Verstappen outshines McLaren at Monza

Verstappen gets tough on Norris

On Saturday, Verstappen set the fastest ever Formula 1 lap to steal a brilliant pole position. His time over the 3.6-mile track in Monza’s glorious royal park was 1:18.79, set at a speed of 164.484mph, to beat the previous record left by Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes in 2020 by 0.095sec. Now having pipped Norris to the top spot, he wasn’t about to give up the lead without a fight on Sunday.

Pre-race talk was that Verstappen’s long-run Friday practice pace showed that he had a genuine shot of beating the McLarens over 53 laps. And so it proved.

From the start, Norris made a better launch, with Verstappen then edging right towards him. The track narrows at Monza on the run to the first chicane, which meant the McLaren threw up a cloud of dust as its right-sided tyres touched the grass — Norris subsequently branding his old friend an “idiot” in the heat of the moment.

But as Verstappen then moved left to take his line into the chicane, Norris was able to recover and challenge on the inside. They entered the right-left flick side by side, and Verstappen was forced to cut the chicane to make it through. Inevitably, that led his team to order him to hand his lead over and avoid a penalty.

He did so as they started lap two, but it was quickly evident that the Dutchman had the pace to take the lead straight back. Sure enough, at the start of lap four and with a little help from DRS, the Red Bull dragged into range down the main straight and Verstappen pulled a neat outside pass through the chicane to take a lead he’d never lose.

Piastri vs Leclerc

Oscar Piastri initially made a better getaway than both Verstappen and Norris but lost out to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari on the exit of Turn 1, only to blast back past a few seconds later. But on lap two a feisty Leclerc then pulled a sensational move around the outside of Curva Grande to again slip into third place.

However, the 2024 Italian Grand Prix winner couldn’t make it stick. Piastri re-established the natural order at the start of lap six with an outside pass on Leclerc at Turn 1. But the Australian could offer little threat to his team-mate and the race quickly settled into an order that appeared unlikely to change, without something untoward occurring…

McLaren no threat on the soft tyre

On a fast track that’s easier on tyre degradation, this was always likely to be a straight-forward one-stop race, especially without a safety car interruption. Verstappen eased out a six-second lead over Norris and held out on his medium Pirelli tyres until lap 37 before stopping for the hard compound.

McLaren’s only hope – and it was a slim one – was to do something different with its own strategy to try and beat the Red Bull. That’s why the two papaya cars ran to laps 45 and 46 before coming in, taking on the red-walled softs in a bid for a big performance offset against Verstappen’s hard rubber.

But it made little difference. At the chequered flag Verstappen was a crushing 19 seconds ahead of Norris for his third win of the season. Just like the old days, was one comment. But was this a genuine turning of the tide in favour of Red Bull or simply a circuit-dependent one-off on a low-drag track? Whatever the case, it was Red Bull’s first win under Laurent Mekies — and a first without Christian Horner on the pit wall.

McLaren’s team orders call

Beyond Verstappen’s stunning drive, the other significant talking point was McLaren’s intervention after more bad luck for Norris.

The team decided to pit Piastri first despite Norris running ahead of him, to snuff out any threat of Leclerc undercutting into third (which in any case looked unlikely). Norris agreed to the plan, but only after being assured there was no chance of Piastri then undercutting ahead of him. So Piastri pitted on lap 45, Norris a lap later.

Then disaster. A sticky tyre change on the left front stretched Norris’ stop, and as he blasted back into the race he was faced with the agonising view of the rear wing of his team-mate’s car. It was harsh, but that’s what can happen in pitstops. A natural, if unlucky, racing moment.

Yet in the delicate circumstances of their carefully managed and so-far civil title battle, McLaren felt it was only fair to switch back the places given that Norris had once again suffered for the second race in succession — following his painful retirement in Zandvoort — through no fault of his own.

Piastri wasn’t happy when he took the call. But crucially he also grudgingly accepted it. “I mean, we said a slow pitstop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what’s changed here,” he said. “But if you really want me to do it, then I’ll do it.” Later he said he accepted it was the right and fair call — but it’s a good example of the challenge McLaren faces to manage this title rivalry and keep the peace over the remaining eight races.

So, was it the right call? Losing more ground to Piastri in such a way after what happened at Zandvoort would have been dreadful for Norris. But, as Piastri said, pitstop delays happen in racing.

It’s a fine line, but then it should also be remembered the two McLaren drivers are still helping each other out this deep into their rivalry, to a degree we’ve never really seen before with a world title on the line. Norris had agreed to Piastri pitting first against the grain of the usual order, and on Saturday Piastri had even given Norris a handy tow in qualifying.

Will it remain so civil? We’ve been asking that for weeks, and so far McLaren is keeping the balance as fair and equal as any team possibly could in such circumstances.

The outcome is that Norris closed the points gap to Piastri from 34 to 31. Will those three points make a difference come Abu Dhabi in December? If they do, perhaps the call at Monza will once again be revisited.

Hamilton’s solid comeback drive

The Tifosi was heard to jeer Norris on the podium, but perhaps that was simply frustration that they didn’t have a Ferrari driver to cheer. Leclerc was forced to settle for fourth having seen off a threat from George Russell’s Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton pulling in sixth after a decent effort in the other red car — running in a special livery to commemorate Niki Lauda’s first world title won at Monza 50 years ago.

Hamilton had only started tenth after copping a five-place grid penalty for a speeding infraction on the way to the grid in Zandvoort. How annoying that his error ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix hadn’t been punished then and should be carried over to his first race as a Ferrari driver at Monza. No matter, he knuckled down and did well to make up four places on a day when gaining such ground was a tall order.

Big gainers, big losers

That said, Alex Albon came from 14^th on the grid to an excellent seventh in his Williams, having started on the hard tyre on the alternate strategy. Gabriel Bortoleto drove another strong race for Sauber to finish eighth, gaining a place via a five-second penalty for hapless Kimi Antonelli, who had been judged to have driven erratically in a battle with Albon. Isack Hadjar followed up his Zandvoort podium with another point, having risen to tenth from a pitlane start.

The biggest losers were Nico Hülkenberg, who was forced out by hydraulics bothers before the race had even begun, and Fernando Alonso. The Aston Martin driver had cleverly demoted his protégé Bortoleto in the pistops, but then suffered an alarming front suspension failure as he ran over the kerbs on the exit of the Ascari chicane.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.