Charles Leclerc has won the second race win of his career after a stupendous drive to fight off everything the two Silver Arrows could throw at him. Leclerc takes the first win for Ferrari at Monza since Fernando Alonso won in 2010. The Mercedes drivers, Valtteri Bottas finished second with Lewis Hamilton claiming the final spot on the podium.
As the lights went out, the Ferraris were slow to get off the line, but Leclerc manages to hold on to the lead into the first chicane with the two Mercedes behind.
Come lap 7, Sebastian Vettel lost the rear of his Ferrari going into the Ascari chicane. When he tried to rejoin the track, he clipped Lance Stroll’s car forcing him to spin out as well and Vettel was left with a broken front wing. Then Stroll in the Racing Point re-joined the track in an unsafe manner as well as he forced Pierre Gasly in the Torro Rosso off the track and into the gravel.
Vettel was given a severe 10-second stop-and-go penalty for the incident. Stroll was rightfully only given a drive through penalty. After Vettel had his first stop with a wing change and then come in again to serve his penalty, he was already a lap down from the top three drivers.
Hamilton pitted on lap 20 for a set of medium tyres, while Leclerc came in for a set of hard tyres the following lap. Leclerc came out just ahead of Hamilton.
Lap 23 was the most nail-biting moment all year. Hulkenberg (yet to make a stop), Leclerc and Hamilton were fighting for third place. Leclerc was fighting to keep Hamilton at bay and made his move on Hulkenberg through Parabolica. With the help of DRS and slipstream, Hamilton was able to get ahead of the German’s Renault to charge towards the Ferrari. Hamilton was neck and neck after the first chicane. Hamilton was making his move at the second chicane, Leclerc slightly pushed Hamilton off the track forcing him to take evasive action. Leclerc was given was warning from the stewards in the form of a black and white flag but Hamilton fell back significantly but was still close enough to keep the pressure on.
Bottas then pitted for a set of medium tyres on lap 28, but then had much fresher tyres than Leclerc. Lap 36, Leclerc made a mistake by locking up his unloaded front tyre and cut the chicane. This allowed Hamilton to close inches behind Leclerc. But somehow, Leclerc somehow managed to stay ahead.
On Lap 42, Hamilton locked up at the end of the main straight and was unable to make the first chicane. Bottas who was closing up on the fresher tyres then moved onto second place and then was allowed to charge towards the Ferrari. Bottas was unable to get close enough to Leclerc to attack Leclerc as the Mercedes cars were no match for Ferrari going through the exit of Parabolica which was key in keeping Leclerc ahead. However, Bottas managed to keep the pressure on the young Ferrari driver. But that seemed not enough to take the win away from Leclerc after a brilliant drive from the driver from Monaco.
Hamilton pitted with three laps remaining to claim the extra point for the fastest lap of the race and finished third. The two Renault cars claimed their best finish with Daniel Ricciardo finishing fourth and Nico Hulkenberg in fifth. Alex Albon finished sixth for Red Bull. Sergio Perez who started 18th finished seventh for Racing point while Max Verstappen in the second Red Bull finished eighth after starting right from the back of the grid in 19th. Antonio Giovinazzi and Lando Norris finish up the final point positions in ninth and 10th respectively.
