Verstappen charges to another masterful victory, as the Italian GP ends behind the Safety Car.
The 2022 Italian GP started with a Ferrari on pole and to the delight of the watching Tifosi, he remained at the front and in control. The start of the race was largely uneventful with a few cars, including Lewis Hamilton taking to the escape road at the first chicane.
Lando Norris was one of the biggest losers at the start, with anti-stall kicking in on the slow starting Mclaren, Lando was promptly swamped by several cars on the way the way to the first chicane. Lando would enter into damage limitation mode getting his McLaren in the all too familiar fifth place at the half way point of the race. Lando’s race was looking solid until he headed to the pits for his scheduled pit stop the stop was a disappointing 5.1 seconds, as the Mclaren exited the pits he was passed by Gasly, Ricciardo and Hamilton, both Mclaren cars would eventually pass the Alpha Tauri of Gasly, but the slow stop cost them at least one place, which could prove costly in the constructor battle with Alpine.
The sister Mclaren of Danny Ricciardo was having a better time of it in the opening stages, helped by the fact that DRS was not overly effective until lap 47 when the Mercedes PU would fail ending his race while running well inside the points.
All eyes were on Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz as they charged through the field, with Verstappen up to second within 6 laps, by lap 17 Ferrari driver Sainz was in fourth sitting behind his teammate Leclerc, who was sitting in third after a pitstop during a VSC.
Max Verstappen would take the lead during the first round of pit stops and would never let it go, the pace of the Redbull was such that Ferrari were unable challenge for the win. A late Safety Car to recover the stricken McLaren neutralized the race, unfortunately for the watching Tifosi it came out just a bit too late, the race would finished under the Safety Car handing Redbull and Verstappen the victory.
ASTON MARTIN’S WOES CONTINUE
The Aston Martin pair started the race 11th and 12th, other than a couple of close calls between the teammates, they were holding station in the middle of the pack.
Sebastian Vettel’s race would end on lap 12, with what looks like a Power Unit issue. Lance Stroll was having a lonely and slow race. The “draggy” Aston Martin was off the pace throughout the weekend, Stroll’s misery was ended early on lap 41 when the team retired the car.
DE VRIES WATCH
All eyes were on the Williams of Nyck De Vries, who had to jump into the Willams after Alex Albon was forced to withdraw with appendicitis, the young Dutch driver, who out qualified his team mate, had a solid race, at one point racing in a great eighth place. The late Safety car would be a life line for De Vries as he was complaining of a long break pedal. De Vries would cross the line in ninth place on his debut!!!
FURTHER DOWN THE ORDER
It was a largely anonymous race for several teams including HAAS, Alpha Tauri and Alfa Romeo. Kevin Magnussen was handed an early 5 second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. The sister HAAS was having an impressive, if quiet race, he would spend majority of the race in the points in eighth with Bottas sitting behind in ninth.
Alonso and the Alpine team with be heading away from the race scratching their heads, during qualifying it looked as though the Alpine had the pace to battle with the Mclaren cars, however qualifying pace did not translate onto race pace, Fernando Alonso would eventually retire on lap 33 with what looks like PU issue. Esteban Ocon would fall down the order crossing the line in a lowly 12th.
REDBULL’S DAY REDBULL’S YEAR
The race was Verstappen’s to lose. Ferrari tried but were unable to keep up with Redbull. Questions will be asked, why the Safety Car didn’t pick up the right car, should there have been a red flag? It doesn’t change the fact that this is Redbull and Max’s year, it’s been a dominant performance race after race.
To add to that Max could secure his second Drivers Championship at the next race in Singapore if he out scores Charles Leclerc by 24 points.