Italy GP Race Report

A thrilling race seemed to be promised: a Ferrari on pole, with his team mate  behind him, Verstappen looking for his 10th win in a row, everyone (apart from Red Bull) was saying how quick the Williams are in a straight line and will be difficult to overtake.  There have been several names in the running for the second Red Bull seat: the current holder Perez, longest Alpha Tauri driver Tsunoda, new Alpha Tauri driver Lawson, reserve driver Ricciardo but Albon, who is only on loan to Williams has been overlooked.

The first casualty at the cathedral of speed was Tsunoda, who didn't even make it around the formation lap.  I think the engineers can no longer compute hot weather having been to only cold and wet tracks for a while.  LeClerc also found that his car was tricky to handle.

When the race did start, Sainz made a good start and was able to stay ahead of Verstappen for the lead of the first 15 laps.  Albon suffered with a typical Williams poor start and fell back to 9th; Piastri gained three places.  

By Lap 4, Verstappen radioed his team as he had spotted Sainz beginning to slide on his tyres and was told to be sensible.  The race was full of overtakes and battles.  There were a few 5 second penalties; Russell, Hamilton and Piastri.  At the end, Noah brought the animals in two by two: two bulls, two prancing horses, two silver...foxes?  Verstappen got his record-breaking 10 wins in a row.  The Ferraris battled to the very end with no team orders, with Sainz getting the podium.

Monza usually brings out the best of the racers with shorter, tighter laps and always worth watching.