The podium of the McLaren pilots, the accident of Verstappen and Hamilton and the retirement of Mazepin: what was remembered for the Italian Grand Prix in Formula 1

Qualification

The experiment with the sprint race, which had already taken place once at the British Grand Prix this season, it was decided to repeat in Monza, where the next, 14th stage of the World Championship took place. On the legendary Italian track, the pilots again had to first compete in the qualification, then confirm its results in the Saturday mini-race, and on its basis determine the places on the starting grid of the main event of the weekend.

After the race in the Netherlands, Max Verstappen from Red Bull again became the leader of the world championship, but it was not at all easy for him to remain first after the Italian Grand Prix. In Monza, the Dutchman has never even appeared on the podium and has not started at least from the second row. And his main pursuer, Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, is doing just fine on the main Italian track. Here he won five times and won pole position on seven occasions. The Briton confirmed that the circuit is great for him in his only training session before qualifying. Hamilton won almost half a second against Verstappen and naturally headed the protocol.

Hamilton continued to show the best seconds in qualifying.

In the second attempt, Verstappen was left without improvement, and Hamilton broke away from him at a comfortable distance, but the first in the end was his own team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

The pilot, who signed a contract with Alfa Romeo for next season, won the qualification after replacing the engine, because of which he would still have to start on Sunday last.

But this punishment did not apply to the sprint, and on Saturday the Finn could start first and compete for the extra points that the top three are entitled to.

The Speed ​​King of Monza 👑

Watch @ ValtteriBottas's quickest lap in qualifying!

🚀 # ItalianGP 🇮🇹 @ pirellisportpic.twitter.com / oLtUQj2u9Q

- Formula 1 (@ F1) September 10, 2021

Sprint

From Mercedes, one could expect that Bottas would receive a team to skip ahead of Hamilton, so that he could secure pole position without unnecessary risk and increase his chances of winning the race.

However, if there were such agreements, the Finn did not comply with them.

After the start of the sprint race, he remained at the head of the peloton.

At Hamilton, the start of the race turned out to be a failure.

He immediately missed four pursuers, and he was lucky that soon there was a curious accident with Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri, who ran into his own wing.

The leader of Mercedes fell back to fifth place, losing not only to his partner and Verstappen, but also to McLaren drivers Daniel Riccardo and Lando Norris.

Restart after Gasly's accident did not affect the placement of the entire top ten.

For the remaining 14 laps, Hamilton never got close to Norris.

As a result, instead of taking Bottas' place on the starting grid, the Briton was in the second row and was two points behind Verstappen before the decisive race.

And for Nikita Mazepin, the sprint went very well.

He earned 16th place on the grid - the highest ever in Formula 1.

A little bit of wheelspin off the start left Lewis Hamilton playing catch up by the time he reached Turn 1 at the start of Saturday's # F1Sprint # ItalianGP 🇮🇹 # F1

- Formula 1 (@ F1) September 11, 2021

Race

During the start of Sunday's race, the audience finally waited for overtaking and real showdowns between the pilots, which were lacking in the last Grand Prix.

Riccardo immediately passed Verstappen, and Hamilton left behind Norris.

The Mercedes driver tried to build on the success and immediately bypass the Dutchman, but was rebuffed.

There was a contact between the leaders of the World Cup, as a result of which Hamilton was punished for his zeal and returned to fourth place.

Bottas naturally became the most active pilot at the beginning of the race.

The winner of the qualification and the sprint rushed to win back the positions and by the 13th lap was in the points zone.

Verstappen and Hamilton were not doing so well.

They got stuck behind McLaren cars and could not carry out a successful attack in any way.

Two pairs of cars drove one after the other in about five seconds.

Before opening a series of pit stops and trying to add some kind of variety to the race at the expense of tactics, Verstappen made a mistake when cornering and blocked the wheel, which made a noticeable gap between him and Riccardo. The Dutchman's troubles did not end there - at the pit stop, Red Bull mechanics fiddled with a wheel change and released him only 11 seconds after appearing in the pits. There was no longer any talk of a fight with the Australian. There were three cars between them at once.

Hamilton tried to take advantage of the failures of a competitor and managed to bypass Norris before his pit stop.

The Briton also had a slight hitch when changing tires, which was not so dramatic, but in the end had a huge impact on the entire race.

Hamilton was on the track right in front of Verstappen, who decided to attack immediately, but his attempt to get ahead ended in a collision.

The Dutchman's car hit the curb and literally bumped into the Mercedes.

Both cars flew into the gravel, from where they could only be evacuated to the pits.

Another hugely dramatic moment in the Verstappen / Hamilton title battle 💥😮 # ItalianGP 🇮🇹 # F1pic.twitter.com / P4J4bN6wX2

- Formula 1 (@ F1) September 12, 2021

As a result, the McLaren pilots were left without competitors who could prevent them from making a winning double.

During the restart, Charles Leclair from Ferrari was between them, but Norris quickly passed him and began to catch up with Riccardo.

Meanwhile, the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers who remained on the track were trying to save the honor of their teams.

Perez climbed to third place, and Bottas became his closest pursuer.

The Mexican defended himself well and once even managed to counterattack when the Finn still passed him.

But all this struggle had no meaning and only played into the hands of the McLaren pilots racing ahead.

Perez, long before the finish line, received a five-second penalty for violating the boundaries of the track.

He finished third, but Bottas took the podium in his place, starting from 19th place.

Riccardo won the dispute between the two McLaren.

He won his eighth career Grand Prix and his first since retiring from Red Bull.

For Norris, second place was the best result in his career after a string of third positions.

McLaren has achieved its first double win since 2010, with the British team not winning a race in the last nine years.

Momentous #ItalianGP 🇮🇹 @ McLarenF1pic.twitter.com / lwfwd3SDeE

- Formula 1 (@ F1) September 12, 2021

For Nikita Mazepin, the Italian Grand Prix was going quite well. After the accident of Hamilton and Verstappen, he was 15th, just inferior to his best result in his career. But the Russian climbed so high due to the fact that he turned his partner Mick Schumacher. The German soon regained his position, and Mazepin was punished with a five-second fine. But the Russian did not become 16th in the end either - 11 laps before the finish line, the power plant malfunctioned, and the Haas pilot went down for the fourth time this season.