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Charles Leclerc has won his second Formula 1 Grand Prix, crossing the line just ahead of Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas.
Bottas and Leclerc were involved in an intense scrap in the final few laps of the Grand Prix, but the Monégasque driver managed to stay ahead to win at the home of Ferrari. Even with fresher tyres, the Finn could not find a way past after a costly mistake at turn 1.
Lewis Hamilton finished in third after a late pit stop, but battled hard with Leclerc during the first half of the race. The pair both made mistakes and went off the circuit, but even though Leclerc was waved the black and white flag it was the Ferrari driver than came out victorious.
Hamilton lost out to Bottas when he went straight on at the first chicane, and then dropped back to his teammate. The Brit made a late pit stop to go for the fastest lap, a feat which he achieved.
In fourth place was Daniel Ricciardo, who drove an impressive race for Renault to score their best finish of the season so far. The Australian was nearly fifteen seconds ahead of his teammate Nico Hulkenberg who came across the line in fifth place.
After a rocky start to the race, Alexander Albon finished just over a second behind Hulkenberg in sixth place. Albon duelled with Carlos Sainz in the early stages of the race but was pushed wide at the Curva Grande and the pair collided.
The Anglo-Thai driver was then handed a five-second penalty for going off the track gaining an advantage when passing the Haas of Kevin Magnussen. He re-gained a lot of his lost time after his pit stop with a few impressive overtakes.
Sergio Perez had an almost perfect afternoon in his Racing Point, finishing in seventh place from the back of the grid. The Mexican also managed to stay ahead of a charging Max Verstappen for the last ten laps of the race, showing impressive pace along the straights.
Verstappen was next up on the road, just 0.6s behind Perez. The Dutchman had an eventful race, with an incident at the start meaning his Red Bull team had to change his front wing at the end of lap 1. He then went on a charge, overtaking half of the field on his way to eighth place.
Antonio Giovinazzi surely made up for his costly mistake at the end of last week's Belgian Grand Prix with his best finish in Formula 1 in front of his home crowd. He was closely followed by Lando Norris in the McLaren, with the British rookie making up a number of places throughout a strong recovery drive to round out the top 10.
Pierre Gasly missed out on points for Toro Rosso, with the Frenchman finishing in eleventh. He struggled to stay close to Norris throughout the race, only attempting a move once just after his pit stop.
His teammate Daniil Kvyat showed much stronger pace in the sister car, but unfortunately for the Russian after gaining a good amount of time under the virtual safety car his Honda engine gave up the ghost.
Lance Stroll was unfortunate to not score points after starting from within the top ten, as he was span around by Sebastian Vettel. He received a drive-through penalty after almost making contact with Gasly on his return to the circuit.
Vettel had a race to forget, as the German span at the Ascari chicane. When he tried to rejoin the track, he lit up the rear tyres and collided with Stroll. He received a ten-second stop-go penalty for the offence, the harshest penalty the stewards can give aside from disqualification.
Other retirees were Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz, with the Spaniard retiring due to a loose wheel after his pit stop. Sainz was running an impressive sixth place for McLaren, and this is another painful reitrement for the team. It has allowed Renault to half the gap to the Woking outfit in the constructors championship.
Monza - 08 September 2019
Even though there weren't much overtakes, the race was engaging. Leclerc may have moved under braking but it wasn't at the same level as Verstappen's against Raikkonen all those years ago. What a horrible race for Sebastian! At one point I thought he would overtake Bottas and might put pressure on Hamilton but in the end he didn't even score points. It was his mistake but I do feel sad for him. It feels like he is coming under a lot of pressure but that's no excuse for his unsafe joining of race.
Ferrari have had their fun and it's time to let this season be dominated by Mercedes again. Solid drive from both Renault's driver. Humongous point score for them. Good race by Perez as usual. And good race by Verstappen too, especially considering that he had to pit so early.
What were Alfa thinking, that oversight completely ruined Kimi's race!
Brilliant drive from LeClerc. Well deserved win. Sent not up to his old form. Looking a lot like his last year at Red Bull.
Going to have to stop posting from my phone. Damn auto-correct. But y'all knew I meant Seb not sent.
