Max Verstappen claims record-breaking TENTH consecutive win as world champion triumphs at Monza ahead of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz… with Lewis Hamilton sixth despite five-second penalty
- Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix ahead of Sergio Perez
- Dutchman is the first driver to win 10 consecutive races in Formula One
- Carlos Sainz finished third ahead of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc
Max Verstappen drove his name deeper into the Formula One history at the Italian Grand Prix by claiming a world record 10 straight wins.
The perfect 10 spoiled Ferrari’s party a day after Carlos Sainz had lit up Monza with a cracking pole position. In fairness to the Spaniard, he made Verstappen work hard for the victory, and it wasn’t until the 15th lap that he finally yielded to the Red Bull.
Nothing can stop the Dutchman in the richest vein of form the sport has ever known. He now has 12 wins from 14 races this season, and hasn’t lost since April 30.
His team-mate Sergio Perez was runner-up, with the Ferraris unable quite to maintain their speed on wearing rubber as the race went on. Sainz was third, Charles Leclerc fourth and George Russell fifth. Lewis Hamilton was a sixth on a difficult weekend.
After a delayed start following Yuki Tsunoda’s AlfaTauri conking out on the formation lap, Verstappen was not as quickly off the line as Sainz. The world champion could bide his time, something his instinct fights against, and it wasn’t until the start of the sixth lap that he made his first attempt to pass Sainz.
Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on Sunday afternoon
The Dutchman is the first driver to win 10 consecutive races in the history of Formula One
But the Ferrari man, driving well, held off the attack down the inside at Variante del Reffifilo at the end of the start-finish straight. Door shut.
Verstappen was on the radio complaining that the defence was ‘naughty’.
It wasn’t. It was tough, fair racing.
The Ferraris were more durable in these early stages than expected. Nobody gave them much more than six or seven laps of front-running pace. But as Verstappen observed: ‘They have a lot of top speed, for f***’s sake.’
Sainz was slightly struggling for grip but making no concessions to the fact. But as inevitably as the sun setting, his resistance could not last forever.
Lap 15, opening sector, Verstappen made the crucial pass into the record books.
Sainz locked up on braking into Variante del Rettifilo, Verstappen had better traction on the exit and then planted himself into the lead at the second chicane, Variante della Roggia.
He then powered ahead before the first round of stops.
Verstappen’s march towards a third world title has been relentless this season
Red Bull have won all 14 races this season, with Verstappen triumphing in 12 of them
He later had the pleasure of passing Hamilton when the Briton was in a no man’s land by dint of being on hard tyres and yet to pit.
Hamilton was handed a five-second penalty for colliding with Oscar Piastri. The seven-time world champion interlocked his wheels with the McLaren’s as he made the pass.
Elsewhere, Perez was passed by Sainz late on, but re-passed the Ferrari.
The action livening up, the two Ferraris then went toe-to-toe, but Sainz, despite being briefly overtaken, ultimately refused to surrender second place to Leclerc.
Monza partisans held their breath. A long duel ensued.
Carlos Sainz (right) fought valiantly to keep Verstappen behind him for the first 14 laps
The Spaniard finished third after an entertaining battle with teammate Charles Leclerc
Lewis Hamilton (right) finished sixth, while Fernando Alonso (left) finished ninth
There was McLaren on McLaren scrapping earlier when Piastri, emerging from the pits bumped into Lando Norris.
The stewards took no action, though, if anything Piastri was culpable. Norris finished eighth.
Verstappen, who moved ahead of Sebastian Vettel’s joint record of nine consecutive wins, now leads the championship standings by 145 points going to Singapore in a fortnight.
He could wrap up the title the following weekend in Japan.
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