Formula 1’s triple header comes to an end at the historic Monza circuit. Less historic is our 2022 Italian Grand Prix Results, Lap by Lap Review & Summary which offers just enough, much like the race.
Our review covers what happened in the race so you don’t have to with our laps that matter. Plus we throw in our Race Ratings, the Best (Great) and Worst (Grape) drivers of the race weekend.
The 2022 Italian Grand Prix Results, Lap by Lap Review & Summary gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a small serving of cynicism. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
And why not check out our latest Grand Prix Power Rankings which highlight our driver of the season so far and the last race.
2022 Italian Grand Prix Results
THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the Scene – The shortest race of the season awaits, but the high speed, tight chicanes, low downforce nature means it could be plenty of fun. Throw in the fact that there are multiple penalties for car parts which leaves a mixed up grid and we can smell chaos.
Charles Leclerc took Pole Position and keeps it for the race, but it is all over the place behind. You know it’s a mixed up grid when Nicholas Latifi starts from 10th on the grid.
It’s an all Dutch row four as Max Verstappen looks to come through the field again, an easier task than his dominant win from 14th on the grid in Belgium.
A shout out for Nyck de Vries (owner of the DEV below) who starts 8th in his first GP, having replaced Alex Albon at Williams at the last minute, having driven the first practice session of this GP with another team. Of course the first race rookie beat Latifi in qualifying.
TOP 10 QUAL – LEC VER SAI PER HAM RUS NOR RIC GAS ALO
TOP 10 GRID – LEC RUS NOR RIC GAS ALO VER DEV ZHO LAT
Lap 1 – Charles Leclerc gets off well and leads past the first chicane to the enormous roar of the Italian fans. George Russell challenges but falls short and rides over the kerbs at the first chicane. Further back Daniel Ricciardo gets a slice of luck and gets off the line well, his team mate Lando Norris bogs down and loses places. Max Verstappen makes a good start and is fifth halfway around the lap and third by the first chicane of the second lap. All other drivers appear to have behaved themselves, except a small touch between Bottas and Magnussen.
ORDER (After first chicane second lap) – LEC RUS VER RIC GAS NOR ALO DEV ZHO STR
Lap 5 – Max Verstappen slipstreams George Russell and is up to second after just five laps. Too easy that one. Perhaps the F1 Governing Body could consider giving Max a ten place grid penalty at every race.
Lap 6 – Bit of a train forming behind Daniel Ricciardo with six cars withing three seconds. At least he’s fourth instead of 12th or 17th. Further back, Carlos Sainz is making decent progress from the back, he’s already 10th. But Max has killed off a bunch of the early excitement way too quickly.
Lap 8 – Sergio Perez’s brakes are smoking which won’t be great for the 40 odd laps left in the race. Carlos Sainz continues to make good progress and is 8th. Overtakes Alonso for 7th by lap 10.
ORDER – LEC VER RUS RIC GAS NOR ALO SAI DEV ZHO
Lap 12 – VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR – Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin shits itself and despite his great parking job, the Virtual Safety Car is deployed. Will there be pitstops? You ‘d better believe it. Charles Leclerc pits and he comes out just in front of third placed Ricciardo.
Lap 13 – Carlos Sainz overtakes Daniel Ricciardo for fourth. Pierre Gasly also gets past the McLaren, but he made a meal of it had to give it back. He’s still behind Ricciardo after pit stops later on.
ORDER – VER RUS LEC SAI RIC GAS ALO NOR DEV ZHO
Lap 19 – Lando Norris overtakes Fernando Alosno for 7th. Gasly pits from 6th. Nyck de Vries is doing a super job in the Williams, and is still 8th. He’s under warning from stewards about track limits.
Lap 26 – Max Verstappen pits for new tyres and drops from first to second and ten second behind Leclerc. Sainz is third but has not stopped. Russell has pit and is on the hard tyres for a point of difference.
ORDER – LEC VER SAI RUS NOR ALO HAM PER MSC BOT
Lap 28 – TV Coverage advise that McLaren has asked Daniel Ricciardo to hold up Pierre Gasly ahead of Norris’ upcoming pitstop. Given the way McLaren have treated Ricciardo, we hope he tells the teams to stick it up their arse.
Lap 29 – Max Verstappen is flying on his new tyres and sets fastest lap. He’s within eight seconds of Leclerc with much fresher tyres. You can smell a Ferrari strategy f— up from here.
Lap 31 – Carlos Sainz makes his first pit stop from third and ends up 8th, but has soft tyres, which will hopefully breathe a little more life into this race.
Lap 32 – Fernando Alonso makes it two multiple World Champion drivers retirement from two as he joins Vettel in a DNF.
Lap 33 – Carlos Sainz overtakes Sergio Perez for 6th, but even more important is Charles Leclerc pits for new tyres. He rejoins second – two seconds in front of George Russell and appears to be on the best strategy of soft tyres for the last stint. He is around 20 seconds behind new leader Verstappen with just under 20 laps to go. That means a second per lap quicker than Max Verstappen. They will need to be some set of tyres. Less important is Lewis Hamilton pitting and dropping to 12th.
