Formula 1 Racing

Leclerc grabs home win for Ferrari with superior strategy at Monza · RaceFans

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Monza, 2024

Charles Leclerc won the Italian Grand Prix for Ferrari after successfully executing a one-stop strategy to take his second victory of the season.

Leclerc managed his tyres expertly, making his hard tyres last 38 laps while his rivals pitted twice.

Oscar Piastri finished second, with McLaren team mate Lando Norris in third.

At the start, Norris held the lead into the first chicane, while Piastri challenged his team mate for the lead. George Russell missed the chicane and ran through the escape road, damaging his front wing on one of the polystyrene boards and falling to seventh.

Piastri fought his team mate for the lead into the Roggia chicane and looked to pass around the outside. He muscled his way into the lead around the chicane, which compromised Norris enough to allow Leclerc to jump Norris into second place.

Piastri led the early phase of the race, pulling just over two seconds clear of Leclerc behind. Norris began to catch Leclerc and was called in to undercut the Ferrari at the end of lap 14. Despite Leclerc pitting the next lap, Norris jumped ahead of him after the Ferrari emerged from the pit lane.

Leader Piastri pitted at the end of lap 16 with Carlos Sainz Jnr becoming the last of the leading cars who started on mediums to pit. That moved the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, who had started on hard tyres, to the front of the field.

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Verstappen pitted from the lead at the end of lap 22, but a slow stop cost him a handful of seconds. He fitted a second set of hard tyres and emerged in sixth, with Perez still behind him.

Piastri took back the lead of the race with his McLaren team mate just over two seconds behind him. Norris made a mistake at the Roggia chicane, putting him under pressure from Leclerc behind. McLaren responded by bringing him in for a second set of hard tyres, but Norris lost a couple of seconds with a slow stop.

Norris rejoined behind Verstappen in sixth but did not cruise up behind the Red Bull driver. Piastri pitted from the lead for his second set of hard tyres, rejoining behind the two Ferraris in third. Eventually, Norris managed to pass Verstappen into Rettifilo to move up back behind his team mate in fourth.

Leclerc now led the race ahead of Sainz, with it now clear the two Ferraris were committed to the one-stop strategy to the end of the race. Piastri cruised up to Sainz and easily slipped by to take second place on lap 45, leaving him nine laps…

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