Flashbacks from Monza 2008 sees Pierre Gasly win the 2020 F1 Italian Grand Prix

A dramatic race saw Lewis Hamilton handed a stop/go penalty and Pierre Gasly claim a first F1 win. Carlos Sainz earned a career-high second and Lance Stroll in third.

Starting Grid

A dominant display in qualifying from the Mercedes saw Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas lock out the front row. Carlos Sainz dethroned the Red Bull dominance of P3 as he qualified on the second row alongside Sergio Perez in fourth. Max Verstappen was only able to qualify fifth for Red Bull alongside Lando Norris in sixth. Daniel Ricciardo qualified in seventh, Lance Stroll in eighth, Alex Albon in ninth and Pierre Gasly rounded off the top ten.

Daniil Kvyat qualified P11 behind his AlphaTauri teammate with Esteban Ocon alongside the Russian in P12. A shocker from Ferrari saw the best Scarlet Red car of Charles Leclerc only qualify in P13, with Kimi Raikonnen in P14 and Kevin Magnussen in P15. Romain Grosjean qualified P16, Sebastian Vettel a poor P17, Antonio Giovinazzi in P18 and the Williams pair of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi qualified P19 and P20 respectively.

And It’s Lights Out And Away We Go

The race got underway at the Temple of Speed. Sainz had a flier as the McLaren driver overtook Bottas. Norris made it a McLaren P2 and P3 after he also overtook the Mercedes driver.

Bottas had an awful start as he dropped even further down the order. Perez and Ricciardo also managed to overtake the Fin.

Albon and Gasly tangled into the first chicane as the Red Bull driver dropped into 15th whereas Gasly managed to stay in tenth.

After five laps racing, Hamilton took off and extended his lead to second-place Sainz to two and a half seconds with Norris two seconds behind his McLaren teammate.

Vettel’s season turned even worse as the German retired from the Italian Grand Prix for the first time in his career, after problems with his brakes.

Albon was given a five-second time penalty as he failed to leave a car’s width between himself and Grosejan at Turn One. Albon ran in 14th with Grosejan in 16th.

The Championship leader pulled away even more ahead of Sainz as Hamilton put in the fastest lap of the race and extended his lead at the front to seven seconds.

Hamilton was really in the groove as he set another fastest lap of the race, extending his lead to 12 seconds.

Latifi, Magnussen and Leclerc were the first drivers to make the mandatory pit stop. The Ferrari was struggling a lot as he went backwards.

Magnussen then retired from the race as the Haas driver reported something broke on his car. That incident deployed the Safety Car as Hamilton pitted and most drivers stayed out.

The Safety Car came into the pits as the lights went green and we were at the halfway point as Hamilton led the pack away as Stroll, Gasly, Leclerc, Raikonnen, Giovinazzi, Sainz, Norris, Bottas and Latifi rounded off the top ten.

A huge shunt at the Parabolica from Leclerc as the Ferrari went off at the corner as it turned Scuderia’s weekend even worse. The incident released the Safety Car again.

Hamilton and Giovinazzi’s pit stops went under investigation as the two drivers pitted in when the pit was closed. The pair were handed a ten-second stop/go penalty as the race was red-flagged after the tyre barrier needed to be repaired after Leclerc’s impact.

Formation Lap Part Two started as the Safety Car pitted in and the driver’s lined up on the grid again as the red-flag caused a complete reset.

Hamilton led the pack away from the line as Gasly, Raikkonen and Giovinazzi moved past Stroll. Hamilton then pitted to serve his stop/go penalty which meant Gasly led the pack for the first time, giving flashbacks of Monza 2008.

Verstappen after six consecutive podiums, retired the car, his second DNF of the season after retiring at Austria.

Hamilton looked to pick up the pace after his stop/go penalty as the Brit put in two consecutive fastest laps of the race going into the 1:22’s.

Sainz moved up into second place going into Turn One, with the Spaniard looking to chase race leader Gasly. The AlphaTauri driver four seconds ahead of Sainz.

Stroll passed Raikonnen in dramatic fashion, putting the Racing Point driver onto the podium.

Raikkonen became a sitting duck as Sainz, Stroll, Norris, Bottas and Ricciardo moved past the Finn in his damaged Alfa Romeo.

Hamilton moved up and past Albon as the Red Bull driver became the first driver that was dispatched by the chasing Championship leader.

With ten laps to go, Gasly led away from Sainz with the Canadian, Stroll behind the Spaniard in third. Norris was in fourth, Bottas in fifth, Ricciardo in sixth, Ocon in seventh, Kvyat in eighth, Raikkonen, in ninth and Perez rounded off the top ten.

Hamilton from last moved back into the points as he passed the Iceman, Raikkonen. Getting one point in the bag at least for the Mercedes driver.

The Racing Point of Perez was cleared by Hamilton as the Mercedes team predicted a sixth place finish for the Brit.

Kvyat became the next driver dispatched by Hamilton as the Merc got passed the AlphatTauri and into eighth place.

But all eyes were on the front two. Sainz looked to gain on Gasly in the final lap, but the Frenchman fended off the hunt from the McLaren driver and claimed his first F1 win, sending the AlphaTauri team into wild celebrations.

Final Grid Standings

P1- Pierre Gasly

P2- Carlos Sainz

P3- Lance Stroll

P4- Lando Norris

P5- Valtteri Bottas

P6- Daniel Ricciardo

P7- Lewis Hamilton

P8- Esteban Ocon

P9- Daniil Kvyat

P10- Sergio Perez

P11- Nicholas Latifi

P12- Romain Grosjean

P13- Kimi Raikkonen

P14- George Russell

P15- Alex Albon

P16- Antonio Giovinazzi

Sebastian Vettel, Kevin Magnussen, Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen retired from the Italian Grand Prix as all cars had some sort of problem which caused the retirements.

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