Formula 1 ®
The Monegasque breaks up the monotony with a Ferrari victory in front of the Tifosi! Bravo Bravo Bravo! The McLaren boys finish second and third, Magnussen gets penalized with a race ban for Baku.
Leclerc was called to pit on lap 15, in an attempt to run Monza with one pit stop, worried about going with an alternative strategy the Ferrari driver asked why the team was doing this to him. The strategy decision propelled Ferrari to its first win since Monaco in front of a roaring Italian crowd.
Leclerc won for the first time at Monza in 2019, this was Ferrari’s only home win in 13 years and the crowd erupted. Leclerc assumed if he ever won again the atmosphere would not hit the same level of fever pit, but the Tifosi fans proved him wrong.
Charles
“It was an incredible feeling,” Leclerc told Sky Sports Nico Rosberg. “I thought the first time would feel like this and then the second, if there was a second time wouldn’t feel as special, but my god the emotions in the last few laps was just like 2019.”
With winning both Monaco and Monza, Leclerc locks down his hometowns sharing with his team the glory he finally found on the Monaco streets.
“Monaco and Monza are the two races that I want to win every year,” Leclerc said. “Obviously I want to win as many races as possible and the World Championship as soon as possible but these are the two most important races of the season and I managed to win them this year. It’s so, so special.”
Charles Leclerc started fourth and moved to third when George Russell went off track in the second term after being defended by Oscar Piastri.
Oscar
“Yeah it hurts, I’m not going to lie it hurts a lot. I did a lot of things right today. There were a lot of question marks on the strategy going into the race. From the positions we were in, with the tires looking like they did doing a one-stop felt like a risky call and in the end it was right.
Piastri started on the front row next to his McLaren teammate Lando Norris on the pole, for the third time in 2024 Norris would not lead the first lap after securing the pole. Piastri, who was faster on the start couldn’t get the pass in the first two turns and moved to block a charging Russell. By turn four, Piastri was focused on his teammate overtaking him and allowing a hole for Leclerc to follow.
Piastri would finish second after controlling the race on the primary strategy of pitting twice, but at the end of the day could not make up the 11 second lead that Leclerc still had in the final seven laps, crossing the line just under 3 seconds behind. Norris followed in third, grabbing the fastest lap on the final lap and a crucial extra point in the driver’s championship.
Lando
“Of course because he got past,” Norris told Rosberg when asked if he was surprised by the overtake. “I don’t know what I should’ve done differently there. If I brake one meter later I probably would’ve crashed. Ferrari just drove a better race today, especially Charles.”
Piastri was asked over the radio at one point, if he thought he could make it on one stop, and the Australian driver took the conservative route, knowing that most team’s were opting for two-stops and valuing tires over position.
Fernando
RACE P11
“It was a difficult race today. We maximised the pace the best we could. I was able to push the car to its limits so I’m happy in that regard, but we did struggle with the relative pace of the car on track. We were in the points at the start of the race and were able to undercut [Alex] Albon thinking all teams would execute a two-stop race. It wasn’t enough at the end to recover from that extra pit stop. We were only 0.2 seconds behind [Kevin] Magnussen and a second behind Albon so it is disappointing not to score any points today. We will keep pushing.”
