The crowd at Monza roared as the final laps of the Italian GP ticked away. The agony of Leclerc’s tyres went from terrifying to sweet once Piastri’s times stopped being threatening. With a torrent of emotions running through his body, and ordering his engineers to shut up, the Monegasque talent looked after the tyres, managed like a genius and won this Sunday in his other home race with a move on McLaren that will go down in the history books. What not to do when you’re leading an F1 race: they stopped both cars when they were leading to avoid graining, looked at the screens and believed what the computer said instead of being guided by what was happening on the asphalt. Yes, the graining was extreme, but Ferrari’s numbers worked out. The immense Leclerc crossed the finish line two seconds ahead of Piastri and six ahead of the big loser of the day, Norris. Sainz was fourth, perhaps regretting the six thousandths of a second that put him behind Charles on the grid on Saturday. That was the glory.
In any case, how beautiful Formula 1 becomes when false camaraderie goes down the toilet. At the start, Norris defended pole position comfortably and also saved first position in the narrow first Variation. He must have been huffing and puffing, because the starts are his weak point in 2024. In the rearview mirror he saw a hot pack and a placid day to cut points in a big way. But Piastri must not have been thinking about Lando’s calculator when he gave his teammate a memorable axe blow in the second Variation, as clean and cold as it was bloodthirsty. The Englishman’s MCL38 came out stumbling, so much so that even Leclerc gained the position at the exit of the curve. Norris’ Sunday clouded over as the sky clouded over at Monza. It looked better for the Australian talent. Without that maneuver, perhaps nothing extraordinary would have happened.
But it did happen. After the first stops, tyre degradation began to become more intense with the asphalt at around 50 degrees. McLaren did not seem to mind, allowing its two drivers to attack each other and reply with fastest lap after fastest lap. Norris was second and was pushing Piastri when his Pirellis gave out. Under pressure from Leclerc, his second pit stop became mandatory. Those behind also stopped and that forced McLaren’s most serious error: Piastri had a huge gap but was still invited to make his second stop on lap 39 of 53, forcing him to make up around 15 seconds in 14 laps. The simulation should have given the MCL38 a two-second advantage per lap in those circumstances.
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Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Lando Norris (McLaren) and Diego Ioverno (Ferrari). Monza, Italy. F1 2024.Massimo PincaREUTERS
McLaren’s inaccurate numbers
But Leclerc and Sainz, who were left out, went beyond simulations and pushed hard in front of an ecstatic crowd. Carlos held on as long as he could, held Piastri back for half a lap and succumbed because his lead was minimal. The two McLarens passed him without much difficulty. But by the time the Australian’s path was clear, Leclerc was within sight but not within reach. The tifosi roared, unfurled their shields and flashed the red flags with the Prancing Horse emblem. His second win at Monza, after the one he achieved in 2019 ahead of Hamilton, was confirmed with a final lap to enjoy in slow motion. Sainz’s fourth, without a problem on the asphalt, does not taste as sweet.
Behind the group of fast drivers, Hamilton secured fifth place ahead of Verstappen. As Lando (3rd) set the fastest lap, the Englishman closed the gap on the champion by eight points and is now 62 points behind with 232 to play for. There would have been a few more if he had finished ahead of Piastri. Or if he had won, which was in his hands.
Alonso, meanwhile, had to have a perfect Sunday to be in contention for points for two-thirds of the race. He started 11th, gained a place from Hulkenberg at the start (who was left with no chance after a touch from Ricciardo) and ate up Albon’s Williams on strategy and pace when he made the first stop early. He had a lead of around five seconds. The problem was that graining also affected the Aston Martin after an early first stop and invited them to make the second stop 17 laps from the end. Williams didn’t need it and Fernando had to fight back, also without time. He didn’t catch Albon (9th) and he wasn’t less than ten seconds behind Magnussen, who was carrying a penalty and finished 10th. So the Spaniard finished 11th. Bitter, in his league. As bitter is Piastri’s second place, or Norris’s third, in his own league.
