Mueez Ajao
– Red Bull’s Max Verstappen inflicted a home defeat on Charles Leclerc and Ferrari in the Italian Grand Prix to continue his cruise to a second title.
– Verstappen beat Leclerc after the Italian team tried a questionable two-stop strategy, surrendering the lead to the Dutchman twice on track.
VERSTAPPEN WINS THE ITALIAN GRAND PRIX
The Dutchman takes the chequered flag. Leclerc comes home in second with Russell taking the final podium spot #ItalianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/HEqXM7CLqp
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 11, 2022
– Verstappen’s 11th win this year puts him 115 points clear of Leclerc and means he could potentially clinch the championship at the next race in Singapore.
Also Read: Max Verstappen wins the Belgian Grand Prix
– Mercedes’ George Russell took third place, ahead of the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, both of whom fought up from the back of the grid.
The points scorers at Monza 👀
👏👏👏 @nyckdevries #ItalianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/b32FO4rNF8
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 11, 2022
– Verstappen drove another consummate race, moving up quickly from seventh on the grid after a penalty for excessive engine usage to be second after five laps.
– He edged closer to Leclerc until a virtual safety car was deployed on lap 12 when Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin broke down on track.
– Ferrari decided to gamble on a stop, hoping to benefit from the time saved from doing so under caution, although they stopped as the VSC was ending so did not gain all of it.
– Verstappen, though, ran his planned race and did not come in for his stop for tyres until lap 25.
– Verstappen came out 10 seconds adrift of Leclerc and soon began to close on the Ferrari. Within seven laps, he had receded the lead to just over five seconds and looked certain to catch and pass Leclerc.
– But Ferrari called Leclerc in again on lap 33, changing to soft tyres, hoping to close on Verstappen over the remaining 18 laps.
– But he came out 20 seconds behind and made little progress before a full safety car was deployed with five laps to go when Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren broke down with an engine problem and stopped at the Lesmo corners.
– Everyone bar Hamilton pitted for fresh tyres but officials ran out of time to restart the race, and it finished under the safety car.
– There will be questions as to why the safety car initially picked up Russell rather than Verstappen, why it took so long to run through the procedures required to restart the race, and why officials could not have red-flagged the race and gone for a re-start and short sprint to the flag.
