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By Reuters 
14h ago
MONZA – Frenchman Pierre Gasly won an astonishing Italian Grand Prix thriller for Italy-based AlphaTauri on Sunday in a suspense-filled reverse race and none of the usual top teams on the podium.
McLaren Spaniard Carlos Sainz finished second at Monza after a fast-paced chase to the flag, with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll third on a youth podium.
Mercedes championship leader Lewis Hamilton finished seventh after starting from pole and falling last after a 10-second stop / go penalty for entering the pit lane under a red light while leading.
Despite the setback, the six-time world champion maintained his 47-point lead at the top, now over teammate Valtteri Bottas, who was fifth, after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen retired.
Hamilton has 164 points after eight runs to Bottas’s 117 and Verstappen’s 110.
It was the first time since 2013, when Kimi Raikkonen triumphed with Lotus in Australia, that a team other than Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull won a race.
“It’s unbelievable,” gasped Gasly, who was eliminated by Red Bull’s main squad last year but has come by leaps and bounds in the strangest seasons interrupted by Covid-19 and without spectators. “It was such a crazy race and we took advantage of it.
“I’ve been through a lot in 18 months, it’s hard for me to realize this.”
The victory was the first in F1 for Gasly, the first for a French driver since Olivier Panis in 1996 and the second for the former Toro Rosso team, whose only other victory was also at Monza with Sebastian Vettel in 2008.
“I was so close but so far,” said Sainz, who had also dreamed of achieving his first victory before joining Ferrari next year. “I needed one more lap.”
The race had to stop midway after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed heavily into the wall of tires at Parabolica.
Leclerc’s teammate Sebastian Vettel had already retired due to a brake failure and the chances of hearing the Italian anthem on the podium appeared to be nil so far.
The restart from the starting grid and the Hamilton penalty that left the Brit with a 30-second deficit set up a thrilling 17-car sprint and a glimpse of what a reverse grid race would look like.
Reuters
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