In Pictures: Italy 2022
It was a weekend of celebrations and of mourning. Ferrari celebrated their 75th anniversary, Monza their 100 years, and the World mourned the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passed away peacefully at her beloved Balmoral Castle in Scotland. She ruled the Commonwealth for 70 years. An extraordinary woman with and remarkable life. Farewell Queen Elizabeth.
FRIDAY
Monza was chosen (some forced) for power unit changes, Hamilton was confirmed to start the Grand Prix at the back of the grid while Bottas was plus 15, or possibly back also. Sainz and Perez were also set for PU penalties, while Schumacher had a gearbox penalty, Verstappen 5 places for an engine change, and Tsunoda 10 places for accumulated reprimands. In any case, the final starting order would probably be decided after qualifying.
In other news, Porsche AG and Red Bull GmbH have jointly concluded that the partnership talks will no longer be continued. Porsche apparently wanted more power within the F1 team than what Red Bull was willing to let go.
A minute of silence was observed before the start of FP1 as a humble tribute from the F1 Family in memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
There were a few changes regarding drivers for FP1, Antonio Giovinazzi in Mick Schumacher’s Haas and Nyck de Vries in Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin.
After ten minutes, only De Vries had not set a timed lap, while Verstappen had the fastest lap, although Leclerc had the highest speed, with his Ferrari clocking 341 kph (211 mph) down the straight. In the end, it was Charles Leclerc the fastest, followed by his teammate Carlos Sainz, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen the top five.
Free Practice Two started similarly as FP1 ended, with Leclerc topping the charts early on, but a few minutes later, Verstappen outdid the Ferrari by just 0.004 of a second. So, after ten minutes, it was Verstappen the fastest from Leclerc, Sainz, Perez, and Hamilton.
At half-session, Mick Schumacher stopped on track, bringing out the first red flag of the day. It took about five minutes to retrieve the stranded Haas, and the session resumed with most teams doing long runs. In the end, it was Carlos Sainz who set the fastest lap, ahead of Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris, and Russell.
The list of penalties was growing by the minute.
SATURDAY
Monza lies about 10 miles east of Milan in the north of Italy, and it was a bit on the hot side with 78°F air temperature and 42% humidity.
Early morning news reported that Alex Albon was being treated for appendicitis, so Nyck de Vries replaced him for the rest of the weekend.
““Appendicitis, surgery and no racing isn’t what I was expecting this weekend!” ”
The change brought some work to the Williams’ mechanics as there is a 20 cm difference in height between Albon and De Vries and about 30 lbs. lighter.
Final practice started slowly and was complicated for some as a clutch issue was reported on Mick Schumacher’s VF22, while Alpine confirmed a five-place grid penalty for Esteban Ocon, for a new ICE.
The session got along as expected, and in the end, it was Max Verstappen doing the fastest lap, a 1:21.252, ahead of Leclerc, Perez, Sainz, and Alonso.
After FP3, the penalty list was:
Verstappen (5 places)
Ocon (5 places)
Perez (10 places)
Bottas (15 places)
Magnussen (15 places)
Schumacher (15 places)
Sainz (Back of grid)
Hamilton (Back of grid)
Tsunoda (Back of grid)
QUALIFYING
At 81°F, it was a bit hotter than the practice a couple of hours before.
Q1
First round of laps and the Ferraris came out, doing some great laps with Leclerc ahead of Sainz, then came Verstappen and set the bar even higher with a 1:20.922 lap, 0.358 seconds faster than Leclerc. In the end, Latifi, Vettel, Stroll, Magnussen, and Schumacher did not go through to Q2. Although many of them would be promoted in the starting grid order after all penalties are applied.
Q2
Ferrari won the first round of laps with Sainz ahead of Leclerc, Verstappen, Perez, and Hamilton. Now the battle for the bottom five was heating up as there was less than half a second between them.
just under two minutes and everyone decided to come out at the same time, a bit ridiculous we think. Nevertheless, we had ten cars out, with both Ferrari and both Red Bull staying in, as did Yuki Tsunoda. The losers were: Ocon, Bottas, De Vries, Zhou, and Tsunoda.
Q3
The hour of truth started with both Ferrari doing the fastest times with Sainz ahead of Leclerc. Then was Verstappen, Perez, and Russell. All of them came into the pits to prepare for their final dash. And what a final that was! What a great performance by Charles Leclerc, Pole Position at Ferrari’s home Grand Prix. The order was: Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz, Perez, Hamilton, Russell, Norris, Ricciardo, Gasly, and Alonso the top ten.
Everything was set for a cracker of a race with so many penalties all over the grid.
““I’m very happy. Monza is always a special one and to secure pole position here in front of our tifosi, is an incredible feeling. Even more so after we struggled in Spa, another high-speed track with similar demands. We worked hard to make improvements and it looks like we have become more competitive again. I felt confident in the car from the first practice session on and our race pace was strong, so hopefully we can convert this pole into a victory tomorrow. I will give it everything.” ”
SUNDAY
What a beautiful late summer day for Grand Prix racing, albeit on the hot side.
The grid took more than four hours to be decided by the FIA, here’s the final starting order after all penalties had been applied:
Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Ricciardo, Gasly, Alonso, Verstappen, De Vries, Zhou, Latifi, Vettel, Stroll, Perez, Ocon, Bottas, Magnussen, Schumacher, Sainz, Hamilton, and Tsunoda.
As done before FP1, Formula One paused for a minute’s silence to remember the life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Afterward, Andrea Bocelli sang a very emotional Italian National anthem.
The Italian Grand Prix started with Leclerc defending from Russell going into the first corner and making a little gap to those behinds. Verstappen came charging fast, overtaking four cars by lap two. Lots of action on the other end as well also, as Perez, Sainz, and Hamilton tried to recover places after starting so far back. And recover places Sainz did, overtaking car after car. By lap 11, the Spaniard was fifth.
On lap 12/53, Vettel stopped his Aston Martin in the middle sector, and a VSC was declared. Leclerc pitted for yellow tires, losing the lead to Verstappen and Russell. Sainz was now behind Leclerc.
On lap 41, Stroll was asked to come into the pits to retire his AMR22, so it was a double DNF for Aston Martin.
On lap 47, Ricciardo stopped his McLaren between both Lesmos. The safety car was deployed. Most drivers pitted. The order was Verstappen from Leclerc, Russell and Sainz.
They took forever to recover the McLaren and clear the track, so the Italian Grand Prix ended up under Safety Car conditions. It was won by Max Verstappen, with Charles Leclerc in second, and George Russell in third. 11th win for Verstappen of the season, his fifth consecutive, and first win at Monza.
Nick de Vries finished 9th, picking up two very valuable points for Williams. He was voted Driver of the Day by the F1.com fans.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM
““We had a great race. We had really good race car and we were controlling the gap and then the Safety Car came out. Unfortunately we didn’t get a restart.”
”
““The end was frustrating. I wish we could have ended up racing. It’s a shame. I gave it all. I wish I could have won in front of the amazing tifosi””
““Unfortunately, this weekend we were not where we wanted to be as a team – but like I said on the radio, it doesn’t matter if we are fast or slow, we keep getting these podium finishes. Over this triple header, two of the three weekends have been very difficult, and I’ve still come away with two podiums and a P4, so we’ve got to be satisfied with that. Looking at today’s race, we had to do something different if we wanted to fight with Max and Charles, so we went for the Hard tyre at the stop, but they were just too quick. That’s all we could do in our position. Now we have some weeks to recharge, regroup as a team and prepare for the final part of this season, so we can take every opportunity that comes our way.””
