Roundup of 2023 Italian Grand Prix weekend as Max Verstappen clinched a record 10th consecutive Grand Prix victory.
Verstappen entered this round looking to lay his marker in the history books in terms of consecutive race wins but was handed a tough fight throughout the weekend by Ferrari.
The 25 year-old however prevailed with a dominant drive to win from second to make himself the first driver to achieve ten straight race victories in F1.
Now, here is a full roundup of all the action across 2023 Italian GP weekend.
FP1
With everyone out on a mixture of tyres due to Pirelli’s new Alternative Tyre Allocation (ATA) rule coming into effect, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri set the initial pace on the soft tyre but Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou both failed to get out early on due to anti-stall issues.
Verstappen eventually managed to finish fastest after he posted 1m 22.657 on the hard tyre to top the session ahead of Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez, as teams continued to adapt to the ATA rule which necessitated more long runs to save tyres for later in the weekend.
Felipe Drugovich meanwhile replaced Lance Stroll at Aston Martin for FP1 and finished a respectable 18th fastest, as only he and Fernando Alonso ran the medium tyre in this session.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 22.657 |
| 2 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.046 |
| 3 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.177 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.309 |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.532 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.557 |
| 7 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.584 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.612 |
| 9 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.614 |
| 10 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.787 |
| 11 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.789 |
| 12 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 1.004 |
| 13 | Liam Lawson | AlphaTauri | + 1.176 |
| 14 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 1.274 |
| 15 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 1.295 |
| 16 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 1.410 |
| 17 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.433 |
| 18 | Felipe Drugovich | Aston Martin | + 1.483 |
| 19 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 1.560 |
| 20 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 1.575 |
FP2
FP2 saw further adapting to the ATA rule but Stroll missed most of the session after he suffered a fuel system issue on his third lap out of the pit, before he could even set a time.
Once everyone had completed their opening laps, Sainz headed the pack on medium tyres with 1m 21.565 ahead of Verstappen, and continued to sit atop after the soft tyre runs as he found 0.210 seconds to finish fastest from Norris and Perez.
Perez however brought out the red flag with ten minutes left after he spun out at the Parabolica and clipped the far barriers.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1m 21.355 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.019 |
| 3 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.185 |
| 4 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.190 |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.276 |
| 6 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.361 |
| 7 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.624 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.716 |
| 9 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.821 |
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 0.936 |
| 11 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 1.219 |
| 12 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 1.240 |
| 13 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 1.296 |
| 14 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 1.341 |
| 15 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.361 |
| 16 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 1.400 |
| 17 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 1.428 |
| 18 | Liam Lawson | AlphaTauri | + 1.812 |
| 19 | Gunayu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 1.881 |
| 20 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | No Time |
FP3
In a hectic start to the session, Verstappen set the early pace of 1m 21.687 on soft tyres ahead of Perez as many drivers did their opening runs on used tyre compounds, in line with ATA rules limiting tyre usage.
Albon briefly went second fastest mid-session on medium tyres but as the checkered flag fell, Sainz posted 1m 20.912 to top the session from Verstappen and Hamilton as almost everyone completed qualifying simulations.
Albon finished ninth quickest but his fastest lap was set on the medium tyres whilst Perez didn’t do a late flying lap due to a leak on his car.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1m 20.912 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.086 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.541 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.574 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.799 |
| 6 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.818 |
| 7 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 0.972 |
| 8 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 1.073 |
| 9 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 1.142 |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 1.280 |
| 11 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.333 |
| 12 | Liam Lawson | AlphaTauri | + 1.384 |
| 13 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 1.385 |
| 14 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 1.390 |
| 15 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 1.468 |
| 16 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 1.599 |
| 17 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 1.603 |
| 18 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.827 |
| 19 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 1.830 |
| 20 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 1.940 |
Qualifying
A hectic start to Qualifying with hard tyres in Q1 saw Verstappen and Alonso feature amongst several drivers who fell foul of track limits with their opening lap times deleted.
Zhou, Gasly, Ocon, Magnussen and Stroll eventually became the five Q1 casualties before Tsunoda, Lawson, Hulkenberg, Bottas and Sargeant were eliminated in Q2, amidst Hamilton briefly flirting with another early exit.
