Mercedes plans jump to Monza. In the sprint race of the Italian Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas wins ahead of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Lewis Hamilton complicates his life with a bad start and is fifth at the finish. The consequences for the seven-time world champion are heavy: he loses two points over Verstappen, drops to minus 5 in the overall standings from the Dutch driver and fails an easy pole position. Bottas would have given him the advantage, if only if he had found him close, so much so that he had lost the pole anyway when Mercedes had fitted him the fourth power unit of the season.
Let’s recap the situation produced by the new format and the old rules: Friday Bottas sets the best time in the traditional qualifying, which allows him to start from the front in the sprint qualifying (which is actually a mini-race of 100 kilometers). Bottas then wins the sprint but, due to a penalty, scores three points and gives the pole to Verstappen for Sunday’s race.
Off the podium in order: 4. Norris (McLaren); 5. Hamilton (Mercedes); 6. Leclerc (Ferrari); 7. Sainz (Ferrari); 8. Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo); 9 Perez (Red Bull); 10. Stroll (Aston Martin).
On the Monza circuit McLaren confirms faster than Ferrari, which starts very badly on Saturday: in the last free practice Sainz destroys the car again, crashing (he had already done it in Zandvoort), the mechanics are good at losing a patch. Leclerc, on the other hand, has stomach and engine problems, the latter solved by mounting the first power unit of the season, therefore without penalties.
Antonio Giovinazzi confirms all the good of his last races by recovering two positions, just to make it more difficult to replace him at the end of the season with the Chinese Zhou, who races in Formula 2 today.
«It’s fantastic to see the Italian fans again – Verstappen celebrates -. The sprint went better than expected, I took a couple of points that are comfortable and I start from pole. It will be an interesting battle, we have configured the car to have a good top speed ».
Hamilton criticizes himself for the bad start: «I skated the tires, my fault. I lost precious points, I have to give my all in the race to limit the damage. Red Bull is the best car, like all season. We won with Vallteri, but Max has always been close to him and he will win easily in the race. I will try to finish second ».
Leclerc is realistic: «Physically I had better days, but I’m satisfied with how it went. We have maximized our potential, unfortunately McLaren has more here. The target? There are riders out of position, like Bottas and Perez, let’s see what happens. If we are perfect, we will put pressure on Ricciardo and Norris ».