Pierre Gasly emerged as a shock winner as a penalty dropped Lewis Hamilton out of the lead at the Italian Grand Prix.
The Briton was comfortably ahead before the race turned following a mid-race Safety Car and red flag and the AlphaTauri driver was in the right place at the right time to capitalise and claim his first Formula 1.
Carlos Sainz pushed Gasly hard but couldn’t quite catch him on the final lap as the Spaniard settled for second, Lance Stroll completed the unexpected podium.
Race Review
At the start, Hamilton held the lead while Bottas had an awful first lap dropping to sixth behind both McLarens, Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo.
Max Verstappen also lost out, dropping to eighth initially, before repassing Stroll into Turn 1 to sit seventh.
Sebastian Vettel failed to make any ground in the early laps from 17th, but his last Monza race for Ferrari came to an early end following a brake failure on the approach to Turn 1 after the left-rear is seen on fire.
A DRS train behind Lando Norris sees no changes in position as Bottas finds himself under more pressure from Verstappen behind than moving forward.
The race changed when Kevin Magnussen came to a stop on the exit of Parabolica requiring a Safety Car to recover his Haas.
Hamilton would pit from the lead but he and Antonio Giovinazzi entered when they had been closed due to the stranded car and both would be given 10-second stop/go penalties.
On the first lap after the restart, Charles Leclerc, who pitted before the SC, passed both Alfa Romeo’s on the run to Turn 1 to claim fourth.
But he would then crash heavily at Parabolica at the end of the lap causing a red flag to repair the barrier.
Huge off for Charles Leclerc. Race red flagged.#ItalianGP?? pic.twitter.com/esOxiPiBF0
— bear (@beartorius) September 6, 2020
Under the rules, the race resumed with another standing start and Gasly made the biggest move upto second passed Stroll, who fell behind both Alfa Romeos after missing the Roggia chicane.
Hamilton served his penalty, falling to the back of the field, as Verstappen, who had slipped to 14th, retired soon after the restart.
Gasly eked away at the front as Sainz, Stroll and Norris pass Raikkonen for second, third and fourth in quick succession.
Hamilton soon catches the back of the pack and starts coming back through the field after his penalty, passing the ever-falling Raikkonen to be back in the points.
Sainz gradually closes in on Gasly for the lead as the laps tick down but can’t quite get into DRS range of the Frenchman.
Finally, on the final lap, the Spaniard did but it wasn’t enough as Pierre held on to claim his first F1 win and score AlphaTauri’s second win at Monza after Vettel in 2008.
Stroll claimed his second F1 podium in third ahead of Norris in fourth.
Bottas tried to pass the McLaren late on but his terrible race ended in fifth, holding off Ricciardo late on.
Hamilton recovered to seventh in a brilliant response to his penalty, Ocon was eighth with Kvyat and Perez completing the top 10.
In the final race for the Williams family in F1, Nicholas Latifi just missed out on points in 11th, with George Russell 13th.
Albon failed to make any ground through the field in 14th for Red Bull as Giovinazzi was the last finisher after his 10-second stop/go penalty.
Full results can be seen below:
