Leclair's accident, Hamilton's penalty and Kvyat's finish in points: how the Italian Grand Prix ended in Formula 1

First day

Italy has become the main racing organizer in Formula 1 this season.

She had the honor to take three stages at once, and they will be held on three different tracks.

After a long time, pilots will have the opportunity to be at the legendary autodrome in Imola, which hosted the San Marino Grand Prix, and for the first time get acquainted with the Mugello - Ferrari's home track.

And they will start a kind of Italian tour at the well-known "Monza", which more often than any other track hosted the "royal races".

The Italian Grand Prix takes place in early autumn, and by this time the fight for the world title is usually in full swing.

This time, Monza is hosting only the eighth race of the season, but the favorite of the season has long since become obvious and non-negotiable.

Lewis Hamilton won five out of seven possible victories and by the time he arrived in Italy he was ahead of Max Verstappen by 47 points, and team-mate Valtteri Bottas by 50 points.

Somewhere far away in the overall standings was Charles Leclair, who broke Mercedes' five-year hegemony in Monza last year.

In the same year, the difference between the German stable and the Ferrari became colossal, which was clearly shown by the first Friday training session.

Bottas and Hamilton took the lead as usual, while Leclair lost 1.2 seconds to the Finn and finished 11th.

Sebastian Vettel performed even worse - he turned out to be 19th at all, although he had no visible problems.

The same Verstappen crashed into the protective barrier in the middle of the session, but returned to the track and showed the fifth result.

In the evening, the picture did not change much.

The Mercedes drivers were still out of reach for the rest of the drivers.

The best pursuer, Lando Norris, yielded more than half a second, which is a real abyss for such a short and fast track.

Leclair and Vettel in the second workout are located in the middle of the protocol.

After that, it was just right for the Italian fans to switch their attention to another local team AlphaTauri, especially since Daniil Kvyat showed the seventh time, and Pierre Gasly - the fourth.

Second day

The third session of the free races in Monza has become somewhat historic.

From then on, a ban on changing engine settings between qualifying and race came into effect, known as "party mode".

Previously, teams could perform certain manipulations with the motor, which helped to achieve an advantage in the fight for pole position.

Mercedes used this right more actively than others.

But now this practice has come to an end, and in the final training session, everyone had to return to those settings, which then had to act in the race.

The new rules slightly influenced the balance of power in the peloton.

While Bottas still had the best time, the other pilots were now able to catch up with him.

Between him and Hamilton were three riders at once, and in a second from the Finn there were 12 people.

The intrigue briefly returned to the "royal races" right before qualifying.

However, the track at Monza was not the best place for technical innovations.

Last year, an absurd situation arose in qualification, when the pilots let each other pass in order to take advantage of the slipstream and show faster seconds - the profile of the track is ideal for such tactics.

This year, the organizers introduced a limit on the maximum lap time, but in the first session this still did not save from the heavy traffic, which almost all the riders got into.

As a result, no one improved the results of the first attempt, and Vettel suffered the most from this - he was able to get only 17th place on the starting grid.

In the second session, the track became freer, and Hamilton was able to break the absolute record of Monza, and after a short pause, Bottas blocked his time.

The dominance of Mercedes has not disappeared anywhere, but the struggle for them has really intensified.

Carlos Sainz moved up to third place, Sergio Perez lost only seven thousandths of a second, and Verstappen showed the fifth intermediate result.

Daniil Kvyat was close to making his way to the final stage, but lost one tenth of a second to Alexander Albon and finished 11th.

At the same time, the Russian bypassed Leclair by two positions, which was a small reason for pride.

In the final, only two contested pole position.

Hamilton drove on the track as fast as no one else in Formula 1 history.

His average speed on the best lap exceeded 264 km / h, which was an absolute record.

Bottas was also incredibly fast, but still lost seven hundredths of a second.

For Mercedes there was a failure of almost seven-tenths of a second, and the best among all the others was again Sainz, pursued by Perez and Verstappen.

Race

Kvyat's 11th place in qualification allowed him to choose tires himself before the race, while the top ten had to start on the softest tires.

The Russian unexpectedly chose the strongest squad, and only Vettel followed his example.

In theory, this made it possible to apply tactics with one pit stop.

As soon as the traffic lights went out, the first surprise occurred.

Sainz immediately bypassed Bottas, followed by the Finn attacked by Perez, Norris and Daniel Riccardo in Renault.

The Mercedes driver who fell to sixth place complained of a puncture, but the team said that the tire pressure was normal.

The start was also unsuccessful for Kvyatu, who was immediately passed by Esteban Ocon, but the Russian returned to 11th position thanks to Gasli's contact with Albon, because of which the Red Bull driver was on the sidelines.

Ferrari's latest disaster was not a surprise.

At Vettel already on the seventh lap, the brakes failed, and after colliding with polystyrene barriers, he drove into the pits.

Leclair's situation was not much better.

He got stuck behind Kimi Raikkonen in 13th position.

Kvyat was also in traffic, who wanted Gasly to let him pass, but he fought with Okon himself and could not sacrifice himself for his partner.

LAP 6/53

Vettel can't get the car stopped at Turn 1, and dramatically smashes through the polystyrene barrier

VET 📻: "Brakes failed. The brakes failed." # ItalianGP 🇮🇹 # F1pic.twitter.com / Vf8zO36lTC

- Formula 1 (@ F1) September 6, 2020

On lap 20, Kevin Magnussen stopped his car on the sidelines.

The seemingly ordinary retirement had a huge impact on the race in the end.

The Dane parked his car so badly that he had to release the safety car.

The organizers at the same time temporarily closed the pit lane, but Lewis Hamilton did not notice.

He wanted to take a moment to change tires, and thus broke the rules, receiving a penalty in the form of a ten-second stop in the pit lane.

⚠️ SAFETY CAR (LAP 20/53) ⚠️

Magnussen has pulled over ahead of the pit lane entry, and the Safety Car is deployed # ItalianGP 🇮🇹 # F1pic.twitter.com / WvUM49x5Vl

- Formula 1 (@ F1) September 6, 2020

When the pits opened, almost all of the pilots changed their tires.

In the peloton, everything was mixed up so much that even Leclair ended up in fourth place after the restart.

But hope for the podium at Ferrari did not last long.

Monegasque soon crashed hard into a tire barrier at the famous Parabolica corner.

The pilot himself escaped injury, but his car was badly damaged.

The bump stop was also destroyed, so the organizers had to hang out red flags and stop the race for half an hour.

SAFETY CAR (LAP 24/53)

The Safety Car comes back out as Leclerc has a frightening crash at Parabolica

Charles is out of the car and okay # ItalianGP 🇮🇹 # F1pic.twitter.com / BLUjaIGKwq

- Formula 1 (@ F1) September 6, 2020

By the time of the restart, Hamilton, who had not yet served the penalty, was in the lead, followed by Stroll, Gasli, Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, who also did not notice the red traffic light at the pit lane.

The Canadian Racing Point pilot was the only one who did not change tires before Leclair's accident, and during the forced pause he was able to calmly take the freshest tires.

To win a sensational victory, Stroll needed to hold off opponents for the remaining 26 laps and hope that Hamilton did not have time to win back the wasted time.

But the Canadian had a terrible start for the second time, and in fact, Gasley moved up to first place, while his team-mate Kvyat rounded out the top ten.

Raikkonen and Sainz were in the podium area.

Hamilton decided to serve the penalty as soon as possible and immediately dropped to 17th place, 28 seconds behind the pilot AlphaTauri.

Gasli managed to break away for a few seconds from Raikkonen, who briefly resisted Sainz and Stroll.

In theory, Bottas, who was in fifth place, could catch up with them.

However, his pace remained far from ideal, and at the same time Norris kept between him and the first trio, who was ready to hold back the Mercedes pilot for the sake of his partner's success.

TOP FOUR: PODIUMS SCORED

1⃣ Gasly

1⃣ Sainz

1⃣ Stroll

1⃣ Norris # ItalianGP 🇮🇹 # F1pic.twitter.com / TZGDrt4myU

- Formula 1 (@ F1) September 6, 2020

Hamilton could only hope to get into the points zone, and ideally he should have finished seventh in order to be guaranteed to remain the leader of the world championship until the Eifel Grand Prix in Germany.

The Briton nevertheless achieved this goal, putting Kvyat in the ninth final position.

For the Russian, this result was the best this season.

In the last few laps, the struggle for the first place intensified.

Sainz caught up with Gasley a little with each lap and at the last moment was at a distance for an attack.

But the Frenchman was able to endure until the finish line and win his debut career victory and the second in history for AlphaTauri on her home soil.

Sainz and Stroll complemented the podium, which was empty of any Mercedes or Red Bull.