Charles Leclerc delights home F1 fans with Italian GP victory

MONZA, Italy — Charles Leclerc secured Ferrari a rare win at the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, much to the home fans’ delight, as the team’s bold one-stop strategy paid off on Sunday.

Ferrari, which had brought nine upgrades to its home race, was one of the teams to choose to only pit once.

And that proved the right decision for Leclerc, who despite heavily degrading tires, managed to hold off Oscar Piastri and his McLaren teammate Lando Norris.

As it became obvious what was on the cards, the passionate, red-clad tifosi got on their feet, stamping and roaring Leclerc’s every lap, and they went wild when he crossed the line 2.664 seconds ahead of Piastri.

Polesitter Norris finished 6.153 behind Leclerc to trim the gap to 62 points to championship leader Max Verstappen, who was sixth in his Red Bull.

Leclerc had also won in 2019, making this Ferrari’s second win on its home track in the past 14 races.

Before Sunday’s triumph, the Italian Scuderia had managed only a second for Leclerc in 2022 and a third by Sainz last year since that 2019 victory.

It was Leclerc’s second win of the season. His first was equally as special as it came at his home track in Monaco.

Leclerc started fourth at Monza, with the McLaren duo locking out the front of the grid.

With Norris chasing the title, there were questions over whether team orders would come into play.

That was swiftly answered. Both McLarens got a good start – unusually for them – but Piastri managed to get a slipstream and overtake his teammate into the second chicane, with Norris slipping into third as Leclerc also managed to get past.

Norris managed to undercut Leclerc as he pitted first and, as the others stopped, he set off in pursuit of his teammate.

After the first set of pit stops Piastri was leading Norris and the duo were told on team radio that they were free to race.

But the expected battle between the two for the victory never emerged because of Ferrari’s audacious move.

As more and more drivers came in for their second set of pit stops, and the laps continued to tick down, it became clear that the Ferrari pair were going to try to nurse their hard tires all the way to the end.

And so it proved, with Leclerc managing to hold off Piastri despite being on tires that were nearly 40 laps old.

Birthday boy Carlos Sainz Jr. was fourth, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton who will replace him at Ferrari next year.

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate George Russell finished seventh after a dreadful start. He was sandwiched between the Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Sergio Perez with Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen rounding out the top 10.

Williams debutant Franco Colapinto finished his first-ever F1 race in 12th. That was better than Logan Sargeant — who he replaced — managed in all but one of his races this year.