Charles Leclerc utilized a one-stop strategy to his advantage in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix to give Ferrari a victory on home soil.
Despite McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris charging ahead at the beginning of the race, Ferrari elected for an alternate strategy, which allowed Leclerc to inherit the lead and manage the gap en route to his second win of the season. Leclerc won the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix in May.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” said Leclerc. “Actually I thought that the first time would just feel like this, and then the second time (if there was a second time) wouldn’t feel as special, but my god the emotions in the last few laps, exactly the same like in 2019.
“Just watching the grandstands inside of the track which is tricky but incredible. I mean Monaco and Monza are the two races I want to win every year. Obviously I want to win as many races as possible, and the world championship as soon as possible, but these are the two most important races of the season and I managed to win them this year. It’s so, so special.”
After leading early, Piastri and Norris settled for the final two positions on the podium after disposing of Leclerc’s teammate, Carlos Sainz, in the closing laps.
Sainz placed fourth as he also completed a one-stop strategy. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished fifth.
“We didn’t have the pace today to fight for more,” Hamilton said. “The McLarens and the Ferrari in particularly were strong. I managed to keep up with Sainz but couldn’t do the longer stint and the one-stop that he was able to.
“If we had started ahead of him, we might have been able to hold him off. Ultimately though, we needed a better balance with the car today to achieve much more.”
Championship leader Max Verstappen moved one position ahead from his starting spot to place sixth, while George Russell rallied to seventh after going off-course on the first lap.
With Norris finishing ahead of Verstappen, the points gap has shrunk as Norris trails the defending champion by 62 points.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez placed eighth ahead of Alex Albon in ninth for Williams. Haas F-1’s Kevin Magnussen scored the final points in 10th.
Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso was 11th ahead of Franco Colapinto, who was making his first F-1 start for Williams in 12th.
After starting 10th on the grid, Nico Hulkenberg dropped to 17th by race’s end for Haas.