As chaos and confusion unfolded before him, Pierre Gasly kept a cool head and was rewarded with an emotional race win.
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About The Italian Grand Prix
When you think of Formula 1 in Italy, you think of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. Dubbed “The Temple of Speed”, drivers push around the circuit at full throttle for 80% of the lap, with top speeds reaching well over 300km/h (186.4 mph). The all-time lap speed record was set at Monza during qualifying in 2020, when Lewis Hamilton secured pole with a time of 1:18.88. For context, to set a lap that fast, Hamilton would have been driving at an average speed of 264.36 km/h (164.26 mph).
The Italian Grand Prix was part of the inaugural Formula 1 World Championship. It’s just one of two Grands Prix that has featured every single season (with the other being the British Grand Prix). Since the World Championship began, the Italian Grand Prix has been held at Monza every year except in 1980, when it was held at Imola.
In 2024, Formula 1 announced that the Italian Grand Prix is set to be held at Monza until the end of the 2031 season.
The 2020 Italian Grand Prix
2020 was a strange year. The Covid-19 pandemic had thrown life as we knew it into complete disarray. It affected absolutely everyone and everything, including Formula 1. With just hours to go before the season opener in Australia, the race was cancelled and fans were turned away. A frantic scramble to revise the race calendar took place, with more and more countries closing their borders as the sheer scale of the pandemic became apparent.
17 races were held in 2020, and most of those took place in Europe. It was surreal to see drivers battling it out for the win whilst the grandstands stood empty and silent. One of the races that made the cut was the Italian Grand Prix. Whilst the world was stuck indoors, it was one of the greatest days of Pierre Gasly’s life.
Lights Out and Away We Go
It was a Mercedes front row for the start of the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton on pole and Valtteri Bottas in second. Behind them was the McLaren of Carlos Sainz and Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez. The home favourites, Ferrari, were starting from much further back, with Charles Leclerc in 13th and Sebastian Vettel in 17th.
When the lights went out, Hamilton got away and retained his lead. Bottas got off to a slower start, with Sainz passing him to take second off the line. Bottas gradually fell down the order to sixth. On lap six, disaster struck for Vettel when his left-rear brake assembly overheated and caught fire and disintegrated. Vettel managed to limp his car back to the pits (taking out some styrofoam boards at the first chicane in the process) where he retired from the race.
On lap 19, Kevin Magnussen ground to a halt just off to the side of the pit lane entrance. The Haas had fallen victim to a power unit failure and was now stranded in a perilous position. Pierre Gasly came into the pits, and it was just in the nick of time. The Safety Car was deployed and the pit lane entrance was closed, allowing marshals to recover Magnussen’s car.
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Middle Stint, Multiple Safety Cars
Hamilton came into the pits, along with Antonio Giovinazzi, but they had both come in just after the pit lane was declared as being closed. The faux-pas earned them both a 10-second stop-and-go penalty. To add insult to injury, it was just two laps later that the pit lane was re-opened, with the majority of the rest of the field now making their stops. The chaos catapulted Gasly to third place, with Hamilton and Lance Stroll ahead of him.
The Safety Car came in and racing resumed on lap 23. Hamilton retained his lead, but it wasn’t much of a fight with the Racing Point of Stroll behind him. Further down the order, there was yet more heartache for the Tifosi at the restart. Leclerc lost the rear end of his Ferrari, skidding across the gravel and crashing heavily into the tyre barrier. Ferrari were out of the race, with significant damage to the car and Leclerc having back pains following the impact. He was taken to the medical centre to be checked over, and thankfully there were no injuries found.
Having just come back into the pits, the Safety Car was immediately deployed again. It was just a short while before the red flags were waving, bringing a temporary halt to proceedings. Leclerc’s crash had caused significant damage to the tyre barrier, and it needed time to be repaired – not a job that can be done when you have cars going past at any speed.
Final Push
Once the tyre barrier was repaired and it was confirmed as being safe, the announcement came that it would be a standing restart. The drivers filtered their way around the track to take position on the grid. The lights went out, and we were racing once more. Stroll survived the initial launch, but ran wide at Turn 4. He dropped back to fifth position, with Gasly now in second behind Hamilton. At the end of the lap, Hamilton came into the pits to serve his 10-second stop-and-go penalty. Giovinazzi came in one lap later to serve his penalty, and he joined Hamilton at the back of the field.
Gasly was now leading the race in his AlphaTauri. However, he had work to do if he wanted to stay ahead. Kimi Räikkönen and Carlos Sainz were hot on his heels, and Gasly had a fight on his hands. For an incredible 25 laps, Gasly gave no quarter. He drove like his life depended on it, defending where it mattered and keeping his foot firmly glued to the floor. Räikkönen gradually began to fall back, eventually finding himself in 13th position, whilst Sainz just couldn’t find a way past the feisty AlphaTauri.
As the chequered flag waved, Pierre Gasly crossed the line to take his first ever Formula 1 victory. Sainz came home in second, whilst Stroll had valiantly fought his way back up to third, taking the final podium spot. An emotional Gasly sat on the top step, still in some disbelief at what he had just achieved.
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Summary
Regardless of who your favourite team or driver is, it’s hard to deny that seeing Gasly get his first Formula 1 win was anything other than brilliant. And, if you’re a fan of statistics, it really was a treat.
It was the first win for AlphaTauri as a constructor, and their second as a team (albeit they were known as Toro Rosso when they last won a race 12 years earlier). Gasly had claimed the first win in Formula 1 for a French driver since Olivier Panis at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix. Also, it marked the 80th time that a Frenchman had won a Formula 1 race in the history of the sport. This was the first time that Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull had all failed to finish on the podium since Hungary in 2012. Similarly, it was the first time since Australia 2013 that the race winner didn’t drive for Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull (as Räikkönen took that win for Lotus).
Overall, it was a stellar drive from Gasly. Yes, there was an element of luck when Hamilton had to serve his penalty, but there’s no denying that Gasly had to fight to the very end to get the win. The Frenchman will forever be noted in the history books as being a Formula 1 winner and, let’s face it…everybody liked that.
Which Italian Grand Prix do you think is a race to remember? Let us know in the comments!