After a string of struggles, Charles Leclerc was back on the top step of the podium in front of Ferrari’s home crowd as he won the 2024 Italian Grand Prix of the ongoing Formula One season.
Pole-sitter Lando Norris let go of another golden opportunity, finishing third behind his teammate, Oscar Piastri.
The 2024 Italian Grand Prix win marks a home-double for Leclerc and Ferrari, with the former having also won the race in Monaco.
It was another horror start from Norris as he lost two places in the opening lap, while George Russell went wide and lost a couple of places as well. As Piastri overtook the lead from Norris, Leclerc also made the most of the situation to slot into P2, with Norris dropping to P3.
On Lap 8, the race had its first retiree as VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda went off after being hit by Nico Hülkenberg, which handed the German driver a 10-second penalty.
Couple of laps later, Russell came into the pits to service his damaged front wing after his escapades on the opening lap, while Piastri continued to maintain the lead up front with Leclerc in hot pursuit.
Norris was called in on Lap 15. The British driver hit the marker on the entry on the pit lane. His early stop helped him get past Leclerc when the Ferrari driver came in for his stop a few laps later.
While Norris, Piastri, and Leclerc were battling it out up front, it was a proper scrap between Russell and Sergio Pérez a couple of places below.
The Red Bull drivers came in for their stops on Laps 23 and 24, with Max Verstappen switching to the hards first in a bid to complete a one-stop.
Norris was called in for a second stop on Lap 33 and re-joined in P5 behind Verstappen. Race leader Piastri eventually came in for his stop on Lap 38, which saw Leclerc take the lead.
Ferrari looked extremely comfortable on the hard compound tyres, with questions being raised about the timing of Piastri’s stop and whether or not it was needed. Piastri, though, kept flying on his hard compounds as he breezed past birthday boy Carlos Sainz at Ascari with a stunning move on the inside.
While Norris managed to get back up to P3, he had no pace to catch his teammate, while Leclerc put in a stunning one-stop drive to win the Italian GP for a second time as McLaren were left scratching their heads.
Piastri finished as the leading McLaren ahead of Norris, with Sainz in P4. Lewis Hamilton finished fifth ahead of Verstappen, with Russell, Pérez, Alex Albon, and Kevin Magnussen rounding out the points places in that order.
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Norris’ P3 finish has cut down Verstappen’s lead in the Drivers’ Standings to 62 points, with Leclerc now 24 points behind Norris in third. Piastri’s P2 finish has helped him hold on to his fourth place with a 13-point lead on Sainz.
Red Bull’s lead in the Constructors’ Standings, meanwhile, has also been cut down, with McLaren now only eight points behind the leaders. Ferrari are 31 points behind McLaren in third.
Racing will be back in two weeks’ time as the grid heads to Baku for the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where we might see McLaren take the lead of the Constructors’ Championship for the first time in over a decade.
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