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(Reuters) – Frenchman Pierre Gasly scored a stunning Italian Grand Prix win for Italy-based AlphaTauri on Sunday in a race full of suspense and surprises after top Formula One teams made mistakes or failed. finish.
McLaren Spaniard Carlos Sainz chased Gasly across the line in a spectatorless Monza deprived of its usual atmosphere by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll completing a youth podium.
Mercedes championship leader Lewis Hamilton finished seventh after starting from pole, leading and falling last after a 10-second stop / go penalty for entering the pit lane under a red light during the first of two deployments. of safety cars.
Despite the setback, the six-time world champion fought back and maintained his 47-point lead at the top, now over his teammate Valtteri Bottas, who got off to a lousy start and was fifth.
Hamilton, who equaled a Formula One record with his 41st consecutive classified result and took an extra point for the fastest lap, has 164 points after eight races to Bottas’ 117.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, previously Hamilton’s closest rival, withdrew due to mechanical problems and fell to third place with 110 points.
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 demoted by Red Bull’s main team last year in a trade with Alexander Albon, but has made strides in a season interrupted by COVID-19 and with no spectators.
“It was such a crazy race and we took advantage of it. I have been through so much in 18 months, I have a hard time realizing this,” added the 24-year-old from his first F1 victory.
FIRST FROM PANIS
The victory was also 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 come to a halt in the middle of the race, 27 laps, after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed heavily into the wall of tires at Parabolica, coming out of the impact unscathed but still making a trip to the medical center.
The safety car’s earlier period was caused by Kevin Magnussen’s Ferrari-powered Haas stopping at the side of the track.
Leclerc’s teammate Vettel had already retired with a brake failure at his last Italian GP with Ferrari, crashing into the styrofoam markers, and the chances of hearing the Italian anthem on the podium appeared to be nil.
Hamilton used the long stop to escape and see the stewards, who showed him evidence he could not contest.
The Briton went from first to last in the space of a lap after the restart from a standstill, with Gasly taking the lead when Hamilton penalized.
“That’s bullshit,” Hamilton radioed of a situation that left him 30 seconds behind the leader in a 17-car field that offered an idea of what a reverse grid sprint would look like.
Still he managed to circle faster than the rest, staggering into rivals before running out of time.
Lando Norris was fourth in the other McLaren, with Australian Daniel Ricciardo sixth for Renault and his teammate Esteban Ocon eighth.
Gasly’s Russian teammate Daniil Kvyat was ninth and Stroll’s Mexican teammate Sergio Perez tenth.
The race also marked a farewell for the Williams family following the sale of the team to US-based Dorilton Capital. Canadian Nicholas Latifi approached his first point of the year at 11th.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, edited by Clare Fallon and Pritha Sarkar)
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