ORDER – VER LEC RUS NOR SAI PER BOT RIC GAS DEV
Lap 36 – Lando Norris is last of the main runners to pit. He ends up rejoins 9th, just in time for Hamilton to overtake him and Pierre Gasly. He is hurt by a slow pitstop. OK, so five seconds isn’t long, but in F1 it would have made the difference between 6th and 9th.
Lap 40 – Quick check on the cars in front – Leclerc is 18.7 seconds behind Verstappen with 15 laps to go. Leclerc is not winning this race by the looks.
Lap 43 – Gap has reduced to 17.9 seconds between Leclerc and Verstappen. Thanks for nothing Ferrari. Although there was some brief excitement as Red Bull mechanic look ready for a change. Sadly it is for Sergio Perez.
ORDER – VER LEC RUS SAI HAM NOR PER RIC GAS DEV
Lap 47 – TV shows a smoking McLaren by the side of the road. Of course it is Ricciardo’s. He has parked it in an awkward position which may bring out the Safety Car.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED eventually by the way.
George Russell pits first as was in the best track position. Max Verstappen pits as does Charles Leclerc. As do most drivers. It might all be a waste of time as the Safety Car may have to stay until the end. Or maybe they let the cars do one lap at the end and allow just a few cars to unlap themselves…..Or maybe a Red Flag and a whole new two lap race.
Lap 51 comes and goes. What a shit way to end the race. Further back one driver didn’t get the memo and weaved almost into the tractor on the track with the broken down McLaren.
FINAL LAP – Safety car wins the Italian Grand Prix, we mean Max Verstappen wins the Italian Grand Prix. Now, we’re not fans of either Verstappen or Hamilton, but there’s a stink to this Safety Car. Given how hard the F1 stewards tried to cook up a world title in Abu Dhabi last season, you’d think they’d give the fans something to finish this as a race.
Not taking away from Max Verstappen and Red Bull who were quick and deserved the win. Charles Leclerc will be happy that Ferrari didn’t stuff him up for a change, but the title is effectively over now.
FINAL ORDER – VER LEC RUS SAI HAM PER NOR GAS DEV ZHO
2022 Italian Grand Prix Results
RACE RATING
Was it a good race, loads of action, tense, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest.
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 6 / 10
Max Verstappen edges closer to the Championship, Charles Leclerc clears out to outright second.
ON TRACK ACTION – 5 / 10
Some good midfield battles, and the on track action was helped with Sainz and Hamilton being far back down the grid. But not much at the front, once the fast car had dealt with the midfield pack.
ENDING 0 / 10
Safety Car finish for a broken down car that could have been dealt with quickly under a Virtual Safety Car. Stinks.
OVERALL RATING 11 / 30
Boxed ticked, another Max win. Slightly disappointing race if we’re honest after a mixed up grid teased potential of a good race.
2022 SEASON RATINGS SO FAR
Want to know what we thought of previous races? Or which ones to to back and watch?
R1 Bahrain Grand Prix 26/30
R2 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix 21/30
R3 Australian Grand Prix 16/30
R4 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix 17/30
R5 Miami Grand Prix 19/30
R6 Spanish Grand Prix 17/30
R7 Monaco Grand Prix 24/30
R8 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 22/30
R9 Canadian Grand Prix 21/30
R10 British Grand Prix 26.5/30
R11 Austrian Grand Prix 24/30
R12 French Grand Prix 17/30
R13 Hungarian Grand Prix 23/30
R14 – Belgian Grand Prix 17/30
R15 – Dutch Grand Prix 21/30
Season Average – 22.2 / 30
2022 Italian Grand Prix Results
GREAT & GRAPE OF THE RACE
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT-EST – NYCK DE VRIES
Started the weekend off as a Mercedes reserve driver who was getting a Practice One stint with Mercedes powered Aston Martin, and ended the race weekend as a point scoring driver on debut for the William F1 team. Gifted a high grid spot due to multiple driver penalties, but he drove superbly throughout, and was in the top 10 for most of the race.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Another cruisey win, and that second drivers world title is now within reach. Went from 8th to 3rd within a lap and a half, and once in front after pitstop for Leclerc he never looked likely really.
CHARLES LECLERC – It may not be a win, but his team didn’t stuff the strategy, the car didn’t break down, and his second place will put him on track for second in the championship.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Another really solid drive and a podium. Helped that he didn’t need to take a penalty, but knows how to drive a race.
CARLOS SAINZ – Decent job from the back of the grid.
LANDO NORRIS – Best of the rest for a change.
THE GRAPE-EST – SAFETY CAR
Allow us one final moan about the Safety Car.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
NICHOLAS LATIFI – If Williams needed more proof that Latifi’s money isn’t better than talent, how about being out-qualified and out-raced by a driver who only found out he was racing for the team on Saturday morning.
KEVIN MAGNUSSEN – Qualified second last and finished behind Nicholas Latifi. Nuff said.
ASTON MARTINS – Both knocked out in Q1 in qualifying and both cars retired from the race.
2022 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated.
