{"id":122610,"date":"2025-09-08T09:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/122610\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T09:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:54:09","slug":"verstappen-outshines-mclaren-at-monza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/122610\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen outshines McLaren at Monza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Verstappen gets tough on Norris<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Verstappen set the fastest ever Formula 1 lap to steal a brilliant pole position. His time over the 3.6-mile track in Monza\u2019s glorious royal park was 1:18.79, set at a speed of 164.484mph, to beat the previous record left by Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes in 2020 by 0.095sec. Now having pipped Norris to the top spot, he wasn\u2019t about to give up the lead without a fight on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Pre-race talk was that Verstappen\u2019s long-run Friday practice pace showed that he had a genuine shot of beating the McLarens over 53 laps. And so it proved.<\/p>\n

From the start, Norris made a better launch, with Verstappen then edging right towards him. The track narrows at Monza on the run to the first chicane, which meant the McLaren threw up a cloud of dust as its right-sided tyres touched the grass \u2014 Norris subsequently branding his old friend an \u201cidiot\u201d in the heat of the moment.<\/p>\n

\"2025<\/p>\n

Goodwood Revival<\/p>\n

Tickets are limited<\/p>\n

But as Verstappen then moved left to take his line into the chicane, Norris was able to recover and challenge on the inside. They entered the right-left flick side by side, and Verstappen was forced to cut the chicane to make it through. Inevitably, that led his team to order him to hand his lead over and avoid a penalty.<\/p>\n

He did so as they started lap two, but it was quickly evident that the Dutchman had the pace to take the lead straight back. Sure enough, at the start of lap four and with a little help from DRS, the Red Bull dragged into range down the main straight and Verstappen pulled a neat outside pass through the chicane to take a lead he\u2019d never lose.<\/p>\n

\"leclerc<\/p>\n

Piastri vs Leclerc<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri initially made a better getaway than both Verstappen and Norris but lost out to Charles Leclerc\u2019s Ferrari on the exit of Turn 1, only to blast back past a few seconds later. But on lap two a feisty Leclerc then pulled a sensational move around the outside of Curva Grande to again slip into third place.<\/p>\n

However, the 2024 Italian Grand Prix winner couldn\u2019t make it stick. Piastri re-established the natural order at the start of lap six with an outside pass on Leclerc at Turn 1. But the Australian could offer little threat to his team-mate and the race quickly settled into an order that appeared unlikely to change, without something untoward occurring\u2026<\/p>\n

\"mclaren<\/p>\n

McLaren no threat on the soft tyre<\/p>\n

On a fast track that\u2019s easier on tyre degradation, this was always likely to be a straight-forward one-stop race, especially without a safety car interruption. Verstappen eased out a six-second lead over Norris and held out on his medium Pirelli tyres until lap 37 before stopping for the hard compound.<\/p>\n

McLaren\u2019s only hope \u2013 and it was a slim one \u2013 was to do something different with its own strategy to try and beat the Red Bull. That\u2019s why the two papaya cars ran to laps 45 and 46 before coming in, taking on the red-walled softs in a bid for a big performance offset against Verstappen\u2019s hard rubber.<\/p>\n

But it made little difference. At the chequered flag Verstappen was a crushing 19 seconds ahead of Norris for his third win of the season. Just like the old days, was one comment. But was this a genuine turning of the tide in favour of Red Bull or simply a circuit-dependent one-off on a low-drag track? Whatever the case, it was Red Bull\u2019s first win under Laurent Mekies \u2014 and a first without Christian Horner on the pit wall.<\/p>\n

\"mclaren<\/p>\n

McLaren\u2019s team orders call<\/p>\n

Beyond Verstappen\u2019s stunning drive, the other significant talking point was McLaren\u2019s intervention after more bad luck for Norris.<\/p>\n

The team decided to pit Piastri first despite Norris running ahead of him, to snuff out any threat of Leclerc undercutting into third (which in any case looked unlikely). Norris agreed to the plan, but only after being assured there was no chance of Piastri then undercutting ahead of him. So Piastri pitted on lap 45, Norris a lap later.<\/p>\n

