Formula 1 returned to Monza, the Temple of Speed and home of the Tifosi to celebrate the Italian Grand Prix. The heart of all Ferrari fans expected a great performance from the Italian team, but they were only third on the podium. Because this was a circuit that favored the cars of the Mercedes team, they used this advantage very well to return to lead the drivers’ championship.
The main actor of this weekend was the rain. Although it did not rain during the race on Saturday, during free practice 3 and for the qualification, it rained a lot. As soon as the qualifying started Grosjean was involved in an accident that caused a red flag. For fear of having another accident, Charlie Whiting stopped the classification for hours until the weather improved. Maybe too long, because there were times when the cars could have run using the wet tires. When the cars were able to get back on track, they soon put the intermediate tires on. But the race director did not want to risk the safety of the drivers. The reason was, that one of the areas of the circuit had been paved recently and did not absorb the water well, that was the area where Grosjean had the accident.
With these conditions the qualifying went crazy. The track improved more and more in the same way as the times went down and many drivers had penalties on the starting grid. That was the reason we had a very different starting grid, with Stroll in the second position and Ocon in the third. The pole was once again for Lewis Hamilton, who surpassed the pole record of Michael Schumacher. Another great weekend for the English driver who took over the leadership of the world championship after winning the race without any problem. Those who were struggling were the Ferraris. On Saturday, they could only qualify in the seventh and eighth positions. Thanks to the penalties of their companions they obtained the fifth and sixth position. Vettel reached third place on the podium, but that did not help him to maintain his lead in the drivers’ championship. The one who returned to make a great race was Ricciardo the took his Red Bull to the fourth position.
While the McLaren problems repeated. Vandoorne retired from the race after losing power in his Honda engine and Alonso could not finish the race due to problems with the gearbox. All this while the rumors of a rupture between McLaren and Honda are getting bigger.
This weekend there have been numerous meetings and the special guest has been Renault. They could provide engines to the Woking team. We will have to wait to see how the situation is resolved.