Not the 2020 Italian Grand Prix Result that anyone would have predicted, as Pierra Gasly won an action packed grand prix at Monza.
What looked a run-of-the-mill Lewis Hamilton was turned on its head when a Haas retired an brought out the safety car and much more action thereafter.
Not often a grand prix result makes you smile, but who could begrudge Pierre Gasly a race win in the junior Red Bull Alpha Tauri, just over a season after being dumped by the senior team. What a beautiful sight to see him just sitting there alone on the podium after all the formalities just taking it in. A nice change from just another win for Hamilton.
With a top six featuring only Bottas’ Mercedes of the big teams, it is a refreshing race to reward those for continuing to bother with F1. Much like Gasly himself.
In the big review, we include a quick summary of the on track action, rate the race and we also work out who the best and worst of the race was, so we can assign points to our overall 2020 Driver of the year.
2020 Italian Grand Prix Result – 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. Normally it is five or ten, so you know it was a good race if there’s more than ten.
Lap 1 – Hamilton sails off from the line, Bottas does less well as has left himself open to attacks from fast starting cars behind. The McLarens charge off the line with Sainz second and Landon Norris up to 3rd from 6th on the grid. Perez and Ricciardo also get past Bottas who finishes the first lap in 6th. Albon, down around 10th, misses the first chicane turn in, he is eventually penalised for it on lap 8. That’s not going to help hi cause at Red Bull.
Lap 2 – Behind Bottas is another Hamilton challenger in Max Verstappen who loses 7th place to Lance Stroll before regaining it the next lap. Lewis’ tow nearest competitors are well back, and it appears only a failure with the usual bulletproof Mercedes will stop him winning.
Lap 5 – The order at the from has settled down, and Hamilton is nearing a three second lead over Sainz, who has a couple of second on team mate Norris. Looking towards the back, Sebastian Vettel is still 17th, where he started from. And is struggling to keep a Williams behind him. He retires a few laps later with brake failure.
ORDER HAM, SAI, NOR, PER, RIC, BOT, VER, STR, OCO, GAS
Lap 10 – Hamilton has a lead of almost half the pit straight by now, and the cars behind appears to be spread out in the telltale dirty air gap that means overtaking will be a ta premium this afternoon/evening.
Lap 13 – First micro nap of the race, thankfully only a 30 second job. Can’t afford too many is the season’s quickest race.
Lap 20 – SAFETY CAR – Kevin Magnussen retires, and while that isn’t very exciting news overall, given his car is in a dangerous position just on the inside of the final corner, it may mean the Safety Car comes out. Which is confirmed a few seconds after typing the previous line. Lewis Hamilton pits, but is it too early???? A potential penalty now hangs over him and Giovinazzi.
Maybe this race will get interesting after all. Thanks Kevin and Haas.
And it does.
Lap 23 – The rest of the field come into pit, including temporary race leader Carlos Sainz. Big shake up as the Safety Car is coming in at the end of the lap, meaning the drivers who pit on Lap 23 are disadvantaged. One big winner is Pierre Gasly, who pitted before Magnussen’s break down, he is now 3rd. The Alfa Romeos are 4th and 5th. Stroll is 2nd but hasn’t pitted.
Lap 24 – MASSIVE CRASH – Charles Leclerc smashes into the outside barrier on the flat out final corner Parabolica. The Ferrari driver is OK, but likely stunned at the ferocity of it. Replays show he loses the back end then over corrects off the track. Who knows if something broke. Ouch, he was top five at the time.
Lap 26 – RED FLAG – Race is stopped, to retrieve the Ferrari and fix the fence. With a penalty looming for Hamilton, and Lance Stroll in need of a pitstop still, Pierre Gasly could be in line for an unlikely victory.
Penalty confirmed for Hamilton – 10 second Stop/Go.
Potential penalty for Norris for slowing up to allow himself a little break to be the second slice of meat in a double stack pit stop.
ORDER – HAM (Penalty to be taken) – STR (does he have to stop or not?) – GAS – RAI – GIO – SAI – NOR – BOT – LAT – RIC
Lap 27 – Safety Car leads the field around and we then wait for a new standing start.
Hamilton storms off the line again, Stroll chokes and is overtaken by Gasly and both the Alfa Romeos. He also goes straight on at the second chicane falling behind Sainz.
Hamilton pits for penalty leaving Gasly and Raikkonen at the front. Hamilton ends up 30 seconds behind the leaders.
Lap 31 – Giovinazzi pits for his penalty.
After struggling since the restart, Max Verstappen retires in the pits.
ORDER – GAS – RAI – SAI – STR – NOR – BOT – RIC – OCO – KVY – PER – Hamilton (15th) is 27 seconds bhind the leader.
Lap 34 – Sainz overtakes Raikkonen for second into the first chicane. He is just over 4 seconds behind Gasly. Stroll gets by Raikkonen a lap later. Norris a lap after that, followed by Bottas a lap after that. Shame, would love to see one last Kimi podium press conference.
Lap 41 – Sainz (2nd) is now under three seconds from Gasly, but only catching at one of two tenths of a second a lap.
Lap 45 – Gap between Sainz and Gasly is now just under two seconds. Both drivers are easy to like, but you have to be secretly hoping for a Gasly win after his dumping from Red Bull last season.
Lewis Hamilton is half a second from a points place. And half a second inside the points a lap later.
Lap 50 – Carlos Sainz seemingly can only get within 1.3 – 1.5 seconds of Gasly, who is driving sensationally leading a grand prix for the first time.
Lap 53 – Sainz has DRS, is half a second behind. It’s a last lap classic between Gasly and Sainz. He gets close, but not close enough. Gasly wins!!!!
2020 Italian Grand Prix – RACE RATING
We rate the 2020 Italian F1 Grand Prix 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
Ferrari are still awful, and now obsolete in terms of importance.
Hamilton’s/Mercedes penalty shows they are human after all.
Are Bottas’ struggles a sign the party mode ban may hurt Mercedes.
Strong McLaren showing hints at some more competitors at the front soon.
ON TRACK ACTION – 9/10
Decent first lap, which saw some mixing up of the order. Great starts from McLarens sent Bottas and Verstappen to 6th and 7th.
It then looked like a modern day procession until Kevin Magnussen’s Haas breaks down…..
Then there’s Leclerc’s crash which causes Lewis Hamilton to pit too early and gain a time penalty, and with various pit stop strategies are left with a top three of Gasly, Raikkonen, Giovinazzi after the race resumes.
Just one Mercedes/Red Bull in the top ten after the second start too for variety.
With a winner coming from outside the top three teams looking a near certainty, it adds extra excitement to the second half of the race.
ENDING 9 / 10
A battle for the lead to the end, can you believe. Between Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz? You’re mad.
It did happen, and it was great.
OVERALL RATING 24 / 30
A dull race sensationally exploded into life, with a jumbled field, and a battle between two drivers looking for a first time win. No Lewis Hamilton or Mercedes win and a dry race as well.
RACE RATINGS SO FAR
Austrian Grand Prix – 28/30
Styrian Grand Prix – 23/30
Hungarian Grand Prix – 15/30
70th Anniversary Grand Prix – 15/30
Spanish Grand Prix – 12/30
Belgian Grand Prix – 17/30
2020 Italian Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season. 3-2-1 for the Great and minus one point for the Grapest races.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT – 1. PIERRE GASLY
Who else could be the winner of the greatest weekend. He probably would have been happy for a handful of points heading into the weekend, but leaves with the winner’s trophy.
THE GREAT – 2. CARLOS SAINZ
One more lap and he would have won the race. Qualified well, and best of the drivers who had the unfortunately timed pitstop.
THE GREAT – 3. LEWIS HAMILTON
Did absolutely nothing wrong as a driver all weekend, caught out by the pitstop being closed. Dominated the race until his pitstop, and charged through the field at the end.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS –
Kimi Raikkonen – Benefitted from an early pitstop, and swamped by the field lap by lap after the restart, but great to see the Finn at the front of a grand prix is any shape or form.
Lance Stroll – Another podium, and unlucky not to grab our third great placing, but sort of threw away a chance to win with the restart and first lap after the restart.
THE GRAPE – =1. SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Knocked out of Q1 on pure pace (the lack of), and then was the first retirement when his brakes failed going into the first chicane, one of the heaviest braking areas in F1. Yeah, it was a pretty grape race.
THE GRAPE – =1. ALEX ALBON
Messy first corner, anonymous race outside the points, then the person he replaced just won in the Red Bull junior car.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Charles Leclerc – Did OK with a shit car, but binned it big into the barrier.
Max Verstappen – A real nothing race for the Dutchman. Next to no impact in the race and retired after the restart.
Valtteri Bottas – Should be there to take advantage of Hamilton’s woes if he wants to be a champion. Barely scored more points than his team mate.
Ferrari – Won’t be lost on Ferrari that the Italian national anthem played at Monza for an Italian F1 team this weekend….
2020 Italian Grand Prix Result – 2020 Driver of the Year – The Martini Trophy
A feature on this website is determining the driver of the year.
This recognises not just the driver with the most amount of points at the end of the year, but factoring performance against their team mate, possibly outperforming the car, and a nod to our Great and Grape above. A full explanation is below the results.
The Martini Trophy is named after one of our favourite F1 drivers of all time, the underrated Pierluigi Martini.
2020 Italian Grand Prix Results – Martini Trophy
Top qualifiers are awarded 3-2-1
Top finishes are awarded 5-4-3-2-1
Out-Race team mate only applies if they both cars finish or unless the other driver was a complete dick.
Best of Rest is the top driver not from Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari in race and qualifying
FirstLap is 0.2 / -0.2 for every position gained / lost on the first lap.
Good and Grape points are award 3-2-1 and -1 for drivers.
2020 Driver of the Year Points so far
2020 Italian Grand Prix Result – Stats and Stuff
Here is a selection of our favourite stats from the season so far.
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