Max Verstappen wins Italian GP at record pace

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finished well ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the Italian Grand Prix. Meantime, Liam Lawson had another race to forget. He ended in 14th, after starting 19th on the grid at Monza.

Australian Piastri finished third, having followed team orders and handed back second place to teammate Lando Norris. The Brit had a slow pitstop due to a wheelgun problem.

Norris had pitted after Piastri, despite being ahead on track, and had been assured by his race engineer that he would come out ahead.

Verstappen meanwhile cruised to the chequered flag, winning the Italian Grand Prix by almost 20sec. It was his first win since Imola and ends a nine race drought.

Moreover, he averaged just over 250km/h around Monza’s ‘Temple of Speed’. That made it the fastest F1 race in the history of the sport.

The win was his 66th and it ended McLaren’s run of five wins in a row.

He started on pole, though Norris took the lead after a messy start but the Dutchman reclaimed the lead easily enough on lap 4.

The title battle between Piastri and Norris became the centre of attention. Controversy ensued after the team reversed positions.

McLaren apologised to Norris for the 5.9sec stop while Piastri didn’t make a big thing of it.

“Lando qualified ahead, and was ahead of me in the race, and he lost the spot through no fault of his own,” said the Australian.

Lawson gamble

A pit strategy gamble didn’t pay off for a frustrated Liam Lawson. He was the only driver to start the race on soft tyres. After pitting on lap 10, his older tyres meant he could not make gains against rivals in the middle of the race.

“We tried a gamble to make something out of it, it just didn’t work,” Lawson said.

He added: “It was tough from where we were starting.”

Last year’s winner, Charles Leclerc, finished fourth for Ferrari.

George Russell was fifth for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton sixth in the Ferrari after starting 10th.

Alex Albon was seventh, Gabriel Bortoleto eighth, Kimi Antonelli ninth and Isack Hadjar took the final point after starting in the pit lane.

Piastri now has 324 points, Norris 293 and Verstappen 230 with eight rounds remaining. Reigning champions McLaren are 337 points clear of Ferrari.