#ItalianGP Race Report: @PierreGASLY claims shock victory ahead of @Carlossainz55. #F1

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly clinched a shock maiden Italian GP victory in a dramatic race ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, with early leader Lewis Hamilton penalised for safety car infringement.

Sainz hunted down Gasly aggressively over the second half of the Grand Prix at Monza, which was red-flagged due to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc’s heavy shunt at the Parabolica, but he could not find a way to get by and finished second and in-front of Racing Point’s Lance Stroll.

Hamilton dominated the early proceedings, but a penalty for pitting on lap 20 when the pit-lane was closed just before the Grand Prix’ second fifth had been completed dropped the Briton to last place and left him to push hard to claim seventh.

When the 53 lap Italian GP began, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas looked to react slower to team-mate Hamilton on the front-row and was swiftly passed by Sainz on the run-down to the Variante Del Rettifilo Chicane, where the Finn was also under-pressure from McLaren’s Lando Norris.

The Mercedes and McLaren tangled at the turn two apex and their fight continued through Curva Grande, with Norris then hounding Bottas around the outside at the Variante Della Roggia Chicane.

The pairing made more contact – wheel-to-wheel – as Norris pushed by, with Bottas then dropping behind Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo as he failed to get up to speed on the run to the fast Ascari, suspecting he picked up a puncture, which Mercedes ensured the Finn that was not the case.

At the front, Hamilton comfortably moved 1.3 seconds clear of Sainz by the end of the opening lap.

The Briton went about extending his lead throughout the initial stint, with Sainz quickly building a gap over his team-mate, who was soon under-pressure by Perez.

Hamilton continued increasing his lead over the next 18 tours, which reach 12.5 seconds by the time when the race turned upside down as Kevin Magnussen’s Haas VF-20 racer came to a halt near the pit-lane, which deployed the safety car.

The Dane’s Haas had to be pushed into the pit-lane from the race marshals, which meant the pit-lane was closed – eleven seconds after the safety car was released – but Hamilton came in for a fresh set of C3 yellow side-walled mediums.

The rest of the field remained out on track – apart from Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi, who was also placed under investigation alongside the race leader, with Mercedes telling Hamilton to expect a penalty.

The punishment did come but after the race was suspended following Leclerc’s heavy shunt at the exit of the Parabolica.

The field came in once Magnussen’s VF-20 racer was well out of the way and the pit-lane was re-opened, which boosted several cars that stopped just before the safety car deployment – including Gasly, Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen, Leclerc and Stroll, who did not come in during the initial interruption.

At the end of the first lap after the restart on the 24^th tour – Leclerc lost the rear of his SF1000 racer as he accelerated out of the historic long right-hander and as the Monegasque-youngster corrected the slide, his Ferrari snapped left and darted into the barriers at high-speed.

Leclerc was able to climb out of his car and went to the medical centre for checks before being released, with the race suspended for 25 minutes as the barrier was fixed, with the order being Hamilton, Stroll, Gasly, Raikkonen, Giovinazzi, Sainz and Norris.

During the delay, Hamilton was hit with the same 10 second stop-go that Giovinazzi was given before the red flag, and he climbed out of his F1 W11 EQ Power+ racer to speak with his race engineer, then scooted down to chat to the Mercedes strategists and senior team leaders before heading to race control at the main Monza pit building.

When the race restarted on the 28^th lap, Stroll made a slow run off the line, which meant Gasly could jump ahead of the Racing Point and chase Hamilton, who pitted to serve his penalty at the end of the second “opening lap”.

This left Gasly running comfortably clear from Raikkonen, with Giovinazzi then falling out of the leading battle to take his penalty, with Sainz overtaking Stroll – who cut the Variante Della Roggia Chicane after suffering a lock-up on the first lap of the restart to drop behind the Alfa C39’s into the Variante Del Rettifilo on the 29^th tour.

Gasly was then focused on building the gap, while Sainz hunted down and attacked Raikkonen into the Variante Del Rettifilo on lap 34, barging his way through at the apex of the second corner and went chasing off after the AlphaTauri.

At the beginning of the 35^th tour, Gasly lead Sainz by 4.1 seconds, with the two new race leaders lapping in the 1:24’s.

Sainz momentarily made it into the 1:23’s as he chased the leading Frenchman, who was calm out-front even when his lead was slowly being cut down over the remaining 18 tours.

The Spaniard consistently ate into Gasly’s gap but was hit by the AT01’s dirty air and struggled to get into DRS range.

He eventually managed to, but on the final lap – with Gasly weaving his AlphaTauri to try and break the slip-stream where he could – and Sainz was never able to make it close enough to attempt a move for the lead.

Gasly held onto claim his maiden victory at the Italian GP by 0.415 seconds ahead of Sainz, with Stroll third and a further 3.358 seconds off.

Norris came home fourth as Raikkonen dropped to 13^th on the soft rubber, with the rest of the front-running drivers using mediums, ahead of fifth-placed Bottas, who struggled to make any moves forward throughout the entire afternoon.

Ricciardo ended the race sixth and in-front of Hamilton who recovered to seventh, Renault team-mate Esteban Ocon who took eighth, Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat who was ninth and Perez completing the top ten.

Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi and George Russell were 11^th and 14^th respectively in the Grove-based squad’s farewell race for Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams and the Williams family after selling the team.

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean and the aforementioned Raikkonen were in-between the Williams duo in 12^th and 13^th.

Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon, who tangled with Italian GP racer-winner Gasly at the Variante Del Rettifilo in an incident that was not investigated, finished 15^th, whilst team-mate Max Verstappen retired shortly after the second restart when Honda spotted a power-unit problem.

Ferrari’s home Grand Prix got off to a horrible start before Leclerc’s crash when Sebastian Vettel encountered a brakes failure at the first corner in the early stages and the German retired in the pits after smashing through the Variante Del Rettifilo’s run-off area marker boards.

The Top Three

Italian GP Winner – Pierre Gasly, #10, Scuderia AlphaTauri-Honda, AT01: “It was such a crazy race. The car was fast, and to go through so much in the space of 18 months. First podium last year, now first victory in Monza. I have no words.”

2^nd – Carlos Sainz, #55, McLaren Racing-Renault, MCL35: “I can’t be too disappointed with P2. With a normal race I would have scored P2 behind Lewis. We’ve been super quick all weekend. Chasing Pierre, finishing three or four tenths back – it is what it is.”

3^rd – Lance Stroll, #18, BWT Racing Point F1 Team, RP20: “It was such a crazy race. I’m so happy for Pierre he deserved it, it was a bit of a bummer as it was mine to lose but I had a tonne of wheel spin at the start.”

Formula 1 Gran Premio Heineken D’Italia 2020 Race Results Classification (53 Laps)

* Provisional results

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1052/italy/race-result.html

Click here for the 2020 Formula 1 Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.

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