Leclerc victorious as Ferrari outsmarts McLaren at home

Charles Leclerc beat Oscar Piastri to a famous victory at the Italian Grand Prix after Ferrari caught McLaren by surprise with a well-executed one-stop strategy. Piastri snatched the lead from polesitter Lando Norris on the first lap with a fast start that forced his teammate to cover him off the racing line. The Australian immediately swung back to the left to assume the vacated line into the Rettifilo chicane, giving him excellent drive all the way up to the Roggia chicane. From the outside line Piastri was decisive on the brakes, sweeping around Norris’s right-hand side to claim the corner and take the lead. Norris, appearing to have been caught by surprise by his teammate’s aggression, was delayed getting onto the power, costing him momentum out of the chicane and a place to Charles Leclerc. It perpetuated Norris’s torrid pole conversion rate, the Briton having failed in all seven P1 starts in grands prix and sprints to hold the lead at the end of the first lap. Norris was undeterred, however, and appeared particularly motivated by a radio message suggesting he could be deployed to protect Piastri’s lead against Ferrari. He made an early stop, on lap 15, to undercut Leclerc, in what would prove to be the deciding moment of the race. McLaren had figured a two-stop strategy would be the winning tactic on a day of high tire degradation, and when Leclerc followed him in on lap 16, the team assumed Ferrari was set to do the same. Leclerc appeared to think likewise too, radioing his team in frustration about having lost the place, but the race was set to sensationally come back to him thanks to an expertly managed final stint. The McLaren drivers got on with their race, Norris and Piastri trading fastest laps and setting a ferocious pace to gap the field until the Briton made a costly mistake on lap 31, running deep into the Roggia chicane and dropping 5s off the lead. He pitted on the following lap for fresh rubber to make it to the finish. By now Ferrari’s long-shot strategy was finally twigging on McLaren’s pit wall. Piastri was asked if a one-stop would be possible to cover, but Piastri replied in the negative – he’d battled too hard with his teammate through the middle stint to make it possible. The Australian was hauled in on lap 38, dropping to third with an 18.8s deficit to the lead with 15 laps remaining and setting up an improbably chase to restore his lead. He reeled in Carlos Sainz – who also one-stopped his way to the finish – for second, passing the Spaniard on lap 45 and slashing his deficit to 11.7s with eight laps to go. But by now the climb to top spot was too steep, and with the best of his fresh rubber having been used, Piastri’s gains slowed. Leclerc, nursing what was left of his 38-lap-old tires, crossed the line with 2.7s in hand, sending Ferrari’s home fans in raptures. “It’s an incredible feeling,” he said. “I thought that the first time would feel and then the second time, if there was a second time, wouldn’t feel as special, but my god the emotions in the last few laps – exactly the same like in 2019. “Monaco and Monza are the two races that I want to win every year. Obviously I want to win as many races as possible and the world championship as soon as possible, but there are the two most important races of the season, and I managed to win them this year. It’s so, so special.” The victory, with Sainz dropping to fourth, brings Ferrari to within 39 points of Red Bull and 31 points of McLaren in the fight for the constructors championship. Leclerc was non-committal on Ferrari’s resurgence but was optimistic it had found a more sustainable vein of competitive form. “I think out package was working pretty well on a track like Monza,” he said. “Whether it will be the same for the rest of the season, I doubt so. “I still think McLaren are the favorites, but we have done a step forward, that’s for sure.” Piastri was forlorn to cross the line second to a “risky” one-stop strategy he and the team had dismissed before the race. “It hurts,” he said. “I’m not going to lie, it hurts a lot. “There were a lot of question marks on the strategy going into the race. From the position we were in with the tires looking like they did, doing a one-stop seemed like a very risky call, and in the end it was right. “I’m very, very happy with the pace, with the race that I managed to achieve. It’s just when you finish second, it hurts.” If Piastri was forlorn, Norris was despondent. He had been eyeing big gains on Max Verstappen’s title lead, but a messy first lap and Ferrari’s strong strategy limited the damage to just eight points, bringing him to 62 points off top spot. “We’re disappointed of course, but Ferrari did a better job, had a better car today, and hats off to them.” Sainz finished fourth, fading faster and harder than his teammate on his one-stop strategy. Lewis Hamilton was fifth for Mercedes ahead of Verstappen, who drove a clean but uneventful race to sixth and a whopping 37.9s off the lead. George Russell finished seventh after picking up front wing damage on the first lap in a light clash with Piastri that forced him into an early stop that colored the rest of his race, though the Briton still managed to overhaul Sergio Perez, demoting the Mexican to eighth. Alex Albon scored two points for Williams in ninth ahead of a feisty Kevin Magnussen in 10th. However, a 10s penalty for the Dane for causing a collision with Pierre Gasly early in the race accrued him a 12th penalty point on his license for the last 12 months, which will incur a race ban for the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso finished 11th ahead of rookie Franco Colapinto, with Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hulkenberg, Zhou Guanyu and Lance Stroll completing the finishers. Yuki Tsunoda was the race’s only retirement after an early collision with Hulkenberg.