BEIJING (AFP) - Red Bull’s Max Verstappen inflicted a home defeat on Ferrari and Charles Leclerc, passing the Monegasque to take his 11th win of the 2022 F1 season in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
Starting from pole position, Leclerc led the opening stages of the race, as Verstappen swiftly moved up from a penalty-enforced seventh on the grid to sit second behind Leclerc by Lap 5.
Leclerc was around two seconds ahead of Verstappen when the Virtual Safety Car was deployed on Lap 12 to clear Sebastian Vettel’s stricken Aston Martin.
While Leclerc elected to use the neutralized race to make a pit stop, Verstappen and George Russell did not, with both vaulting the Monegasque.
Leclerc retook the lead on Lap 25 when Verstappen made his stop, but having stopped so much earlier in the race, it became clear that Leclerc would not have the pace to keep a charging Verstappen behind for the remainder of the Grand Prix, with the Dutchman now on fresher rubber.
Sure enough, on Lap 33 of 53, Leclerc dived into the pits for a set of soft tyres, rejoining the race some 20 seconds behind Verstappen.
But despite having older tyres, Verstappen was largely able to keep Leclerc at bay, with the Monegasque not closing on the Dutchman at nearly the pace required to challenge him for the lead.
Just as it looked as if the race had settled into its race-ending pattern, a spanner was thrown in the works with the deployment of the Safety Car on Lap 48 to clear Daniel Ricciardo’s broken-down McLaren.
Sensing a mad dash to the finish, all the leading runners came in for new tyres, but the order remained unchanged, and with removing Ricciardo’s car taking longer than anticipated, the race ultimately ended behind the Safety Car, with the leading runners in the same positions they had held before its deployment.
Behind the top two, Mercedes’ Russell rounded out the podium, ahead of Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz.