First Dry Race In The Temple Of Speed | Monza | The Italian Grand Prix (2023)
Since the beginning of the Formula 1 2023 season, we have only seen three dry races so far: the Bahrain GP, Saudi Arabia GP & Azerbaijan GP, and after that, every race we saw was in mixed weather conditions.
Initially, It was exciting to see drivers fighting with each other in those mixed weather conditions, where every team struggled to decide the best tyre for their drivers so that they could fight for points & survive in that weather.
However, seeing those conditions more often at every track makes it unentertaining at some point.🙁
Therefore, finally, Monza GP comes with a clear sky & sun — shining on the track and elevating its temperature!!😁
This makes all of us (Fans) very happy & excited because we could be able to get a chance to see the fights between different teams & drivers by utilizing the full potential of their cars at higher speeds as Monza GP has only 12 corners, long straights with two DRS-zones & an average speed of 250 km/hr around the track, which makes it the fastest track on the F1 Calendar.
This is why it is also known as the “Temple of Speed”, where F1 cars blast past in front of your eyes at a higher speed with their engines roaring & running at maximum level.
However, Monza GP is the second race in Italy as the first race “Emola GP” was canceled due to heavy rain & flooding in the Emilia Romagna region. Nevertheless, Monza GP gives us every bit of drama & entertainment that we could have hoped for from the Italian Grand Prix.
So, get excited because we are going to see the dramatic moments in the Monza GP that made it so special.
Qualification Round
This weekend's Qualifications were interesting because the ATA (Alternate Tyre Allocation) regulation was implemented for the second time this season as it was last implemented in Hungarian GP. This means that every team has to use different tyres in different Qualification Rounds;
Q1 — Hard Tyres
Q2 — Medium Tyres
Q3 — Soft Tyres
This rule was implemented to reduce the number of Pirreli Tyres in order to make the sport more sustainable according to the F1 Zero Emission Mission by 2030.
Due to this regulation, every team struggled this weekend as they did in the Hungarian GP. However, with higher tyre degradations they tried their best to qualify from Q1, Q2 & Q3.
But the interesting thing in the Quali was that the Ferrari team bounced back heavily and both Ferrari cars qualified for the front of the grid with Carlos Sainz in Pole Position, Max Verstappen in 2nd position & Charles Leclerc in Third position on the grid. It was an epic sight to see for all Ferrari fans as that scarlet Ferrari team outperformed the Red Bulls in Quali.
So, the rest of the grid was also, interesting as Geroge Russell from Mercedes & Alex Albon from Williams both got pace in their cars and qualified P4 & P6, respectively and the rest of the grid looks like this.
Race Day
The beginning of Monza GP was very unusual as in the formation lap Yuki Tsnuda had to retire from the race due to engine failure, therefore, the race was delayed and started a few minutes later with 51 laps remaining.
Carlos Sainz VS Max Verstappen
Carlos Sainz Started on the pole position with Max Verstappen behind so, since the first lap Sainz pushed really hard & used every bit of his tyres to defend his position against the dominating Red Bull of Max, just as his life depended on it.
This gave Max Verstappen a hard time overtaking Sainz on a track where there are fewer corners but both drivers did their best, however, at last Sainz couldn't save himself from the Red Bull’s mighty RB19 car and eventually Max overtook him at turn 4 and took the lead from him till the end of the race and made history.
Sergio Perez VS Carlos Sainz
After battling with Max, Sainz tried his best to lock that 2nd place but I guess he forgot that there was another Red Bull driver (Sergio Perez) who was hungry for that 2nd place and slowly coming for it.
Sergio started his race from P5 on the grid and was held by Geroge Russell in that slick black Mercedes for a while but after passing him his vision was clear and chances were high to finish the race in 2nd place.
So, after he overtook George, he began closing the gap between him & the Ferraris, so he did and overtook Charles Leclerc easily at turn 1 and then he went for the other scarlet Ferrari of Sainz, went closer to him Sainz didn't leave any space to overtake and fought hard with Sergio until the final ending laps of the race without making any mistake.
However, Sergio became frustrated by trying everything like taking the inside line or outside line at different turns to overtake Sainz but nothing worked as Sainz defended really hard.
So, in the final few laps, he tried to get closer & closer to Sainz in every lap to close the gap between him & Sainz and in lap 46, he got really close to Sainz.
Both of them getting out of the parabolic turn 12, Perez just a car length close to Sainz, entered into the DRS zone, Perez opened the DRS & used the mighty Speed of RB19 under the DRS Zone, that got him closer to Sainz.
Sainz took the outside line to defend, Perez took the inside-line to overtake, Sainz braked late & locked his tyres & Perez took this advantage & overtook Sainz at turn 1 and secured 2nd place for himself for the rest of the race.
Lewis Hamilton VS 5-Sec Penalty
Lewis Hamilton started on P8 on hard tyres while others around him were on Medium tyres, so Lewis put his head down and went long on those tyres until the tyres gave up and he pitted for mediums, while the rest of the grid pitted for hards.
At the start, he tried to defend his 8th place from Piastri’s Mclaren but couldn't defend it and got to P9, at this point of the race it seemed like Lewis’s car didn't have any pace, however, he kept himself in under half a second distance from Piastri’s Mclaren, and defended his P9 position till the middle of the race.
However, Lewis’s car came alive after he put on medium tyres.
He came out of the pit on P10 with 4.5 secs of gap to McLaren’s & almost 2 secs of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin behind hm. So, from here on he put his head down and chipped away from Fernando, cleared the gap from McLarens, and closer to Piastri at turns 1 & 2, ran side by side with Piastri till the turn-4 and boom both drivers collided, Lewis came out of the collision just fine but Piastri was left with the broken wing due to which he had to pit due to which Lewis was given a 5-Sec penalty.
So, after clearing Piastri’s Mclaren, he went hunting Lando’s Mclaren and overtook him just before turn 1 under the DRS zone, and then afterward in the same lap he overtook Alex Albon’s Williams and then started to pull away from this pack as few laps are left & Lewis had to keep his pace up by saving his tyres to make it to the end and to recover from the penalty, as this pack including Alex Albon, Lando Norris & Fernando Alonso started to pick up their paces to get under the 5 secs of Lewis for P6 position.
However, as Lewis’s Black Mercedes came alive on medium tyres, and he chipped far away from them that after clearing the 5-sec penalty from his time he was still almost 2.5 sec away from that pack.
Nevertheless, a huge shoutout to Alex Albon, the “Tyre Whisperer” & “The Minister of defense of Monza GP” who defended so well that both McLarens couldn't able to overtake him in a straight line and lost time in doing that, which helped Hamilton to overtake all of them one-by-one and recovered from the penalty.
Charles Leclerc & Carlos Sainz
In the last few laps of the race, Sainz was in potential P3 position & Charles was in P4 position with a large gap of 7.5 secs from Geroge Russell. So, after the Sainz-Perez battle, Saiz was left with less energy in his tyres to make it to the end.
So, seeing that — Charles smelled a potential podium and tried to fight his teammate for that P3 position and both Charles & Sainz did some hard racing and slightly made contact with each other, which didn't do any damage to either car, which made the team worried and in the last lap they came very close & team sent them messages that
No risk, No Risk, Race Until The End, No Risk
So, both drivers finished the race with Carlos Sainz at P3 & Charles Leclerc at P4, without causing any further trouble for the team & without breaking the hopes of Ferrari fans. 🤞
With the end of this exhilarating Monza GP, there are several records that were made on the track like,
🥇Max Verstappen Won 10 Consecutive Races in a Row
🥇Red Bull Won 15 Consecutive races since the 2022 Abu Dhabi GP
🥇Lewis Hamilton became the only driver to appear in Q3 300 times in F1 History.
As Red Bulls are making history so is Lewis Hamilton despite having the 3rd quickest car on the grid after Monza GP. So let’s see what he could be able to do once he gets the quickest car on the grid in upcoming seasons of F1.
Also, hats off to Max Verstappen & Red Bulls for making history & breaking the records of the likes of Ayrton Senna, Michal Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel & Lewis Hamilton.
Because a new generation of drivers is getting more and more competitive, let's see which of them will break or make records of the legends as mentioned before, other than Max Verstappen.
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While you are at it check out the following stories, if you are completely new to the Formula 1 world or if you are curious to more about the World of Formula 1;
👉 Formula 1 | A Guide For Beginner’s | Rules, Cars, Teams, Drivers & Point System
👉 FORMULA 1 WORLD | The Most Prestigious Motorsport In The World
👉 Formula 1 | Story of Flags You Should Know
👉 Formula 1 | Story & History of Tyers
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