On a very hot day in Monza, Italy, the tifosi who came out were rewarded with a surprise Ferrari win.
While most teams front running teams chose to make two pit stops, Ferrari decided to only make one for each of their drivers. Charles Leclerc took advantage and was able to beat Oscar Piastri to the line to take his first win since Monaco in May.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Leclerc said in the podium interviews. “Actually, I thought the first [win at Monza] would have just felt like this and the second time, if there was a second time, wouldn’t feel as special. But, my God, the emotions in the last few laps… exactly the same like in 2019.”
“Monaco and Monza are the two races I want to win every year,” he continued. “Obviously, I want to win as many races as possible and the world championship as soon as possible, but these are the two most important races of the season and I managed to win them this year. It’s so, so special.”
The race seemed to be in Piastri’s hands for the vast majority of the day. Piastri took the lead in the turn 4-5 chicane on the first lap, with Leclerc following him past polesitter Lando Norris.
Outside of losing the lead due to green-flag pit stop cycles, Piastri never gave it up on-track, but that didn’t matter in the end.
With 12 laps to go, it became clear what Ferrari was doing. Piastri had a 15-second gap from Leclerc and a 5-second gap from Carlos Sainz.
Piastri passed Sainz on lap 45, but he couldn’t make up the gap on Leclerc and finished second, just a little over 2 seconds back.
“It hurts, it hurts a lot,” Piastri said after the race. “Did a lot of things right today. There were a lot of question marks on the strategy going into the race.
“From the position we were in, with the tires looking how they did, doing a one-stop seemed like a risky call. And it was right. Very happy with the pace, the race I achieved. Just when you finish second, it hurts.”
Norris finished third and Sainz ended up all the way back in fourth..
Lewis Hamilton was able to finish fifth. Max Verstappen had a frustrating day where his Red Bull was clearly the fourth-fastest on the day, but he was still able to finish sixth.
George Russell had a very adventurous day, running off turn 1 on lap 1 and hurting his front wing. After taking an early pit stop to replace the wing, Russell had to overcome a fierce battle with Sergio Perez to finish seventh. Perez ended up eighth.
Both Alexander Albon and Kevin Magnussen had great success on their own one stop strategies, finishing ninth and 10th, respectively, and holding off a hard-charging Fernando Alonso in the closing laps.
During the race, Magnussen was found at fault in an incident in which he and Pierre Gasly made contact on lap 20. Magnussen had to serve a 10 second time penalty, but more importantly, Magnussen received two more penalty points on his FIA Super License and has been given a one race ban from the FIA.
There were no major crashes or incidents during the race to draw a safety car or red flag. Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hulkenberg made contact early in the race after Hulkenberg locked his tires and hit Tsunoda’s sidepod. Hulkenberg was given a 10 second penalty but was able to finish the race while Tsunoda retired from the damage on lap 7.
Norris was able to cut his driver point gap from Verstappen down to 62 points. It seems likely Verstappen will come out ahead with his consistency, but this championship may well still come down to the wire.
In the constructor standings, though, it’s wide open. Red Bull only has an eight-point lead on McLaren and a 39-point lead on Ferrari. There’s a chance Red Bull falls all the way to third in just the next race. In the midfield, RB now only has a six-point lead on Haas for sixth in constructor standings.
2024 F1 Italian Grand Prix Results
Next up for F1 is a week off, before their annual visit to Azerbaijan to take on the tricky Baku City Circuit, Lights out for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix will come at 7 a.m. ET, with coverage on ESPN.
Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.