Luke’s Weekend Review – Italian GP 2023

Leave a Comment / News / By

Monza Grand Prix: Drama, Overtakes, and Records Broken in Thrilling Race

Monza 6

What an eventful race that was guys right? We see History made and records broken, some great overtakes, penalties being handed out and some real close calls. The Italian GP didn’t disappoint I must say.

We start off with some pre-race drama as on the formation lap, we see the Yuki Tsunoda pull over to the side due to an engine failure and the start was aborted and delayed by 23 mins and due to an additional 2 laps they did the race was reduced from the original planned 53 laps to 51 laps. On the 2nd formation lap Charles Leclerc was also complaining about his car not turning right properly but Ferrari assured him that all was ok.

After the delayed start lights were off and everyone got on well and Carlos Sainz made sure to cover off Max Verstappen down the run towards Turn 1 and Leclerc nearly got the run behind Sainz to get past Verstappen but midway through the corner he slotted back behind Verstappen and off they went. On the first lap we see Oscar Piastri get past Alex Albon into 6th and Lando Norris also made it past Lewis Hamilton. As Norris was able to hold off Hamilton due to Hamilton started on the slower hards, Piastri was unable to hold Albon off and by lap 2 Albon was back ahead of Piastri and he stayed there for the rest of the race as the Williams top speed was far too quick for the Mclaren.

Verstappen was putting pressure on Sainz constantly and never dropped out of DRS zone which put some extra strain on Sainz’s tyres as by lap 4 we hear Verstappen come onto the radio saying that he can already see Sainz sliding all over the place and told his engineer that it’s all good. By lap 6 we see Verstappen go for his first try on Sainz but ended up running out of space and lose some time to Leclerc behind him. Despite his fair few attempts, Leclerc couldn’t put a dent into Verstappen’s time due to Verstappen also being in the DRS to Sainz and in fact by lap 11, Leclerc also dropped out of the DRS to Verstappen. I was unsure if this was a tactic by Leclerc to save tyres or if he was actually struggling but Sainz all weekend was superior in Monza, and it showed during the race.

Another interesting battle we saw was between the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez and the Mercedes of George Russell, from lap 1 Perez was on the gearbox of Russell but Russell was doing an immense job defending against Perez and on lap 14 we see the pair go off the track on the first chicane as they both out braked themselves. In this incident Perez was able to get past Russell off track but he gave the position back to not get a penalty for gaining an advantage while off track. Perez was able to get past Russell on lap 16 in the end as he goes on the inside into Turn 1.

Back at the front we also see that Verstappen was able to get past Sainz on lap 15 as he managed to push Sainz into a mistake into Turn 1 as Sainz locks up his wheels resulting in Max having better traction out of Turn 2 and by Turn 4 he managed to get past Sainz. Verstappen didn’t waste any time after overtaking Sainz and after 1 lap he managed to get out of the DRS threat from Sainz. This however could have been because Sainz had taken too much out of his tyres holding Max off and I think this is the longest time someone was able to hold Verstappen off which is mighty impressive.

Intense Battles and Record-Breaking Win: Highlights from the Italian Grand Prix

On lap 20 we see Sainz and Russell come into the pits with the hope of undercutting Max and Perez respectively, but Red Bull didn’t take any chances and on lap 21 they pitted Max while Ferrari also brought in Leclerc and on lap 22 Perez followed suit and both drivers were able to stay ahead of Sainz and Russell.

Late on in the race we see Piastri and Norris touch on Turn 1 as Norris was just coming out the pits and Oscar was coming down the straight and when they got to the corner, they were side by side, but it seems that Oscar didn’t leave Norris enough space and they touch wheels and luckily avoiding damage. The stewards noted this incident but later announced that no further investigation was required.

George Russell was announced a 5 second penalty for an overtake he had done on Esteban Ocon as he made this overtake off track and didn’t return the position, I think Mercedes took the decision that Russell would be able to make the time on track and took the gamble which paid off as he managed to finish 5th naturally and after the 5 second penalty was applied this didn’t impact his finishing position. Russell wasn’t the only Mercedes who got a 5 second penalty as his teammate Lewis Hamilton also got a 5 second penalty but this was because of a collision he had with Oscar Piastri on lap 41 where we see Hamilton go for a move on Piastri and then turned right on him causing damage to Piastri’s front wing and ending his hope for points. The final 5 second penalty was handed out to Logan Sargeant who also got a 5 second penalty for causing a collision with Valtteri Bottas.

On lap 31 we see that Perez was closing in on the Ferrari of Leclerc as he was driving in 3rd place at the time and Perez was able to nearly get past Leclerc into Turn 4 however the pair touch and Perez goes onto the gravel and stays behind Leclerc, but this was only for another lap as on lap 32 Perez was able to make the move stick on the start/finish straight. The Red Bulls was far too quick on Raceday and there was not much the Ferraris could do as Perez was also able to clear Sainz a few laps later and go on to get a Red Bull 1-2 in Monza which was a great result for the team.

In the Italian GP we have seen some amazing defences from a few drivers such as Sainz, Leclerc and Russell but one driver who had a stellar defence all race was Alex Albon who managed to hold off the Mclaren of Lando Norris in the closing stages of the race as on lap 38 we see Norris go for a move but had to take to the curbs on Turn 1 as he ran out of space and was unable to get past him for the rest of the race. Due to this Norris became an easy target to Hamilton and was able to overtake him as in the 2nd stint Hamilton was on the faster Mediums.

The last battle we saw was an amazing, exhilarating and nail biting one between the 2 Ferraris for the final spot on the podium. This battle started on lap 47, a lap after Perez was able to get past Sainz until the last lap as we see Leclerc go for a couple of moves and we see both drivers lock up from time to time trying to out brake the other. The scariest one however came on lap 51, the final lap as Leclerc went for one last move on Sainz and locks up all 4 wheels nearly taking both Ferraris out in one move. All of Leclerc’s attempts however were in vain and Sainz managed to snatch the last spot on the podium which was the best Ferrari could do today in the race.

Max Verstappen takes the chequered flag making history and breaking the record of most consecutive wins which last week in Zandvoort he had tied with Sebastian Vettel but today he got his 10th consecutive win and breaks the record. Max was followed by Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Alex Albon, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas form the top 10.

What did you guys think of the Italian GP? Who do you think was the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the Dutch GP? We now head into a week break as we closed off all the European races and we will head to the Singapore GP in 2 weeks’ time.

Share this article with your friends

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *