The Shoey is back!

Formula 1 arrived at one of its most iconic venues, Monza, and everything was set for an interesting weekend, with Qualifying on Friday and an 18-lap Sprint race on Saturday to define the starting grid of the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.

Friday practice went rather quickly with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton setting the fastest lap, almost half a second faster than Max Verstappen behind him. 

Qualifying had the same situation as in other tracks with drivers going extremely slow in preparation of their own flying laps. This caused more than one awkward (and dangerous) moments. At the end it was Valtteri Bottas who qualified first, but Mercedes decided to change most elements on his W12 power unit, getting penalties, sending him to the end of the grid for the Grand Prix on Sunday.

Practice two saw just about the same as the day before. Then Carlos Sainz crashed his Ferrari going into the right-hand section of the Ascari chicane (Turn 9), bringing out a red flag that lasted for 10 minutes while the car was cleared, and the track cleaned. When practiced was resumed, it was Lewis Hamilton setting the fastest lap, 0.222 ahead of teammate Bottas and 0.416 of Max Verstappen.

The second F1 Sprint of the season came. As expected, Bottas went on to win the 18-lap race. But behind him so many surprises… Verstappen qualified second, ahead of the McLarens of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris, then came Lewis Hamilton, the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and the Alfa Romeo of Italian Antonio Giovinazzi in 8th place!

It was a glorious day at Monza for the Grand Prix. Max Verstappen started on Pole as Bottas had to serve his penalties, same as Carlos Sainz, this promoted Giovinazzi to 7th on the grid. The race started with an incredible Daniel Ricciardo taking the lead before the first corner and dictating the race from that point on. 

On lap 22, leader Ricciardo pitted for hards, a lap later Verstappen did the same, but was held for 11.1 seconds by a slow right-front wheel, losing valuable time and places in the race.

Then, on lap 27, Hamilton, having made his pitstop came out of the pits just in front of Verstappen as they went into the turn 1 chicane. Hamilton kept the inside line for the right-hander and then as they turned left, closed the door and the pair collided, with Verstappen's car bouncing over the top of the Mercedes and coming to a rest on top of it in the gravel trap. Both out of the race. That incident prompted a safety car period. When the race resumed, Ricciardo held the lead from McLaren teammate Lando Norris. 

Behind them, a very fast Valtteri Bottas was now fourth, just behind Sergio Perez, who had passed Leclerc by running over the second chicane run-off to claim third place, and not giving the place back, which earned him a 5s race penalty. 

So, by the end of the race, and even though Perez crossed the line first, it was Bottas who finished third, behind the McLaren duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris. This was the first 1-2 of the 2021 season and first for McLaren since 2010! Ricciardo did the fastest lap of the race on his last lap, taking an additional point to his tally. 

Max Verstappen was later found guilty of the crash with Hamilton and handed a 3-place grid penalty for Russia plus two penalty points in his license.