A Monza the historic cent was staged Italian Grand Prix, theater of the fourteenth appointment of F1 2021 World Championship, which saw the rebirth of one of the historical teams, the McLaren who hadn’t won for nearly a decade and hadn’t scored twice in more than one. Plus the first withdrawal of Hamilton after several years and a record Ferrari updated after nearly three decades. But let’s go in order and find out what are the numbers of this round in Brianza.
QUALIFICATIONS
Come a Silverstone, even in the Temple of Speed qualifying was brought forward to Friday to then leave room for the new season: the Sprint Qualifying. And to get the best time in Q3, which therefore did not qualify as pole position, it was Valtteri Bottas. The pilot of the Mercedes has returned to the top of the official qualifying standings for the first time since the GP of Portugal, where he took his last pole position.
The only other noteworthy statistic on Friday is related to Antonio Giovinazzi who for the third time in his career managed to put in two consecutive Q3 hits. His only precedents are both dated 2019 respectively in Austria-France e Italia-Singapore.
SPRINT QUALIFYING
In the race that is not a race, but a qualification that has little qualification, the first to cross the finish line was Valtteri Bottas. The Finn is therefore the first to be able to achieve the “pole position” on Friday in a victory of the “race” on Saturday. This triumph gave him the 3 points up for grabs, but due to the penalties accumulated for the replacement of the power unit, he was moved back to the back of the grid, leaving the real pole position on Sunday to Max Verstappen.
Looking at the changes in position, the one who earned the most between Friday and Saturday was Nikita mazepin, climbed from 20th to 17th place. Among those at the finish line, however, is Lewis Hamilton what matters most in the downhill, having moved from second position in qualifying to fifth under the checkered flag.
Then there are five riders who have kept the starting positions unchanged: bottas 1°, Norris 4°, Sainz 7°, Perez 9° e Russell 15°. Pierre Gasly he is instead the first driver formally retired from the Sprint Qualifying, with the accident occurred in the Curva Grande on the first lap. TO Silverstone withdrew Peréz but on the penultimate lap and therefore was classified anyway. The French of AlphaTauri he is also the rider who has lost the most positions ever, with the fourteen left on the road compared to the sixth won on Friday.
COMPETITION
The Italian Grand Prix of 2021 mirrored that of last season by proposing the victory of a team after many years. If last year it was the turn ofAlphaTauri, first Red Bull, yesterday it was the turn of the McLaren which achieved his victory number 183. The first success from Brazil 2012 that breaks a fast that lasted for 8 years, 9 months and 18 days than for a team that updates the longest interruption record for a team that has always raced in F1. The previous record belonged to the Williams stood dry for 7 years, 6 months and 19 days.
The latest victory of the McLaren it dated back, as mentioned, to the 2012 Brazilian GP at which there were only Hamilton in McLaren, Alonso in Ferrari, Pérez in Clean, Ricciardo in Red Bull e Vettel in Red Bull. It was also the last Grand Prix of Michael sSchumacher in career.
The English team returned to the top doing everything big, completing a 1-2 that a Woking he had even been missing for 11 years, to be precise from the GP of Canada 2010 with Lewis Hamilton winner ahead of Jenson Button. So much time has passed that the riders on the track yesterday were already in business then Hamilton, Alonso (Ferrari), Vettel (Red Bull) e Kubica (Renault).
For the McLaren this is the 79th powerplant victory Mercedes, but also the first double with papaya colors since the GP of Canada 1968, which was even the first 1-2 of the team. At the time he won Denny Hulme in front of the pilot-owner Bruce McLaren. And with yesterday’s triumph, Daniel Ricciardo has reached eight career successes equaling the New Zealand champion but also Jacky Ickx.
The Australian rider then in turn broke a silence that had lasted since the GP of Monaco 2018, latest success in Red Bull before leaving the team at the end of the season. With this triumph, Ricciardo he is the second driver to take first place with two teams and two different engineers in the power unit era. The only one who had succeeded before him had been Sergio perez (Racing Point-Mercedes e Red Bull-Honda).
The brace of Ricciardo e Norris is the first in the house McLaren, without a rider already world champion from the 2005 Brazilian GP when Juan Pablo Montoya preceded Kimi Raikkonen under the checkered flag. In addition, this is also the first two goals later in a season since 2012. The English team is in fact the first to complete a 1-2 in 2021, making it to the fourteenth race. At the time, however, it was there Red Bull to score the brace in Korea, at the sixteenth appointment on the calendar.
Moving on to the others, on lap 25 we saw the contact between the title contenders Max Verstappen e Lewis Hamilton which decreed the retirement of both pilots, after getting stuck together and stranded in the sand of the first variant. For the seven-time world champion here ends a streak of 61 consecutive races without retirements (excluding Sakhir 2020), which lasted for Austria 2018. If, on the other hand, one must consider the last linked withdrawal of English by accident, one must go back to Spain 2016, with the contact between him and Nico Rosberg on the first lap.
A particular statistic has it that in the last seven retreats of Hamilton to win has always been a pilot or former of the Red Bull. Ricciardo he in fact triumphed yesterday with McLaren and in Canada e Belgium 2014 e Malaysia 2016 with Red Bull. Verstappen won his first F1 race right in Spain 2016, then also winning in Austria In the 2018. The other driver is instead Sebastian Vettel who won a Singapore In the 2015, even if at the wheel of the Ferrari.
With the success of the McLaren yesterday two negative statistics are updated, respectively one for Mercedes and one for Ferrari. Since the last triumph of the German house they have won Alpine, Red Bull e McLaren and never before, in the power unit era, have three teams managed to take the first place between two consecutive victories of the Mercedes. Previously only Ferrari-Red Bull in 2018 and Racing Point-Red Bull in 2020 they had stood between two Anglo-German first places.
With regard to Ferrari, on the other hand, six teams (for now, ed.) did not win between two Reds’ conquests from the 1982-1983 seasons. In fact, from the last registered triumph Vettel a Singapore 2019 they celebrated: AlphaTauri, Racing Point, Mercedes, Alpine, Red Bull e McLaren. At the time between the victory of Germany 1982 and that of San Marino 1983 they had triumphed Lotus, Williams, Renault, Tyrrell, McLaren e Brabham.
On the other hand, the negative roadmap continues to be updated also for Red Bull a Monza. After the first place won by Sebastian Vettel in 2013, the Austrian team no longer obtained a podium in front of the Italian public, having as its best result the fourth place of Ricciardo of 2017.
F1-Author: Marco Colletta – @MarcoColletta
F1-Photos: Alfa Romeo Racing – Scuderia AlphaTauri – McLaren F1 Team – F1
