Bottas who overtook Logan Sargeant for the point.
Liam Lawson had a pretty good 2nd weekend in F1 only just being outqualified by Tsunoda and finishing P11 on a sub optimal 2 stop strategy. With Ricciardo expected to miss Singapore as well as Suzuka , Lawson might tighten his grip on that 2024 Alpha Tauri seat
Alex Albon was once again excellent for Williams, finishing P7 matching his best finish of the season in Canada and finishing ahead of a Mclaren and Aston Martin. His teammate will be again under scrutiny after a disappointing weekend where points were definitely possible.
All in all, it was a exciting Monza race weekend with so many intriguing storylines. Next up is Singapore , the most demanding track on the F1 calendar.
Wonder what surprise is waiting for us at Marina Bay
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