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 …
The chance of a one-two had slipped through their fingers and worse still Norris’s hopes of making a sizeable dent in Max Verstappen’s championship lead fell by the wayside, too. If he manages to take the title to the wire, McLaren’s decisions in Monza will be under intense scrutiny.
As the strains of Il Canto degli Italiani died away on the podium, Leclerc celebrated with wild abandon a win he and Ferrari had pulled from nowhere. Unexpected but brilliantly executed, it was one of the 26‑year‑old man from Monaco’s best drives. His pleasure was in direct contrast to the two drivers he vanquished, as the Scuderia pulled the rug from beneath McLaren’s feet.
This was a race of parallel but differing paths. There was Ferrari’s bold gamble to make a one-stop strategy work with Leclerc’s almost preternatural skill in deftly caressing his tyres over 38 laps to the flag while all around him the opposition felt it could not be done and chose to stop twice.
In contrast McLaren were left dejected and in no little disbelief that their one-two on the grid had turned into defeat. The import of their failure weighed far more heavily than elation of Ferrari’s success and, indeed, raised more questions. With the world champion, Verstappen, struggling all weekend and starting from seventh on the grid to Norris’s pole, the British driver, who trailed him by 70 points in the world championship, had a chance to potentially pull off an almost 20-point swing.
Instead, with third to Verstappen’s sixth he clawed back only eight points, the deficit now 62. McLaren even chose not to switch their drivers’ places at the death to maximise Norris’s points as the only realistic challenger to Verstappen – a decision that raises questions as to how they are managing his tilt at the title, even as they closed to within eight points of Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.
They had not helped their cause from the off. The team allow their drivers to race and when Piastri passed Norris with a bravura move at Variante della Roggia on lap one it allowed Leclerc through into second as well, splitting the two McLarens and preventing them from dictating the race to their advantage. Norris admitted he could not have braked any later and his teammate had pulled off a great pass.
The team have insisted repeatedly this season they will not impose team orders and did not, beyond the usual stipulation for the teammates not to hit one another, the “papaya rules” as they are known. Yet, while they focused on what they anticipated was to become an internecine fight to the finish, Ferrari had decided to roll the dice.
McLaren had committed to stopping twice, suffering with graining on the front tyres but when they looked up from the data, it was to see Ferrari had left Leclerc out in the lead with no intent of stopping again and the Monégasque in no mood to relinquish first place.
A dash to the finish ensued, each lap roared louder, echoing around the temple of speed as the crowd sensed their man was to deliver his and the Scuderia’s first home victory since 2019.
Piastri was 18 seconds down and Norris 21 back with 13 laps remaining and as they ticked down the gap proved too much. Piastri closed to seven seconds with three laps to go but Leclerc was easing his tyres to the finish with the deftest of touches and took the flag 2.6 seconds up.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Leclerc said “I thought the first time felt like this, and the second time wouldn’t feel as special, but the emotions in the last few laps were exactly the same as in 2019, just incredible.”
With hindsight the McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, admitted the team could have gone for one stop if they had managed their race to that plan but by then it was all too late. As the smoke finally cleared over Monza, Stella confirmed that the team would do some air-clearing of their own, a reconsideration of their rules and racing philosophy now they had, bafflingly late, acknowledged they are serious contenders in two title fights.
Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, meanwhile, will miss the next race in Baku having been given a two-point penalty for causing a collision with Pierre Gasly, taking him to the maximum of 12 in a 12-month period, incurring the suspension.
Carlos Sainz was fourth for Ferrari with Lewis Hamilton in fifth for Mercedes. George Russell was seventh for Mercedes, Sergio Pérez eighth for Red Bull, Alex Albon ninth for Williams and Magnussen 10th for Haas.
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