Sunday at Monza: drama between rivals Verstappen and Hamilton, triumph for McLaren

Sunday of the Monza Grand Prix weekend could be described as dramatic, to say the least. On the one hand, there was the dramatic crash between title rivals Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, but on the other, there was the bliss at McLaren after winning their first double victory in years.

Ricciardo seized his opportunity from Verstappen

Daniel Ricciardo immediately grabbed his chance at the start and took the lead from Verstappen, who didn't get away as well as the McLaren. Meanwhile, Lando Norris did an excellent job of defending his third place from Hamilton's attacks, and so the McLarens led the title contenders in the early stages of the race.

The McLarens proved difficult to overtake on Monza's blazing fast circuit, and so Verstappen and Hamilton were left hanging behind Ricciardo and Norris respectively. Meanwhile, their teammates Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez were advancing. Especially Bottas, who had to come from the last row of the grid, went through the field like a hot knife through butter.

McLaren outsmarted Red Bull Racing with their pit stop strategy and managed to prevent an undercut by Verstappen. The Dutchman came in a lap later than Ricciardo but lost ten seconds in the dramatic pit stop that followed. As a result, he ended up behind Hamilton, who had yet to make his stop.

Drama between title rivals Verstappen and Hamilton

After the first half of the season saw Verstappen and Hamilton go head-to-head, it was waiting for the two rivals to crash together. That happened today, after an unusually slow pit stop by Verstappen, who attempted to overtake Hamilton after his (also poor) stop.

In turn one, it went wrong. The rivals didn't give each other an inch and flew off the track together, resulting in the bizarre image of the Red Bull on top of the Mercedes. At McLaren, the party started already: this meant a double victory for the team.

Meanwhile, Pérez had worked his way up from ninth place on the grid, and so a podium seemed possible for Red Bull after all. In his fight with Charles Leclerc, he cut a part of the chicane, for which the stewards gave him a time penalty of five seconds. He lost his place on the podium to Bottas, who had worked his way up to fourth place.

For McLaren, a dream came true as Ricciardo crossed the finish line with his teammate in his wake. It was the first time this season that a team managed a double victory, and that made the champagne taste all the sweeter for the team from Woking.