Hamilton on pole took a stunning start, holding on to his lead. Bottas, on the other hand, failed to take a strong start. The Finn dropped down to P6 on the opening lap, and it seemed, as if there was something wrong with the Finn's W11. The McLarens had absolutely nailed the start, as Sainz was second and teammate Norris third. Perez in his "pink Mercedes" was fourth, followed by Renault's Ricciardo. Further down at the back of the pack, Sebastian had proved unable to gain any positions at the start. The German was driving in poor P17, as something dramatic suddenly happened on lap 6. Sebastian faced a brake failure, which meant cutting the corner and hitting the bollards in full speed! Sebastian nurtured his SF1000 into the pits, and retirement was inevitable.
Hamilton in the lead had opened up an 8-second gap to Sainz. Further down in P6 Bottas was struggling with the performance of his W11. There seemed to be an issue with the cooling system, as Valtteri was told not to use slipstream. Verstappen, who had also taken a tame start, was lurking right behind Valtteri. Did Bottas' problems come down to the renewed regulation in terms of the engine mapping? Bottas reported on the team radio, that he was unable to race on the current engine settings. One thing was sure: the Finn was lacking performance badly!
Charles had been overtaken by Kimi at the beginning of the race, and the Monegasque was struggling outside the top ten. He pitted on lap 18, for a fresh set of hard Pirellis, rejoining the track in P17. Kimi, who had started to the race on medium Pirellis, pitted for the hard compound as well. Right after Kimi's pit stop Magnussen's Haas came to a halt on the finish straight near the pit entry. First there were yellow flags, but soon safety car was deployed. Both Hamilton and Alfa Romeo's Giovinazzi drove into the pits right away. Unfortunately it had gone unnoticed for both of them, that the pit entry had been closed. This meant a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for both of them!
During the safety car most drivers made their compulsory pit stop. This roulette had an interesting effect on the pecking order; Hamilton was leading the race, with Racing Point's Stroll second, AlphaTauri's Gasly third and the Alfa Romeo duo of Giovinazzi and Räikkönen fourth and fifth. The race had just become extremely interesting.
As the safety car came in on lap 24, Charles took a great restart, making his way past both Alfa Romeos, moving up to P4. There was thin hope in the air, that Ferrari could make it in the points after all. However, as soon as the hope had awaken, as soon it was all gone. On lap 25 Charles lost the rear of his SF1000 at Parabolica, and he was heavily thrown into the tyre wall. The shunt damaged the tyre wall so significantly, that the race was red-flagged! All cars were to return to the pit lane.
After quite a delay to the race a standing start was to take place. First the cars started to the formation lap, and then they lined up on the grid, and what an order the grid saw! Hamilton, who was to suffer the penalty, started on pole, but this time it was Racing Point's Stroll alongside the six-time world champion! Gasly was in P3, with Kimi alongside the Frenchman! It was such an unusual grid, as Bottas was down in P8, and Verstappen was as further down as in P11! What a thrilling restart it was going to be!
Hamilton maintained his lead, knowing, that he had to box to suffer his penalty. Gasly made his way past Stroll, who had had a poor restart due to wheel spin. Kimi, too, smelled his chance and passed the Canadian. What a delicious situation it seemed! Kimi in his Alfa Romeo fighting for a podium finish! As Hamilton pitted for the stop-and-go penalty, Kimi was second already! Part of me knew, that it wasn't going to happen for real, but I enjoyed the moment to the fullest.
Verstappen, whose race had had a lot to hope for, got more setbacks on lap 31, as the Dutchman had to drive into the pits and retire the race. Zero points for Max was bad news in terms of the championship fight. Kimi, too had a setback-filled end of the race. Alfa Romeo were lacking performance so badly, that the Iceman had no chance to defend his position against the faster McLarens and the Racing Points. First Sainz made it past Kimi, then Stroll. One by one all top ten drivers had passed the Iceman, no matter how hard Kimi pushed. It was so sad, as Kimi's skills would have entitled him to a much better result! The penalty had dropped Hamilton down to the very back of the pack, but the Briton made an unbelievable recovery, gaining positions one by one. Actually it was Hamilton, who dropped Kimi out of points.
The last five laps were such a thriller! Sainz in his McLaren had closed the gap to Gasly in the lead. AlphaTauri's pace was amazingly competitive, and Sainz had to push everything he got to make it within DRS distance from the Frenchman. It all came down to the very final lap. Sainz used DRS and attacked, but Gasly crossed the finish line as the race winner! It was the Frenchman's maiden win in F1; what a delightful moment! Sainz, too scored his best ever result by finishing the runner-up. Stroll completed the podium for Racing Point. So in the end I got, what I had hoped for, a non-Mercedes winner! Norris finished fourth in the sister McLaren, leaving Bottas in disappointing P5. Ricciardo finished the race sixth for Renault, and Hamilton managed to recover from his penalty and move up to P7 in the end. Ocon (Renault), Kvyat (AlphaTauri) and Perez (Racing Point) completed the top ten. Unfortunately Kimi was left in P13 with no points despite fighting like a lion.
Gasly became the 109th GP winner in the history of Formula 1. It was so touching to see the genuine joy of the winner himself and that of the team. In the end, the Italian GP saw a victory by an Italian team, and the Italian national anthem was played on the podium, in spite of the devastating difficulties of Ferrari! It was such a welcomed change to see a podium with no Mercedes drivers! F1 needs more races like this. Gasly making his way from P10 to victory was a much-needed fairy-tale.
Next week's race at iconic Mugello will mark Ferrari's 1000th GP in Formula 1. Scoring points would be a proper way to celebrate this great achievement! So upwards and onwards!
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