Pretty good race. Not the best this season, but it was acceptable. But Jesus Christ, Vettel has fallen down the bullshit tree in a fashion that would make Williams would say "yeah, not as bad as us but still pretty lame". And on the complete opposite end, we had Leclerc racing for all he was worth and successfully holding off two Merc' cars. That boy might have to file for work induced hypertonia after this race, poor lad! But he pulled through in a beautiful way. I'm glad I was in error regarding the race outcome, but I do think Merc' were at least even with Ferrari. I think Ferrari pulled through thanks to slightly better strategy and thanks to Leclerc.
I wonder what kinda race RBH could've had had Max not been in that L1 incident (looks like he was pushed into Perez, so this time he was a passenger) and had Albon not overdriven during that otherwise stellar overtake. But Kvyat's engine blow worries me a bit.
Pushed, really? Wasn't he at the back? Looked like he got to ambitious and didn't give himself enough braking room to me. But they didn't really show many angles on it. I was in error, too thinking LeClerc would disappear in the lead and Ferrari would find some way to mess it up. A happy mistake. Kvyat probably the most under-rated driver on the grid right now. AND, what about those Renaults! Awesome performance by both drivers. Also, kudos to Mercedes who clearly had a performance deficit last weekend and even on Friday this week. They really are performing at the top of their game this season. It's a deserved constructors title for them.
He kinda was, but there was another car kinda behind/beside him, what could've pushed him forward if they made contact. It looks a bit like he was pushed forward if you look at Max' onboard footage. But yeah, didn't see many angles of it, so hard to tell. Speaking of that: that additional footage they showed from the Albon incident! I love how they tried to get a better angle from above, only to just see a bunch of trees! XD
Kvyat did indeed to a great job. Albon did pretty well too, albeit I think he should've been able to do more. Still, it's early days. But Dr.Doom could very well give Kvyat a second chance if Albon won't shine. As for Renault: I'm surprised they did This well, but not surprised they did good here. This is pretty much the race they've waited for, from what I've heard.
Does seb want to continue his career like Kimi? I think not. He is done. And max another mistake he needs to chill and get back to being consistent and fast. He has more speed than Albon.
Alright, let's calm down about this. Clearly Seb is not in his best form. But even a mediocre Seb is better than Kimi on a good. I think seeing Kimi at Alfa makes it easy to forget how mediocre he was at Ferrari feo several years. Utterly humiliated by both Alonso and Vettel. So no... He won't continue his career like Kimi. He will have a much better career.
Charles was excellent, Hamilton too - he made a solid race of it, Bottas I thought could've done more when he got his chance, but second place and third - I think Mercedes would settle for that before the race. Vettel was poor, really poor and Verstappen, another error from the boy and his season has gone off the boil somewhat. Thought it was a really good race, well done Monza.
Agree on all points. It really looked like Bottas might have had a chance for a win, but he needed just a few laps younger tires and he might have had it. Monza really did deliver for the fans this year, again. Happy they are going to be on the calendar for the coming years. I think Max is going to have trouble now that he has some pressure from a competitive team-mate. He gets impatient and gets sloppy like he did when Danny Ric was putting on the pressure. I hope he proves me wrong.
Bottas was a real dissapointment. He definitely had a chance and blew it twice. I mean, sure this was not a challenge for an average driver, but he proved once again he is not too tier. He shows how having a top two car doesn't guarantee wins
Great drive by Leclerc, seemed to me like the Mercs were slightly better in race trim, so good for Leclerc to win while constantly being pressured by Mercedes. Also great drive from Perez and happy for Renault. RBH... seems like that car is tailor made for Verstappen, either that or Verstappen just is leaps and bounds better than the other drivers in the RBR family, not really impressed by Albon today, wonder what would've been had it not been for Verstappens silly mistake in the beginning. Vettel... is anybody keeping track? How many mistakes has that guy made these last two years, was it in 2017 that these mistakes began? He sure wasn't making them at RBR. The only thing saving him from getting the boot is his 4 WDC. Ferrari seems to have found their no 1 driver in Leclerc, what they need now is a solid no. 2 like Mercedes has. Perez perhaps?
I think Vettel is carrying a big load on his shoulders (the Great Niki Lauda said something about that load when he ran away from Ferrari...). And this happens because Seb is extremely emotional and Maranello needs cold-blooded drivers like Schumi and Charles in order to win (Alonso was another emotional personality, though less than Seb). Thnx.
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mcbhargav
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End of an era for Vettel.