Leclerc Clinches Shock 2024 Italian GP Win

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc clinched a shock victory at 2024 Italian Grand Prix with an one-stop strategy.

Leclerc executed an one-stop strategy to fend off McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who had two-stopped after he took the lead from Lando Norris into Variante della Roggia on the opening lap.

Norris also two-stopped en-route to third after he cleared Sainz on Lap 48 to deny Ferrari a double podium.

Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, George Russell, Sergio Perez, Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen completed the top ten

In the drivers’ standings, Verstappen’s sixth-placed finish saw his title lead cut down by Norris to 62 points.

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At lights out, Norris made a clean start to lead Piastri who fought off Russell into Variante del Rettifilo, but the Australian swept round the outside of Variante della Roggia for the lead with Leclerc following him through.

Russell meanwhile ran wide at Rettifilo and re-joined seventh with front wing damage which cost him performance, and he was passed by Perez into Rettifilo on Lap 11.

Further back, Hulkenberg collided with Tsunoda to ruin their races, although Tsunoda was forced to retire on Lap 7.

Up front, Norris was the first frontrunner to pit on Lap 15 which allowed him to undercut Leclerc on the Monegasque’s stop on the next lap, whilst Piastri pitted on Lap 17 and kept his net lead.

Verstappen and Perez were the only drivers in the top ten to start on the hard tyres and eventually made their stops on Laps 23 and 24 respectively, just as McLaren gave green light for Norris to race Piastri for the win.

Piastri however kept Norris at bay and extended his gap from two to five seconds after Norris ran wide at Roggia on Lap 31, before he pitted on Lap 33 only for a sticky rear tyre change to cost him time and he re-joined in sixth.

Piastri made his second stop on Lap 39 and re-joined in third with a 2.2 second gap to Norris, who was battling Verstappen although the latter needed to stop again to put the medium tyre on.

Norris’ scrap however allowed Piastri to double his gap to around four-and-a-half seconds, until the Brit cleared Verstappen into Rettifilo on Lap 41.

Up front, Ferrari opted to gamble on an one-stop strategy for Leclerc and Sainz on heavily degraded tyres, which left Piastri with a difficult task to deny the Scuderia an one-two home finish.

Piastri however managed to pass Sainz on the outside line into Ascari on Lap 45 which left him with a 11s deficit to overturn in the last eight laps.

Leclerc though dug deep to take his second Italian GP victory for Ferrari five years after he first achieved that feat, as Piastri fell short in second as Norris rounded out the podium.

Sainz, Hamilton, Verstappen, Russell, Perez, Albon and Magnussen completed the top ten, whilst Williams’ Franco Colapinto on his F1 debut finished 12th.

F1 now heads to Baku, Azerbaijan in a fortnight’s time from 13-15 September, albeit without Magnussen who will miss the race due to picking up two penalty points and a 10-second time penalty following a collision with Pierre Gasly.

Those two penalty points took Magnussen onto 12 penalty points for the rolling 12-month period, which was the maximum total which resulted in an one-race ban hence his unavailability in Baku.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	53	1h 14m 40.727
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	53	+ 2.664
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	53	+ 6.153
4	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	53	+ 15.621
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	53	+ 22.820
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	53	+ 37.932
7	George Russell	Mercedes	53	+ 39.715
8	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	53	+ 54.148
9	Alex Albon	Williams	53	+ 67.456
10	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	53	+ 68.302
11	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	53	+ 68.495
12	Franco Colapinto	Williams	53	+ 81.308
13	Daniel Ricciardo	RB	53	+ 93.542
14	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	52	+ 1 Lap
15	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	52	+ 1 Lap
16	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	52	+ 1 Lap
17	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	52	+ 1 Lap
18	Guanyu Zhou	Sauber	52	+ 1 Lap
19	Lance Stroll	Sauber	52	+ 1 Lap
RET	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	7	Floor