Raceday Recap: Ciao from The Temple of Speed
For round 16, the world of Formula 1 traveled to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. The home of high speed straights, Ferrari tifosi, and delicious cuisine, Monza is a fan favorite track - and for good reason. This year’s race continued the building momentum of the 2025 season, so let’s debrief the major events together!
Saturday’s qualifying was a thrilling one: Max Verstappen returned to pole position for the first time since Miami and achieved the fastest lap in Formula 1 history, with a time of 1:18:792. P2 and P3 were both painted papaya, as Lando Norris qualified 2nd and Oscar Piastri followed him in 3rd. Charles Leclerc put up a good lap in Q3 to start 4th, and his teammate Lewis Hamilton qualified 5th but was pushed back to P10 due to a 5-place grid penalty he earned in Zandvoort. Therefore, George Russell occupied the 5th spot on the grid, with teammate Kimi Antonelli beside him in 6th and rookie Gabriel Bortoleto starting in 7th. Fernando Alonso began Sunday’s race from 8th, and Yuki Tsunoda was bumped up to 9th. Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly were forced to start from the pit lane for their use of additional power units.
The Flying Dutchman celebrating after an absolutely flying lap! Photo courtesy of Reuters.
Not all 20 cars started the race though - Nico Hulkenberg retired his car after the formation lap, a heartbreaking start for Sauber. Once the lights went out, Lap 1 was its own beast: Verstappen pushed Norris onto the grass as they raced down the first straight, which led to Norris cutting Verstappen off of the main track and forcing him to cut the corner. During this craziness, Leclerc pulled ahead of Piastri, and they almost pummeled into each other as Piastri tried to get around Leclerc and eventually succeeded. On lap 2, Verstappen was asked to give the position back to Norris but then retook the lead 2 laps later. Leclerc also caught up with Piastri and took his place again, while Esteban Ocon received a 5-second penalty for forcing Lance Stroll off the track - the FIA were on fire today!
The tension continued as Piastri overtook Leclerc on lap 6, almost causing a collision with the Ferrari driver. On lap 18, Kimi Antonelli got past Yuki Tsunoda to claim a temporary 9th place. Drivers started pitting around lap 18, with Ollie Bearman being the first to equip the hard compound tyres and Tsunoda following suit just two laps later. Bortoleto and Alonso both went in for new tyres on lap 21 but were held up in the pits, dropping them each back a few positions. On lap 25, Alex Albon took the outside line to take P8 from his teammate Carlos Sainz, while Fernando Alonso retired the car after a suspension failure in the front right of his car. On lap 29, Liam Lawson and Tsunoda touched wheels briefly but kept their positions after Lawson passed Tsunoda but was ordered to give the place back. Around the same time, Antonelli received a 5 second time penalty for violating track limits. On lap 36, Gasly received the same penalty as Antonelli for the same reason: track limits. Verstappen entered the pits on lap 38 for another set of hard tyres, and Norris took the lead of the race. On lap 41, Sainz and Bearman collided into turn 4, but luckily both were able to continue the race. Bearman received a 10-second time penalty for the incident - a pretty bold decision from the FIA. 1 lap later, Antonelli’s erratic driving caused Albon to be pushed onto the grass, earning himself a 5-second penalty for driving erratically. Disaster struck when McLaren called Norris in to box and a front left malfunction occurred. This left space for Piastri to come out ahead and left Norris out to dry - it’s wild how many times Norris has been left out to dry by his front left mechanics! Everything was resolved, though, when McLaren ordered Piastri to let Norris by: a rightful call after Norris played the team game.
Papaya rules made a reappearance on track today - was McLaren’s call justified? Photo courtesy of F1.
Verstappen crossed the line in P1 after cruising the entire race, a deserved win after a show of absolutely effortless dominance. The McLarens got away with a great result as well, as Norris claimed P2 and Piastri came in P3 to round out the podium. Leclerc made the tifosi proud as he finished P4, with Russell sneaking into 5th place. Hamilton also impressed the Italian fans after crossing the line in 6th, a fantastic result after many races of struggle. Albon brought quite a few points back to the Williams team after a successful P7, followed by Bortoleto in 8th, Antonelli in 9th, and Hadjar in P10. After an uncertain race with plenty of penalties and team calls, it turned out that almost all of the point-scorers were the same drivers that had succeeded in Saturday's qualifying.
This race marked the fastest F1 race in history, won by Max Verstappen with a time of 1 hour, 13 minutes, and 3 seconds. Not only was it a quick Grand Prix, but it was also full of exhilaration and passion. Ciao for now Monza, and next week we will be discussing Azerbaijan! As always, thanks so much for reading.
Lights out and away we go,
Lucy xx
