By Anthony Heller
MONZA, Italy, September 9-11, 2022
Max Verstappen overcame a five-place grid penalty to take victory in the Italian Grand Prix. The race finished behind the safety car.
The reigning champion qualified P2 before dropping to P7 with an engine change grid penalty. He was one of nine drivers to take a penalty but the only one to stay in the top half of the grid. Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lewis Hamilton started from the back, and each made impressive recovery drives, qualifying P3 and P5. They dropped all the way to the back just ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who also had to start from the back of the grid. The two drivers each gained 14 places, with Sainz coming home P4 ahead of Hamilton in P5.
The top three teams completed the top six, with pole-sitter Charles Leclerc and P2 starter George Russell finishing second. Joining them on the podium in third was Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Perez finishing sixth.
Sebastian Vettel was the first of four retirements, bowing out after 11 laps, bringing out the Virtual Safety Car. Fernando Alonso, who will replace the retiring Vettel at Aston Martin next year retired along with Lance Stroll, Vettel’s current teammate. Each returned to the pits on their own.
Lando Norris finished seventh having started third ahead of struggling teammate Daniel Ricciardo in fourth. The Australian ran in eighth behind Norris until an oil leak forced him to retire on lap 47, bringing out the safety car that the race was finished under. Last year’s race winner fell victim to the Monza Curse, as the last three Monza winners did not finish the following Italian GP. Pierre Gasly finished eighth, followed by replacement Nyck de Vries, who was drafted in on Saturday for Williams in the place of Alex Albon- the Thai-British driver who was hospitalized for appendicitis.
De Vries jumped teammate Nicholas Latifi in the driver’s championship, pushing the full-time Williams driver back to P21 in the championship. This left the Canadian without a contract for next year and the only full-time driver without any points in the current season.
Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu rounded out the points, finishing tenth after being promoted to Ricciardo’s position. Esteban Ocon and Mick Schumacher were the two non-scorers to manage to overtake the race leader Verstappen under the safety car. In the meantime, Valtteri Bottas, Tsunoda, Latifi and Kevin Magnussen were the remaining four finishers that crossed the line one lap down from Verstappen. The Dutch driver moves 116 points clear in the driver’s championship and can win his second straight title at the next race in Singapore. Leclerc remains second, just nine points ahead of Perez.
