(Reuters) – Team by team analysis of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza, round 16 of the 22-race Formula One world championship (listed in championship order):
RED BULL (Max Verstappen 1, Sergio Perez 6)
Verstappen’s fifth win in a row, 11th of the season and 31st of his career came from seventh on the grid after engine penalties. He was third after lap one and took the lead when Leclerc pitted on lap 12. Verstappen pitted on lap 25 and was back ahead when Leclerc came in again 20 laps from the end. Perez set fastest lap after recovering from an overheated front-right brake disc early on. He might have passed Hamilton had the safety car not been deployed. Verstappen now leads Leclerc by 116 points and could clinch his second title in Singapore.
FERRARI (Charles Leclerc 2, Carlos Sainz 4)
Leclerc started on pole position for the eighth time this season but was on a two-stop strategy compared to Verstappen’s one. The pitstops were smooth and there were no driver errors but in the end the Red Bull was just the quicker package. Sainz started 18th after grid penalties.
MERCEDES (George Russell 3, Lewis Hamilton 5)
Russell started on the front row on soft tyres, switched to hards and back to softs and chalked up his seventh podium in 16 races. He was the only podium finisher to use hard tyres. Hamilton got bogged down in traffic initially but made his way through the field after engine penalties left him starting on the back row.
ALPINE (Esteban Ocon 11, Fernando Alonso retired)
Alonso retired on lap 31 with a suspected water pressure issue while in a scoring position. The blank allowed McLaren to cut the gap to 18 points.
MCLAREN (Lando Norris 7, Daniel Ricciardo retired)
Norris made a slow start from third, with Ricciardo slotting in there from fourth. The Australian brought out the safety car at the end when he lost power out of turn six and parked up with the car stuck in gear.
ALFA ROMEO (Guanyu Zhou 10, Valtteri Bottas 13)
Zhou returned to the top 10 for the first time since Canada in June. Bottas suffered damage in a first corner shunt with Magnussen and fought back from last.
HAAS (Mick Schumacher 12, Kevin Magnussen 16)
Magnussen, starting 16th, was handed a five second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. Schumacher started 17th on medium tyres, did a long stint and switched to softs 20 laps from the end.
ALPHATAURI (Pierre Gasly 8, Yuki Tsunoda 14)
Gasly scored for the fifth time this year but was stuck behind Ricciardo’s McLaren for most of the race. Tsunoda started last on the grid after penalties. AlphaTauri narrowed the gap to Haas to one point.
ASTON MARTIN (Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel retired)
Stroll was retired to look after the engine with 14 laps to go. Vettel pulled over on lap 11 after losing power with an energy recovery issue, triggering a virtual safety car.
WILLIAMS (Nyck de Vries 9, Nicholas Latifi 15)
De Vries scored on his debut after replacing the unwell Alex Albon, struck down with appendicitis. He started eighth, thanks to penalties for others. Latifi started 10th, but lost out on the first lap when he was sandwiched by other cars, and also had a slow pitstop.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
