2025 Italian Grand Prix Race Review

Linus O'Howell
Sep 7
3 min read

Verstappen Dominates to Stun McLaren in Monza

Whilst Qualifying was tight, today was the opposite as Max Verstappen dominated by over 19 seconds to take his second Italian win of the year! McLaren ended up having to settle for second and third, but that too wasn’t without controversy, with Oscar Piastri being asked to let Lando Norris through after Lando suffered a 4-second slower pit stop than his teammate!

The Biggest Talking Points

Before the Race even began, we were down a driver as Kick Sauber told Nico Hulkenberg to enter the pits to retire the car! It was then chaos into Turn 1, with Max Verstappen cutting across the chicane to remain in the lead as Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc got very close to touching! Red Bull quickly told Max to let Lando back through, but that only lasted for a couple of more laps as Verstappen dispatched Norris before driving off into the distance! After a hard defense from Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri was finally able to clear the Ferrari for third, but George Russell couldn’t do the same (Mercedes’ straight-line speed was poor)!

Most of the rest of the Race was pretty calm at the front, but there were incidents in the midfield! Fernando Alonso suffered yet another car failure to take him out of the points, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson came together at Turn 4, and the same thing happened between Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman, with both men spinning out of the points! Alex Albon managed to make his strategy work to perfection, overtaking Andrea Kimi Antonelli for 7th, whilst Kimi also received a 5-second time penalty for driving erratically (he can’t do these types of things)! Now, this was of course Ferrari’s Home Race, but not much happened for them, with Charles Leclerc remaining in 4th whilst Lewis Hamilton recovered to P6! Anyway, the main talking point of this Race came towards the end as Lando Norris and McLaren agreed to box Oscar Piastri first (despite being the second car), and Oscar’s pit stop lasted just 1.9 seconds (it was insane)! The lap later, Lando boxed, but he had a terrible 5.9-second stop, dropping him behind his teammate! Now, McLaren asked Oscar to let Lando back through (comparing it to Hungary last year), and Piastri obliged! Now, I totally get why McLaren asked for this switch, but I’m stunned that Oscar agreed; I wouldn’t have!

The Standout Drives in the Race

I’ve given out two 10’s for the 2025 Italian Grand Prix and the first one is obviously for Max Verstappen! Max absolutely destroyed the competition today; this was like the “old days”! The other driver I’ve given out maximum points to is Alex Albon, and it’s once again fully deserved! Alex drove his strategy to perfection to finish 7th, and he now finds himself P7 in the Drivers’ Standings (ahead of a Mercedes)! Elsewhere, Lando Norris had the edge on Oscar Piastri today in terms of performance, Gabriel Bortoleto once again scored big points for Kick Sauber, and Isack Hadjar managed to go from the pitlane to P10!

Drivers Who Had a Shocker

I actually haven’t given any driver a 1 for today’s Race, with Franco Colapinto the only driver receiving a 2 after running at the back for basically the entire afternoon! Lance Stroll finished last, but he had a horrendous pit stop (he also went 50 laps before pitting), whilst both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly also went ridiculously long as they held out for a Safety Car/Red Flag! I will say that Yuki Tsunoda finishing P13 is pretty disappointing, over 80 seconds behind his teammate (who won)!