After a tremendous equality in the classification, everything seemed to indicate that the race of the 2024 Formula 1 Italian GP It would be very exciting and expectations were not disappointed from the first meters until the moment when Charles Leclerc took a surprising victory in Monza in what was obviously a total party for the tifosi.
At the start, Lando Norris did everything right this time, but was caught out at the first chicane by his teammate and Leclerc, which caused him to drop to third position. However, at the time of the first pit stops, the Monegasque successfully launched a undercut to the Monegasque driver to recover the McLaren double.
From there, Piastri and Norris engaged in a fight for victory but without entering into hand-to-hand combat, until The degradation surprised McLaren and both had to enter the pits.
Against all odds, Leclerc and Carlos Sainz stayed on track betting on the one-stop, and while it was of no use to the Spaniard, as he was overtaken by the McLarens and finished fourth,The Monegasque managed to hold firm and take a very special victory at Ferrari’s house.
Plates was the one who finished second and he fell short in his attempt to win his second race in Formula 1, specifically 2.7s separated him from Leclerc, while Norris completed the podium at 6.2s, thus wasting another pole position start in 2024, although again cutting points in the fight for the drivers’ championship thanks also to his extra point for the fastest lap.
Behind them, Lewis Hamilton was the most outstanding driver and managed to finish in fifth position without many problems, while Max Verstappen confirmed the sensations of Saturday and finally had to settle for finishing sixth at the wheel of a Red Bull with a lot of degradation.
George Russell (after a bad start) and Sergio Pérez were fighting for seventh position throughout the race, which ended up going to the Mercedes driver thanks to a great overtaking move on the track.
Closing the points, Kevin Magnussen and Alexander Albon gambled on a one-stop approach and that worked to their advantage, against Fernando Alonso who crossed the checkered flag eleventh, 0.193s off the points after being in the top 10 throughout the race until he made his second. pitstop.
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*Full summary after results and photos
2024 F1 Italian GP race results from Monza
Full summary of the 2024 F1 Italian GP race at Monza
Norris loses the lead despite a good start and Piastri resists Leclerc’s attacks
In the opening metres of the Italian GP, Lando Norris did what he had not done lately by starting from pole position, that is, going out first at the first corner, but it was at the first chicane where his teammate Oscar Piastri surprisingly attacked him and stole the lead, also losing a position to Leclerc’s Ferrari and falling to third position.
Russell, who started third, dropped to seventh behind Verstappen after braking too hard at Turn 1 and having to use the escape route. In the top 10, the two Red Bulls were the only ones to opt for the medium tyre, with the rest using the hard tyres.
Alonso, meanwhile, climbed one position to tenth, in the points, thanks to a very bad start by Nico Hulkenberg, who dropped from 10th to 19th and caused Yuki Tsunoda to retire.
After all the position changes at the start, Piastri had to work very hard to keep a very aggressive Leclerc behind him, while Norris pulled away from the leading duo, with Sainz, Hamilton, Verstappen, Russell and Perez not too far behind the leading group.
Positions are set, pit stops and undercuts begin
After passing lap 10 of 53, Piastri took Leclerc out of his DRS zone and opened a gap of more than two seconds, while Norris closed in on the Monegasque again and Sainz distanced himself behind to three seconds in fourth position.
On lap 12 the pit stops began and the first moves were made at the back of the pack, although George Russell also made his stop and changed his front wing, which made him lose a lot of time and even drop behind Alonso, who completed his pit stop next.
Lando Norris was the first front-runner to stop on lap 15 to fit the hard tyres (just like the rest of the drivers so far) and launch a undercut Leclerc and Piastri. The Monegasque driver responded immediately afterwards and lost the position by up to two seconds. As for the Australian, although he reacted two laps later, he remained 2.5s ahead of Norris.
Meanwhile, Sainz, Verstappen and Perez stayed on track occupying the first three positions, with the two Red Bulls trying to extend their stops on the hard tyres and dreaming of a safety car that would later benefit them.
Alex Albon stopped on lap 18 and dropped behind Alonso, who completed his undercut and was virtually ninth at that point in the race.
Daniel Ricciardo, who had already received a five-second penalty, was given a further 10-second penalty after one of his mechanics touched his car while he was serving the penalty.
On lap 20, Sainz also completed his pit stop and dropped to sixth place, behind the McLarens and his teammate Leclerc, albeit with a newer tyre than his rivals.
McLaren fight for victory with Leclerc lurking
Verstappen surprised everyone on lap 23 by stopping in the pits to fit another set of hard tyres and confirming that the two-stop strategy was unviable, at least for them. One lap later, Perez did exactly the same and both were back in seventh and eighth.
At that point, McLaren sent a message to Norris that he could compete with Piastri for first position but “with papaya rules”, an internal language that tried to avoid major problems while both drivers fought just over a second apart and set fastest lap after fastest lap.
Little by little, Piastri pushed Norris away from his rearview mirrors and after 30 laps of the race, the gap between the two reached almost five seconds, while Leclerc did keep up and got into the DRS zone of the British driver. From behind, Russell began to attack Pérez for eighth place, while the Mexican defended himself as best he could, until he ended up defeated.
The second pit stops begin
On lap 33, Norris attacked the other front-runners as he opened the second phase of pit stops with 20 laps still to go.
Behind him, Alonso, who was running ninth, did the same on lap 36 and dropped to 14th place, but with the same tactics as Norris, that is, the drivers in front still had to stop (supposedly).
On lap 39 of 53, Piastri also pitted for his second pitstop and stayed ahead of Norris by about two seconds with Verstappen sandwiched between them.
When the two McLarens moved into third and fourth, they began to close the gap by more than a second on the Ferraris, who were playing the card of staying on track and making just one stop in an attempt to surprise the Woking team and take home the win.
Behind them, Hamilton and Verstappen also stopped for the second time and the Dutchman, who was using the medium tyres, began to close the gap on the seven-time world champion, who was fifth on the hard tyres.
Fight for victory from a distance and with different strategies
On lap 45 of 53, when it became clear that Ferrari would be going for a one-stop option, Piastri overtook Sainz to move into second with Leclerc ahead, leading by 11 seconds but struggling on the track on very worn hard tyres.
Two laps later, Norris did the same with the Spanish Ferrari driver and both McLarens, already on the podium, tried to reduce their differences with Leclerc to climb to the top of the podium in Monza.
Behind, Alonso was in the same situation as the McLarens, as he was eleventh and fighting against Magnussen and Albon, who were ninth and tenth but with very worn hard tyres, while the Asturian had made a second stop and was cutting time on them lap after lap.
Ultimately, Piastri and Norris’ comeback was only half-finished, with the Australian finishing 2.7s behind Leclerc and the Briton 6.2s behind in third place on the podium, with the Monegasque driver giving Ferrari an unexpected victory on their home circuit and in front of their home crowd thanks to a very daring strategy that for a moment seemed almost impossible.
On the final lap, Norris set the fastest lap and scored an extra point.
Behind them, Hamilton maintained his distance from Verstappen in fifth place, while Alonso was 0.193s off the points, with Albon and Magnussen the winners of that “midfield” due to their one-stop strategy.
