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Formula 1
Italian GP
F1 Italian GP Live Commentary and Updates - Race day
Updates from the Sunday at Monza for the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix
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Max Verstappen comes into the final European race of the season on red-hot form with four consecutive wins, which has seen him stretch his F1 world championship lead to 109 points.
It means the pressure increases on home favourites Ferrari and Charles Leclerc, who took pole position for the Scuderia's home race in Italy.
Verstappen was one of a number of drivers to take a grid penalty for power unit changes, elevating Mercedes' George Russell to the front row - with last year's winner Daniel Ricciardo moved up to fourth behind McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
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Summary
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- Verstappen wins Italian GP as race finishes behind the safety car, following its botched deployment
- Verstappen had been on course for a comfortable win with Leclerc a distant second after Ferrari's latest strategy gamble backfired, before late safety car
- Sainz climbs to fourth, having started right at the back, while Hamilton is fifth
- de Vries takes very impressive ninth on his F1 debut with Williams after late call-up
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Leaderboard
- Verstappen, Red Bull
- Leclerc, Ferrari
- Russell, Mercedes
- Sainz, Ferrari
- Hamilton, Mercedes
- Perez, Red Bull
- Norris, McLaren
- Gasly, AlphaTauri
- de Vries, Williams
- Zhou, Alfa Romeo
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Anyway, that's all from us today. Thank you so much for joining us through this quick-fire triple header - we'll leave you alone a bit now, but we'll be back in three weeks' time for the Singapore Grand Prix. See you then!
Breaking news
And here's the report from the Italian Grand Prix: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-italian-gp-verstappen-beats-leclerc-to-win-in-safety-car-finish/10367773/
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Verstappen's post-race interview is being drowned out by the fans expressing their displeasure. It's like the anti-Zandvoort.
That said, an incident between de Vries and Zhou is being noted for erratic driving. More on that as we have it.
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"Wow, this has been incredible. What a debut. Thank you. **** my shoulders are dead!" says de Vries, today's Driver of the Day.
The crowd in attendance is, how does one put this delicately, making their displeasure known.
Sainz finishes fourth, ahead of Hamilton, Perez and Norris. Gasly is eighth, and Nyck de Vries gets ninth and points on his debut! Zhou completes the top 10.
Leclerc comes home in second, with Russell completing the podium.
Checkered flag
And Verstappen indeed wins the 2022 Italian Grand Prix!
So, unless something crazy happens in the next minute, Max Verstappen will win the Italian GP.
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And that's it - we're finishing under the safety car. "Come on! It's clear, come on!" Leclerc grumbles.
Ricciardo's car has been cleared away now with one-and-a-bit laps to go.
Given the field still needs to be sorted, it'll be a miracle if we get any laps.
A tractor has reached Ricciardo's McLaren to pick it up and carry it behind the barriers. We've got two laps to go. There could be a one-lap blast to the finish. Maybe.
Verstappen gets the tyre news from the cars behind - scrubbed softs for Leclerc and Russell, and new softs for Sainz.
Ricciardo's stranded McLaren is being attended to by the track marshals but it appears to be stuck in gear, or at least not moving freely, so this safety car could last a while. It could even mark the end of the race.
With Ricciardo dropping out it has promoted Gasly into eighth, de Vries into ninth and Zhou into 10th.
Pit stop
"Can we make a free stop?" asks Verstappen. Leclerc will do the same.
Pit stop
Verstappen and Leclerc do not stop, but Russell and Sainz do. Softs for Russell, softs for Sainz.
Safety car
It is a full safety car indeed! Here we go!
Ricciardo has stoped on track between the Lesmos! He's out of the race and will that need a safety car?
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"No comms please, I'm busy" says Norris, which is a brilliant name for a YouTube team radio compilation. He's sixth and trying to fend off Perez for seventh.
De Vries is also wise to the tricks of the F1 trade because while Verstappen was lapping him and Zhou he's managed to break out of DRS range of the Chinese driver - while getting into DRS himself from Gasly ahead.
The de Vries vs Zhou battle for the final points position is temporarily paused as Verstappen comes through to lap the pair. De Vries has done a thoroughly impressive job so far.
Perez comes in from fifth place, dropping to seventh behind Hamilton and Norris. He's got about 10 laps to do some damage on those softs.
A lap later Bottas pulls off the same move on Latifi into Turn 1 to gain 15th place.
Leclerc's only taking about 0.3-0.4s a lap out of Verstappen, which means the gap to the front is just below 18s. It's not enough to get a win here at this rate.
Schumacher locks up under braking at Turn 1 but gets the move done on Latifi for 14th, only for the Williams to fight back around Curva Grande. Schumacher makes it 2-1 into Lesmo 1 and that appears to decide it.
Mechanical problem
Stroll becomes the third retirement in this race as he's told to pit and stop the car. That's a couple DNF for Aston Martin today.
The fight for the bottom end of the points has a lot at stake. De Vries, on his F1 debut remember, his holding 10th place and fending off Zhou right behind him. But both are being gradually caught by Ocon.
Stopwatch
Leclerc's done a 1m24.510s on those softs, but Verstappen's going way too quickly for Ferrari's liking. The Ferrari driver gets a 1m24.336s on the following lap, but it's not the second-a-lap advantage he needs.
Norris limits the damage of that slow pitstop by also getting by Ricciardo, but he's definitely lost a place to Hamilton who is sprinting off ahead of him.
It's all going on now, as Hamilton gets by Ricciardo using DRS for sixth place, and Norris gets by Gasly using the same tactic to take eighth.
Pit stop
Ouch! That slow 5.1s pitstop drops Norris right into the DRS train and he loses places to Ricciardo, Gasly and Hamilton. What's more the Merc catches Gasly napping and gets up to seventh.
Just the small matter of a 19.5s lead for Leclerc to close down on those soft boots. Meanwhile, Norris pits from fourth, shipping about 3s in that stop which puts him right into the thick of the DRS train.
DRS train? What DRS train? Hamilton gets ahead of Zhou after one lap and is up to 11th. He does have a massive tyre advantage on fresh softs compared to his rivals on older mediums or hards.
Pit stop
Hamilton finaly makes his first pitstop of the afternoon, also taking on the softs, and comes out in 12th right at the back of the DRS train!
Pit stop
"Plan C confirmed" for Leclerc, and he duly comes in at the end of lap 33. Softs for the now-erstwhile race leader, and crucially gets out of the pits ahead of Russell.
Mechanical problem
Alonso now pits, and parks up. That's it for the Alpine driver.
Pit stop
Well, there we go - Sainz comes in at the end of lap 30. And it's a set of softs for the Spanish driver. He comes out in eighth, behind Perez.
By: autosport.com
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