In Pictures: Italy 2020
THE ITALIAN JOB
A stellar performance in Monza saw Pierre Gasly shine, nabbing his first Formula One win and a first on the Italian team’s home soil.
QUALIFYING
Lewis Hamilton broke the track record with a blistering 1:18.887, his teammate came in second, just 0.069 behind. Carlos Sainz was third on the grid, and for the first time since 1984 neither Ferrari were qualified in the top 10 with Leclerc qualifying 13th and Vettel 17th. Traffic hurt Vettel, but Leclerc showed the team's real pace.
With an average speed of 264.362 Kph, Hamilton’s qualifying lap is the fastest in F1 history.
RACE
By Sunday, everything seemed scripted, Lewis on pole got a good start and pulled a large lead within a few laps. Behind him, things were a bit different than expected as Bottas was passed by a few cars and ended up stuck in sixth for a large portion of the race. Then on lap 7 of 53, Vettel straight on at the first chicane due to brake issues, but he was able to get back to the pits and retire from the race. Then on lap 19, Kevin Magnussen's Haas stopped working and pulled up to the side of the road near the pitlane entry. The safety car was sent out and Mercedes made one of their very rare mistakes, as Hamilton came into the pits for tire change, but no one noticed that the pits were closed due to Magnussen's car being near the entrance. Giovinazzi did the same.
Hamilton came back out in second, behind Sainz's McLaren. Then, on lap 24, Charles Leclerc went off at the fastest corner in Monza, the mighty Parabolica and crashed heavily against the barriers, but thankfully he was okay. The race was then red flagged, everybody had to come back into the pits. In the meantime, it was announced that both Giovinazzi and Hamilton were handed a ten second stop and go penalty for having entered the pits when they were closed.
The race was re-started at 16:40 local time and it was Hamilton leading and pulling away, but at the end of that same lap he came into the pits to serve his penalty, coming out dead last. It was Gasly leading from Raikkonen, Giovinazzi, Sainz, and Stroll. Giovinazzi served his penalty and Raikkonen lost ground. After a few laps, it was Gasly followed by Sainz and Stroll.
The Frenchman’s defensive driving saw him retain his lead for 25 laps, fighting McLaren’s Carlos Sainz for the top spot. The battle continued right up until the last lap with Gasly edging out the Spaniard by 0.415s
Pierre Gasly’s victory is the first win for a Frenchman in 24 years, after Olivier Panis at Monaco in 1996, and the second for Scuderia AlphaTauri and the first since Sebastian Vettel’s 2008 win in Monaco, under the team’s former name Scuderia Toro Rosso.
The race was also significant as it was the last one as owners for the Williams family and the last one for Claire Williams as Deputy Team Principal. It was an emotional farewell to the family and a welcome to the new owners, Dorilton Capital.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM
““This is amazing! I’m lost for words! It’s unbelievable! Honestly, it’s unbelievable. I’m not realizing what’s happening right now, you know. It was such a crazy race. We capitalized on the red flag. The car was fast. We had a pretty fast car behind us. As you said, I’ve been through so much in the space of 18 months. My first podium last year, I was already like ‘wow, with AlphaTauri and now my first win in Formula 1, in Monza, I struggle to realize. It still feels weird to say I’m an F1 race winner. A big thanks to all of these guys here at the track and at the factory, in Faenza and Bicester, it’s a great day for them too. Thank you all.””
““It’s incredible. I’m halfway disappointed with P2 you know. I wouldn’t have believed that I would have got a chance to fight for victory today, we were very, very close. Honestly, with a normal race I think I would have got P2 behind Lewis because we had really, really good pace. So, I think it’s what we deserve. But with Pierre there in front is like, ‘wow, how could that happen?’ I guess a bit of bad luck with the safety car but then we did a good job to recover it and with the red flag also. Very happy with P2, we’ve been super-quick all weekend and I felt like I could dominate the midfield pretty easily today, so I’ve got to be happy with that.””
““It’s been a couple of years since I stood on a podium. It feels good to be back. It was such a crazy race. I’m so happy for Pierre. He really deserved it. He had a great start and he just stayed consistent all the way throughout the race. It’s a bit of a bummer as I think it was mine to lose, starting from second. But I just had no grip at the start and I had a ton of wheel spin and everybody flew by me. I had a good scrap with Carlos there in the first couple of laps. I overtook him around the outside and then he got me again into Turn 1. We were battling out there and I’m happy to pick up third. I think the win slipped away from us today but third is great.””