Up front, Sainz fought off Verstappen to clinch pole position by just 0.013s ahead of Leclerc, Russell and Perez, as Albon managed to qualify a surprise sixth to continue his strong form ahead of Piastri, Hamilton, Norris and Alonso.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1m 20.294 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.013 |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.067 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.377 |
| 5 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.394 |
| 6 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.466 |
| 7 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.491 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.526 |
| 9 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.685 |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 1.123 |
| 11 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1m 21.594 |
| 12 | Liam Lawson | AlphaTauri | + 0.164 |
| 13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 0.182 |
| 14 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 0.346 |
| 15 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 0.350 |
| 16 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 1m 22.390 |
| 17 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.155 |
| 18 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.158 |
| 19 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 0.202 |
| 20 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.470 |
Race
Everyone but Hamilton, Bottas and Magnussen decided to start the race on mediums, whilst the latter trio opted to run longer on the hard tyre but the start was aborted, after Tsunoda stopped with a power unit issue.
Chaos however unfolded on the second formation lap as marshals failed to clear Tsunoda’s AlpahTauri, which saw mechanics instructed to go to pit exit ready for a red flag but stewards failed to declare an official red flag in hope of starting the race quickly.
There however was a threat of tyres and brakes overheating the longer cars sat on the grid, which forced stewards to ultimately relent and allow mechanics onto the grid despite failing to declare a red flag due to the race having not officially commenced.
Two laps however were reducted from the total race distance of 53 laps in line with protocols for an aborted start, which meant that the new race distance was scheduled to be 51 laps once the race began 20 minutes later than scheduled.
Once the race eventually got underway, Sainz made a clean getaway to head Verstappen, Leclerc, Russell and Perez whilst Piastri jumped Albon for sixth and Norris moved ahead of Hamilton into eighth in a clean start.
Up front, Sainz fought off Verstappen until he locked up on Lap 15 into Variante del Rettifilo which allowed Verstappen to get the run round outside of Curva Grande into Variante della Roggia to take the lead.
Perez meanwhile cut the Variante del Rettifilo chicane as he tried to pass Russell a lap earlier and had to concede fourth but successfully made a legal pass on the Brit two laps later to take the position.
Sainz soon became the first frontrunner to pit on Lap 20 but once his rivals pitted in the following two laps, Verstappen held a lead of over five seconds from Sainz who found himself in a three-driver scrap for second against Leclerc and Perez.
Hamilton meanwhile was the last of the alternate strategy runners to pit at the end of Lap 27 but found himself jumped by Alonso upon rejoining the track, which left him sat 10th but he regained a position into Variante del Rettifilo a lap later.
Norris meanwhile jumped Piastri in the McLarens’ scrap over seventh during their pit stops.
Up front, Verstappen sprinted away from Sainz as Perez almost got punted into the barriers at Variante della Roggia by Leclerc on Lap 31, only to pass the Monegasque at the start of the next lap on the start-finish straight for third.
Albon meanwhile held up Norris, Piastri and Hamilton in a tense scrap during which the latter pair collided into Variante della Roggia on Lap 42, which earned Hamilton a five-second time penalty.
Up front, Sainz fought off Perez and Leclerc until the Mexican forced his way past into Variante della Rettifilo on Lap 46, with Leclerc following suit a lap later, only for Sainz to reclaim third into Variante della Roggia.
Up front, Verstappen cruised to a record tenth consecutive F1 Grand Prix victory ahead of Perez as Sainz clung onto third from Leclerc.
Russell, Hamilton, Albon, Norris, Alonso and Bottas rounded out the top ten.
In the drivers’ standings, Verstappen now leads Perez by 145 points as he closes in on a third straight title, which could be confirmed at the Japanese GP on 24th September if he wins the next two races.
F1 now heads to Singapore across weekend of 15-17 September for the first of eight flyaway races to conclude the season.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 51 | 1h 12m 13.618 |
| 2 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 51 | + 6.802 |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 51 | + 11.082 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 51 | + 11.508 |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | 51 | + 18.294 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 51 | + 38.903 |
| 7 | Alex Albon | Williams | 51 | + 45.080 |
| 8 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 51 | + 45.212 |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 51 | + 46.370 |
| 10 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 51 | + 64.764 |
| 11 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 51 | + 70.573 |
| 12 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 51 | + 71.480 |
| 13 | Liam Lawson | AlphaTauri | 51 | + 71.772 |
| 14 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 51 | + 81.387 |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 51 | + 83.016 |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 51 | + 83.017 |
| 17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 51 | + 1 Lap |
| 18 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 51 | + 1 Lap |
| RET | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 39 | Mechanical |
| DNS | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 0 | Power |
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