An ugly win is still a win. And when it’s your year, it’s your year. Max Verstappen grabbed his 11th win of 2022 and the 31st of his career when he took the checkers behind a safety car at the Italian Grand Prix (Sept 11). With six races to go, Verstappen is all but assured of winning his second driver’s championship, as he holds a 116-point gap over second place Charles Leclerc (335-219).
With the win, Verstappen is now tied with Lewis Hamilton for the second-most wins in a Formula 1 season. The way this year has progressed, he is very likely to tie the all-time mark at 13 with a very good chance of breaking it and putting his 2022 statistics at a gaudy level that wonʻt be rivaled.
Leclerc, who started on the pole and hoped to give Verstappen and Red Bull a run for the win could not match pace with the championship frontrunner. Had the race returned to the green flag for the final two laps, Leclerc still likely would have been caught in Verstappen’s exhaust and finished where he did in second.
George Russell started strong off the line and Mercedes kept their wits to bring him home in third on the day, his seventh podium of the year. Carlos Sainz overcame starting in the rear to score fourth, giving Ferrari vital points on the day to hold onto second in the constructorʻs championship over Mercedes (406–371).
Lewis Hamilton also came from the back and through a first-lap ding to wind up in fifth, after he smartly decided not to pit during the final safety car and gained a position to pip Sergio Perez who finished sixth.
Lando Norris started on the second row but bogged down at lights out and dropped to seventh on the opening lap. He basically held station throughout the GP and wound up in that seventh spot. Pierre Gasly, rumored to be heading to Alpine next year, put together a solid effort to end in eighth for what is Alpha Tauri’s home race.
Nyck de Vries, a surprise entrant who gained the opportunity to race when appendicitis felled Alex Albon, took a car he’d barely ever driven, started eighth and grabbed ninth-place points in his first-ever F1 GP. Zhou Guanyu earned the final points-paying position of the race, his third top-10 finish of the year.
The Race
From lights out, the race became one where Ferrari and Red Bull would dominate the story. More specifically, the win would be decided between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. Though Leclerc started on the pole and held at the start, fending off a challenge from George…
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