The famous Monza Circuit, the site of a weekend in which Ferrari was celebrating numerous anniversaries, ended up being just a stop in Max Verstappen’s 2022 Formula 1 repeat-championship campaign.
Verstappen’s fifth straight win on Sunday (September 11) was his 11th win of the season, guaranteeing the Dutch driver a 50% win percentage this season. There’s an argument that Ferrari’s pit strategy was ruined once again, but even if the Ferrari bosses had called the perfect race, the pace and the lack of tire wear from Verstappen made it virtually impossible for the Red Bull to be beaten by anybody except for themselves.
The race itself ended under the safety car. Daniel Ricciardo blew an engine in between turns six and seven and on lap 48 of the 53-lap race. The differences were large enough between the leaders that most were able to pit for soft tires without losing positions, but in the end, it didn’t matter as the track was not cleared in time to restart the race. The tifosi, already not happy at Ferrari not leading, tremendously booed the decision in the grandstands after the cars started the final lap under the safety car.
Charles Leclerc started second after starting on pole, and George Russell took the final spot on the podium for Her Royal Majesty in third. Carlos Sainz finished fourth and Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top five.
In the opening laps, Verstappen and Sainz had giant drives after serving grid penalties. Verstappen started seventh and moved up to second after five laps, while Sainz moved up to sixth after ten laps after starting 18th.
On lap 12, Sebastian Vettel had an ERS failure and slowed to a stop a little after turn seven. The four-time champion, whose first win came at Monza in 2008, ended his final Grand Prix at the legendary track on a crane after completing ten laps. The Virtual Safety Car came out in order to get the Aston Martin out of the racetrack.
Sergio Perez ended the race in sixth and Lando Norris finished seventh. Pierre Gasly finished in the points for the Italian-based AlphaTauri in eighth. Nyck de Vries finished a very good ninth subbing for Alex Albon at Williams and even won Driver of the Day, while Zhou Guanyu got the last point of the day by finishing tenth.
After three straight race weekends following the summer break, the F1 paddock will have a much needed two week break before the Singapore Grand Prix on October 2nd.
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