Red Bull’s Max Verstappen wins the Italian Grand Prix as the race ends behind the Safety Car.
The 2022 Italian GP was similar to the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP in that there was a Safety Car called with few laps remaining.
At Monza, however, the race finished behind the Safety Car – with Max Verstappen beating Charles Leclerc – while in Abu Dhabi, the race was incorrectly restarted with one lap remaining.
Leclerc managed to hold onto first place after the first lap, but he came under threat from Russell who attacked into Turn 1. Verstappen had a stellar opening lap, going from 7th to 3rd.
Verstappen was cruising towards his fifth win in a row – 16 seconds ahead of the two-stopping Charles Leclerc – when Daniel Ricciardo ground to a halt in his McLaren on Lap 47 of 53, stopping his car in between the Lesmos.
While yellow flags were immediately waved, there was a slight delay before a Safety Car period was signalled.
Still, Verstappen and Leclerc followed many of their rivals into the pits on the following lap, fitting soft tyres as teams expected the race to get under way again shortly for an epic finale.
However, valuable time was wasted when the Safety Car came out in front of George Russell’s car, in third, and not Verstappen. It also didn’t initially release Russell and the 11 cars between him and the leader.
Mercedes told Russell to overtake the Safety Car, although the British driver refrained, with no green light showing to give him confidence to do so.
Another hindrance was the fact marshals were unable to move Riccardo’s car, and a cherry picker only started to recover it with three laps remaining.
Shortly after, Russell and the other cars were allowed to make their way past the Safety Car, but Verstappen only got to his required position at the front of the Safety Car queue at the end of Lap 51 of 53.
Verstappen and Leclerc were split by two lapped cars – Yuki Tsunoda and Valtteri Bottas – on the penultimate lap, when the Monegasque was told before the final lap that this was how it would finish.
That prompted cries of “come on, the track is clear” from Leclerc, and boos from the fans. Verstappen was also booed on the podium.
My Goat Sports 