Another dominance of the world champion, Ferrari on the podium, first points for De Vries. How was the Italian Grand Prix?

Monza in Italy is one of the most legendary circuits in the Formula 1 series. And in 2022, the southern European track will host the 16th round of the World Championship. Despite a five-place grid penalty, current championship leader Max Verstappen drove to victory and once again came close to a second consecutive championship title.

The grandstands could remain cheerful after the start, Leclerc held off the onslaught of Russell to hold on to the top spot. But Verstappen was closing in fast behind him and after starting from seventh place, he was already fourth after the first lap.

The reigning world champion got behind the Monegasque leader after four circuits and slowly began to close the gap. However, on lap 11 Sebastian Vettel pitted his car due to a technical problem and therefore race directors activated a short virtual safety car a lap later.

The Ferrari pit wall reacted very quickly. Leclerc was the only one from the front to stop with the mechanics, and he just missed out to Ricciardo in fourth place on the yellow tyres. Between laps 20 and 30, other drivers began to make their way to the pits.

Meanwhile, Sergio Pérez was clawing his way back to the front. The Mexican had a problem with his right front brake at the start and quickly had to pit. However, he quickly worked his way up from the back of the field to eighth place on the hard set, with the three drivers ahead of him not yet in the pits.

After thirty laps the top five order was Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz, Russell, Norris. The latter dropped to ninth after a slow pit stop and had to fight his way back. The championship leader continued to show great pace, although Leclerc was wearing a softer set of tyres and was again slow to pull away.

Another engine problem provided a big plot twist. This time Daniel Ricciardo shut the car down and the safety car took to the track. This brought the field back together and the wait was on to see if they would even run again.

And in the end, the Italian Grand Prix failed to restart. Verstappen took another win and came close to winning the world title again. He was joined on the podium by Charles Leclerc and George Russell. Points on debut were scored by Nyck de Vries on Williams, who beat his teammate Nicholas Latifi by a class difference.

In the attached Twitter post above, you can see the final standings of the elite top ten points at the end of the Italian Grand Prix.

Source: F1 TV