F1 – Leclerc wins ahead of McLaren duo as Ferrari’s one-stop Monza gamble pays off

Charles Leclerc took an emotional Monza win for Ferrari, delivering on a risky one-stop strategy to take victory ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, as championship leader Max Verstappen finished in sixth place.

For much of the race the race was controlled by McLaren with Piastri muscling his way Norris at the start and with Norris boosted past Leclerc to P2 by a first-stop undercut. However, tyre degradation forced the Woking team to err on the side of caution and Piastri and Norris made second stops soon after the race’s midpoint. And it was then that Ferrari gambled. Leclerc was propelled into the lead ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz and though both McLaren’s were able to use their fresher tyres to reel in the Spanish driver, Leclerc was able to maintain his pace and after 53 laps he took his seventh career win and his second at Monza with 2.6s in hand over Piastri.

At the start, Norris got away well from pole to take the lead but after Mercedes’ George Russell was forced to cut the first chicane, Piastri was then able to challenge his team-mate into the second chicane. And when Norris almost lost the back end of his car, the Australian muscled through to take the lead. Norris’ slide also allowed Leclerc to pounce and the pole sitter slid back to third ahead of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton with Red Bull’s Max Vertsappen in sixth.

As the drivers settled into the opening stint, Norris began to close in on Leclerc, but at the end of lap 14 he was called into the pits in an attempt to undercut the Ferrari. The call was late, Norris locked up hitting a bollard on his way to his box.

Ferrari responded by bringing Leclerc in at the end of the following lap but despite Norris’ pit entrance lock-up, the undercut worked and the McLaren driver climbed to second place. Race leader Piastri pitted on lap 17 and as he dropped to P4 Sainz was promoted to P1. Then, when the Spaniard pitted to shed his starting Medium tyres on lap 20, Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Pérez, on starting Hard tyres and aiming at a longer first stint, climbed to P1 and P2.

Verstappen was struggling with tyre graining, however, and on lap 23 he pitted for a second set of Hard tyres. The stop was slow, however, and he rejoined in sixth.

At the front of the pack, Norris was also beginning to struggle for grip and on lap 32 he locked up into Turn 4 and was forced to cut the chicane, thereby increasing the threat from third-place Leclerc. That prompted McLaren to call Norris into the pit lane for a second time and on lap 33 he made a sluggish 3.3s stop before emerging behind Verstappen.

Verstappen tried to defend the position but on lap 41, with Norris aided by DRS, there was nothing the Dutchman could do as Norris swept past into Turn 1. That put Norris into P3 behind Piastri but at the front the shape of the race was changing as Ferrari rolled the dice and went for a one-stop race for Leclerc and Sainz.

The Spanish driver was struggling on his ageing Hard tyres and on lap 45 Piastri powered past the Spaniard to claim P2, 11 seconds behind race leader Leclerc. Norris then made his way past Sainz on lap 47 to add to the pressure on Leclerc.

The Ferrari driver was up to the challenge, however. And though Piastri managed to close the gap over the final handful of laps, Leclerc was able to maintain his pace and after 53 laps he took his second victory of the season with 2.6s in hand over Piastri. Norris took third place ahead of Sainz, with Hamilton in fifth place ahead of Verstappen. Russell finished seventh for Mercedes ahead of the second Red Bull of Pérez, Alex Albon collected two points for Williams the final point went to Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, though the Dane also received two penalty points for a collision with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and having having accumulated a total of 12 maximum penalty points in a 12-month period he will receive a one-race ban, ruling him out of the next event, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

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