By the time Charles Leclerc ascended to the podium to celebrate his victory for Ferrari, he was barely visible. A thick swathe of red smoke hung in the air, rising from the sea of scarlet-clad fans that thronged the start-finish straight beneath in their thousands, their celebration deafening. The tifosi have not had an opportunity to celebrate a win at their home race for some time and they deserved to revel in this one.
If the streaming smoke from the flares lent the scene something of an air of Apocalypse Now, for McLaren, whose drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were beaten into second and third by Leclerc, their dejected faces said it all: the horror, the horror …
