© Getty ImagesMax’s Monza Mission Ends In Dramatic Collision With HamiltonCheco finishes in P5 after Max race ends on lap 26
MaxVerstappenwasbouncedoutoftheItalianGrandPrixinamid-racecollisionwithtitlerivalLewisHamiltoninadramaticItalianGrandPrixinwhichSergioPerezsalvaged10pointsfortheTeamwithfifthplaceattheflag.
After losing ground in his pit stop Max dropped from P2 behind race leader Daniel Ricciardo to ninth place. Hamilton claimed the race lead after passing McLaren’s Lando Norris, but then had a slow pit stop himself. That released the Mercedes driver into the path of Max and as they went through the first chicane they clashed. Max’s car briefly went airborne before landing on top of the Mercedes. They slid into the gravel and out of the race.
Mission Monza Ended Not Well for Max© Getty Images
Checo, meanwhile, pitted under the resultant Safety Car and rose to fourth when racing resumed. He soon muscled past Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to potentially claim a podium place. However, his move past the Monégasque driver was investigated as he had completed the pass off track. He was handed a five-second penalty. He crossed the line in P3 but with the penalty applied dropped to fifth behind third-placed Valtteri Bottas and Leclerc.
When the lights went out at the start Max got away poorly and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was able to win the drag race to the first chicane. Behind the top two, Hamilton made a good start to jump to P3. As the leaders streamed towards the second chicane the Mercedes driver and the Red Bull were side by side. But with little room in the corner both were forced wide. And while Max held second, Hamilton cut the corner and conceded third place to Norris.
Behind them, though, there was a collision involving Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi tangled with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. Giovinazzi spun off track and clipped the wall bringing out the Virtual Safety Car. Sainz held sixth place but the incident allowed Checo to climb to seventh place.
By lap 9 Max had closed the gap to Ricciardo to a single second but was complaining that it was proving difficult to run any closer to the McLaren.
There were no such problems for Checo in his battle with Sainz, however. At the start of the lap the Mexican got close enough to plot a move as the pair approached the Variante della Roggia he pulled across and drew alongside the Ferrari. He managed to get a nose in front on the entry to the corner and emerged with sixth place in the bag.
Checo In Tight Battle With Sainz© Getty Images
Sergio then set off in pursuit of the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and circling over half a second quicker than the Monégaqsque driver, he soon began to eat into the six second gap to the Ferrari.
At the front, despite applying intense pressure neither Max nor Hamilton could get past the McLarens, both of which were running in clear air, and on lap 18 Max was still a second back from Ricciardo and five seconds clear of Norris who had a second in hand over Hamilton.
With his tyres fading, Ricciardo dived for the pits at the end of lap 22. Max was released into the lead and clean air but with his tyres also degraded the Team told the Dutchman to box at the end of the next lap.
And there, Max’s race began to quickly unravel. A problem with the front right wheel left the championship leader stationary for 11 seconds and he emerged in ninth position, behind Lance Stroll. Behind him, Hamilton managed to get past Norris and took the race lead.
The Mercedes driver then made his first pit stop and when he emerged from the pit lane it was into the path of Max. The title contenders went into the first chicane almost side by side and once again neither backed out. The result was a collision as Max was forced wide, hit the kerb and hit the rear wheels of Hamilton’s car. The Red Bull was launched into the air and landed on top of the Mercedes, with the result that both ended up in the gravel and out of the race.
Significant Clash At First Chicane© Getty Images
The Safety Car was released and that resulted in a flood of cars heading for the pit lane for a free stop. Checo was among those taking on new tyres and he emerged in fourth place behind race leader Ricciardo, Norris and Leclerc.
When racing resumed and the McLaren’s held the top two spots. Checo immediately went on the attack and on lap 34 he muscled past the Ferrari as they went through the first chicane. Checo got the job done by rattling across the kerbs, however, and soon after he was handed a five-second time penalty for gaining an advantage. The Team advised him to hold position and take the penalty at the flag. Behind him, Bottas had also got past Leclerc and began to put pressure on the Mexican. Checo defended well, however, and managed to hold on to the place.
At the front, Ricciardo marched on and after 53 laps he took a surprise but well-earned win ahead of McLaren team-mate Lando Norris. Checo crossed the line third but with his time penalty applied he dropped to fifth behind third-placed Bottas and Leclerc. Sixth place went to Sainz, with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll seventh ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, Williams’ George Russell and the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon.
Max
“We were racing for position today but you need two people to work together to make the corner and Lewis just kept squeezing until there wasn’t room anymore for two cars and that’s when we crashed. When he exited the pits, he started to squeeze me going into Turn 1 so I had to use the green part of the track. It was very tight but there was room for me to go around the outside and then I was pushed onto the orange sausage kerb. I was there to try and race hard but fair. I don't fully agree with the penalty as I believe it was a racing incident. It’s very unfortunate what happened today but we are both professionals and so we will move on.”
Checo
“It was a very eventful race and a real shame to miss out on the podium. With the penalty, I think we hoped for a wider view in the sense that it was my corner and I was ahead of Charles, but it is what it is and we tried to recover. From our side we did the best possible race we could as a Team but overtaking was impossible today and it was really difficult to keep ahead of the cars behind. McLaren were really quick and difficult to beat, they’ve been solid this weekend and especially on the straights they were hard to follow. They had very strong traction so at no point could I be a threat to them, but as a Team this wasn’t our track, we weren’t so strong here so now we move on and look forward to Russia. There is still a long way to go in this championship.”
Christian Horner
“We are disappointed with the three place grid penalty, but accept the stewards decision. We felt what happened between Max and Lewis was a genuine racing incident. You can argue for both sides but ultimately it’s frustrating and disappointing to see both cars out of the race in what is proving to be an exciting championship. The main thing today is that the halo ultimately did its job and certainly this isn’t the way we intended to finish the race. With Checo, he was desperately unlucky and we felt it was very marginal given there was no instruction from the race office to give the position back. We had to make a decision whether or not to get on with the race, and so we got our heads down and then Checo was handed the penalty. He drove some strong laps under intense pressure but was unable to open up a gap and so we were sad to finish third on the road but fifth overall with only one car scoring points.”
Position | Driver | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | … | DNF |
Daniel Ricciardo | Lando Norris | Valtteri Bottas | Charles Leclerc | Sergio Pérez | Carlos Sainz | Lance Stroll | Fernando Alonso | George Russell | Esteban Ocon | … | Max Verstappen |
McLaren | McLaren | Mercedes | Ferrari | Red Bull Racing Honda | Ferrari | Aston Martin | Alpine | Williams | Alpine | … | Red Bull Racing Honda |