Max Verstappen was simply unstoppable as he claimed a fifth win in a row at the Italian Grand Prix.
Starting seventh, the Red Bull driver made a blistering start to run third by the start of Lap 2 and wasted little time to claim second behind polesitter Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari then elected to pit the Monegasque just as an early Virtual Safety Car was ending as Sebastian Vettel retired from his final race at Monza with a power unit problem.
But when Verstappen made his stop, the pace of the Red Bull on fresh tyres was too strong for Leclerc, as Max gained a second per lap at times.
That caused the Scuderia to switch Charles onto a two-stop strategy, but he simply didn’t have the pace even on fresh softs to catch the world champion.
A late stoppage for Daniel Ricciardo caused a Safety Car that threatened to shake up the closing laps, but recovery took too long meaning the race finished under yellow.
George Russell had a relatively lonely race to third, as the late Safety Car halted Carlos Sainz’s bid for a podium as he finished fourth from 18th on the grid.
A long first stint and switch to soft tyres paid dividends for Lewis Hamilton, as he used his fresh rubber to clear Pierre Gasly and two McLarens in fifth.
Sergio Perez had a tricky race, losing places at the start from 13th and pitting early with smoky brakes on his Red Bull.
A long run on hard tyres promoted the Mexican up to fifth before a pit-stop shortly before the Safety Car dropped him behind Hamilton to sixth.
Lando Norris also had an eventful race, as a poor start dropped him to sixth from third on the opening lap.
But a similar strategy to Hamilton allowed the Briton to make up for a slow pit-stop as he led the midfield in seventh.
Gasly was eighth, Ricciardo’s retirement moved Nyck De Vries up to ninth, as he scored points on debut for Williams and Zhou Guanyu rounded out the top 10.
It was a bad day for Alpine as Esteban Ocon was 11th and Fernando Alonso retired, allowing McLaren to gain ground in the battle for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Mick Schumacher was 12th despite a battling drive, ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Yuki Tsunoda and Nicholas Latifi down in 15th.
Kevin Magnussen was the final finisher in 16th.
Full results from the Italian GP can be seen below:
RACE CLASSIFICATION (LAP 53/53)
Points on debut for @nyckdevries ?#ItalianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/OCVijR05ho
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 11, 2022