Then disaster. A sticky tyre change on the left front stretched Norris\u2019 stop, and as he blasted back into the race he was faced with the agonising view of the rear wing of his team-mate\u2019s car. It was harsh, but that\u2019s what can happen in pitstops. A natural, if unlucky, racing moment.<\/p>\n

Yet in the delicate circumstances of their carefully managed and so-far civil title battle, McLaren felt it was only fair to switch back the places given that Norris had once again suffered for the second race in succession \u2014 following his painful retirement in\u00a0Zandvoort<\/a> \u2014 through no fault of his own.<\/p>\n

\"podium<\/p>\n

Piastri wasn\u2019t happy when he took the call. But crucially he also grudgingly accepted it. \u201cI mean, we said a slow pitstop was part of racing, so I don\u2019t really get what\u2019s changed here,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if you really want me to do it, then I\u2019ll do it.\u201d Later he said he accepted it was the right and fair call \u2014 but it\u2019s a good example of the challenge McLaren faces to manage this title rivalry and keep the peace over the remaining eight races.<\/p>\n

So, was it the right call? Losing more ground to Piastri in such a way after what happened at Zandvoort would have been dreadful for Norris. But, as Piastri said, pitstop delays happen in racing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fine line, but then it should also be remembered the two McLaren drivers are still helping each other out this deep into their rivalry, to a degree we\u2019ve never really seen before with a world title on the line. Norris had agreed to Piastri pitting first against the grain of the usual order, and on Saturday Piastri had even given Norris a handy tow in qualifying.<\/p>\n

Will it remain so civil? We\u2019ve been asking that for weeks, and so far McLaren is keeping the balance as fair and equal as any team possibly could in such circumstances.<\/p>\n

The outcome is that Norris closed the points gap to Piastri from 34 to 31. Will those three points make a difference come Abu Dhabi in December? If they do, perhaps the call at Monza will once again be revisited.<\/p>\n

\"hamilton<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s solid comeback drive<\/p>\n

The Tifosi was heard to jeer Norris on the podium, but perhaps that was simply frustration that they didn\u2019t have a Ferrari driver to cheer. Leclerc was forced to settle for fourth having seen off a threat from George Russell\u2019s Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton pulling in sixth after a decent effort in the other red car \u2014 running in a special livery to commemorate Niki Lauda\u2019s first world title won at Monza 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

Hamilton had only started tenth after copping a five-place grid penalty for a speeding infraction on the way to the grid in Zandvoort. How annoying that his error ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix hadn\u2019t been punished then and should be carried over to his first race as a Ferrari driver at Monza. No matter, he knuckled down and did well to make up four places on a day when gaining such ground was a tall order.<\/p>\n

\"albon<\/p>\n

Big gainers, big losers<\/p>\n

That said, Alex Albon came from 14th on the grid to an excellent seventh in his Williams, having started on the hard tyre on the alternate strategy. Gabriel Bortoleto drove another strong race for Sauber to finish eighth, gaining a place via a five-second penalty for hapless Kimi Antonelli, who had been judged to have driven erratically in a battle with Albon. Isack Hadjar followed up his Zandvoort podium with another point, having risen to tenth from a pitlane start.<\/p>\n

The biggest losers were Nico H\u00fclkenberg, who was forced out by hydraulics bothers before the race had even begun, and Fernando Alonso. The Aston Martin driver had cleverly demoted his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Bortoleto in the pistops, but then suffered an alarming front suspension failure as he ran over the kerbs on the exit of the Ascari chicane.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Images courtesy of Getty Images. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

formula 1<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

f1<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

f1 2025<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

italian grand prix<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

italian grand prix 2025<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

max verstappen<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

red bull<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Verstappen gets tough on Norris On Saturday, Verstappen set the fastest ever Formula 1 lap to steal a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-122610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}