Dutchman Max Verstappen, solid leader of the Formula 1 world championship, won his tenth consecutive Grand Prix in Italy on Sunday, a record. The reigning two-time world champion edged out his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez and Spaniard Carlos Sainz’ Ferrari in third. Starting on pole in front of a red tide all committed to the Ferrari cause, Sainz resisted 14 laps (out of 51) to the overpowering Red Bull of Verstappen, second on the grid, before being overtaken on the 15th lap.
Relegated to second position, Sainz was then caught by Pérez at the start of the 46th lap, before starting a fratricidal battle for 3rd place with his teammate Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque finally finished 4th, ahead of the two Mercedes of George Russell, 5th and Lewis Hamilton, 6th. Verstappen’s victory – the 12th in 14 races contested this season – allows the Dutchman to erase the record of four-time German world champion Sebastian Vettel (nine wins in 2013) – a record he equaled last week at home in Zandvoort , during the Dutch GP.
In the drivers’ championship, the Red Bull driver now has a lead of 145 points over his runner-up Pérez, the only other driver to have won in GP this season (in Saudi Arabia then in Azerbaijan). Earlier in the afternoon, the start of this 14th round of the season (out of 22) – initially scheduled for 1 p.m. GMT (3 p.m. French time) – had been delayed due to a mechanical problem on the Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri, forced to stop on the edge of the track during the formation lap. The time to evacuate the Japanese car, the start of the race was given about twenty minutes later.
