Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Italian Grand Prix
Photo from Motorsport Week
The past two years at Monza involved surprise winners.
This one did not, but it sort of still somehow did!
Here are this week’s winners and losers.
Losers
5. Fernando Alonso
Alonso was on a points streak of 10 straight races and was very much in the way to make it 11 before an engine failure ended his race.
Tough way to lose it.
4. Lance Stroll
And we can add Lance Stroll to the “tough way to lose it” crowd as he had been classified in every single race so far this season.
But not today. A mechanical failure ended his race and ended his streak.
3. Sebastian Vettel
Vettel began his illustrious career with a surprise win at Monza in 2008.
With this being his final season and therefore his final race at Monza, I was hoping for another Sebastian Vettel masterclass.
But it wasn’t to be. An engine failure ended his race early.
Really a pity.
2. Daniel Ricciardo
Stop me if I’m repeating myself, but there was an engine failure.
This one a bit more cruel considering Ricciardo’s poor run of form. He was running in a points position with less than 10 laps left before his engine gave out and his race was over.
1. Nicholas Latifi
You’ll understand why he’s top of this list if you watched the race.
And if you didn’t, I’ll explain later with who is number 1 in the winners column.
Winners
5. Sergio Perez
Despite being a wide power circuit, Monza is actually a difficult track to overtake.
Checo started in 13th position and worked his way all the way to 6th.
Not the greatest race for the fastest car, but still pretty good!
4. Lewis Hamilton
And in the theme of drivers making lots of moves to gain positions, Lewis Hamilton started in P19 and worked his way to 5th.
14 positions gained. Even with a powerful car, that’s not easy.
3. Carlos Sainz
Another 14 positions gained for Carlos Sainz, who started in 18th and wound up 4th.
2. Max Verstappen
Not really a surprise Max Verstappen won.
But what is surprising is that not only is this Max’s first win at Monza, it’s the first time he’s ever even been on the podium.
Max can now mathematically win the title next race at Singapore, and has 11 wins with 6 races left to potentially break Sebastian Vettel’s record of 13 wins in a season.
You may want to just go ahead and put money on that. It’s going to happen.
1. Nyck De Vries
Typically, the first ever F1 race is a stressful moment for every driver.
No matter your level of preparation, nothing can live up to driving those cars for that long with 19 of the world’s best drivers around you.
Now, imagine your first ever F1 race comes after the main driver Alex Albon gets appendicitis and you get 25 minutes of practice in the car right before qualifying and then you will also race for Albon on Sunday.
That’s what happened to Nyck De Vries this weekend.
I think it’s fair to say that none of us were really expecting much, and nobody was going to hold it against him.
He’s a good driver, but those circumstances just aren’t ideal for a first ever race.
And the guy only went and finished 9th to get two points.
The man who had 25 minutes of practice before his first ever F1 race not only finished in the points, but he easily outraced his teammate Nicholas Latifi who was nowhere near the points.
That race surely seals Latifi’s fate, if it wasn’t already, but Williams may have gone and found themselves a replacement for him.
