MONZA, IDEA — Charles Leclerc has been secured Ferrari a rare victory in Formula 1 Italy Grand PrizeThe home fans were delighted when the team’s tight defensive strategy paid off on Sunday.
Ferrari, which brought nine upgrades to its home race, was one of the teams that chose to pit only once.
And that proved to be the right decision for Leclerc, who despite severely degraded tyres was still able to hold off Oscar Piastri and McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
Seeing what was coming, the red-clad, frenzied tifosi stood up, stomped their feet and cheered Leclerc on every lap, and they were elated when he finished 2.664 seconds ahead of Piastri.
Pole winner Norris finished 6,153 points behind Leclerc to close the gap to 62 points at the championship leader. Max Verstappensixth in Bull.
Leclerc also won in 2019, Ferrari’s second win at his home track in the last 14 races.
Before Sunday’s win, the Italian Scuderia had only managed a second place for Leclerc in 2022 and a third place for Sainz last year since that 2019 win.
This was Leclerc’s second win of the season. His first win was as special as his win at his home track in Monaco.
Leclerc started fourth at Monza, while the McLaren duo held on to the lead.
As Norris chases the title, questions are being raised about whether team orders will be enforced.
The answer came quickly. Both McLarens made good starts – unusually for them – but Piastri managed to slip into the slipstream and pass his teammate in the second chicane, with Norris slipping to third as Leclerc also managed to get past.
Norris passed Leclerc when he pitted first and when the others stopped, he started chasing his teammate.
After the first round of stops, Piastri took the lead from Norris and the duo were told over the team radio that they were free to race.
But the much-anticipated battle between the two drivers for the win never took place because of Ferrari’s bold move.
As more and more drivers made their second pit stops and the laps continued to tick away, it became clear that the Ferrari pair would try to hold onto their hard tyres until the end of the race.
And it was proven, Leclerc was able to pass Piastri despite the tyres running for nearly 40 laps.
Birthday boy Carlos Sainz Jr. finished fourth, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton who will replace him at Ferrari next year.
Hamilton’s Mercedes car team-mate George Russell finished seventh after a poor start. He was sandwiched between the Red Bull pair of Verstappen and Sergio Perez with Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen completing the top 10.
New Williams driver Franco Colapinto finishes first F1 race in 12th place. That’s better than Logan Sargeant — whom he replaced — in all but one of his races this year.
