Ricciardo Heads McLaren 1-2 At Monza After Hamilton & Verstappen Crash Again
Calum Gill 16:42 12/09/2021
Daniel Ricciardo has taken his first win in Formula 1 since May 2018, coming home first to head a McLaren 1-2 in a thriller at the temple of speed - which saw title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen crash out.
Ricciardo was able to end McLaren’s nine-year F1 win drought in emphatic fashion with a measured race-long defensive drive, first leading championship leader Verstappen and then his team-mate Lando Norris for the second half of the race to earn McLaren an unlikely 1-2 finish. Ricciardo, who had struggled to adapt to life at McLaren in the first half of the season, earned a place on the front row in Saturday’s sprint race, and after rocketing past polesitter, and former teammate, Max Verstappen on the run down to the Rettifilio, the Australian never looked back.
The race will also be notable for the collision that took both Hamilton & Verstappen out of the race. Verstappen had suffered a extremely slow pit stop - 11.1 seconds to be precise - which saw him go wheel-to-wheel with Hamilton when the latter rejoined from the pit exit. Verstappen went for a move, but got launched over the kerb, and went over the top of Hamilton, with the halo protecting Hamilton's head from making contact with Verstappen's right-rear tyre. Both retired, beached in the gravel, meaning Verstappen remains five points ahead of Hamilton in the title race.
Valtteri Bottas' race was very good, with the Finn coming through the field to take third place, after the outgoing Mercedes driver started last. Sergio Perez finished third on track, but the Red Bull driver suffered a penalty for cutting the chicane when trying to pass Charles Leclerc's Ferrari. Leclerc was the other beneficiary, with Perex fifth. Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz was sixth, ahead of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso's Alpine. Williams' George Russell and Alpine's Esteban Ocon.
The two title rivals clash - again
Following a rocket start by Ricciardo from second on the grid, Verstappen fell back to second place, as Hamilton battled with Norris for third after failing to gain a place. As the race appeared to settle down into a pattern of both title rivals being held up by a McLaren, Verstappen reacted to Ricciardo's first pit stop by coming in and suffering a slow 10-second pit stop with what appeared to be a poorly positioned front-right wheel.
At the same time, Hamilton was busy overtaking Norris - as he benefited from starting the race on hard compound tyres, with all other front runners on worn mediums - and then came in for his stop. But he also suffered a tardy stop and the pair met by chance on track as Hamilton left the pits. The Briton held the inside line and Verstappen refused to yield on the outside as they entered the slow-speed Rettifilo chicane.
Verstappen had more than half a car's length by Hamilton, but was squeezed off the track and as his Red Bull bounced against the kerbs, a rotating rear wheel launched him into the air and pitched it over Hamilton's car before thumping down on the air box which sits just above the driver's head. The car's flat chassis slid down across Hamilton's cockpit and appeared to make contact with the halo head protection device introduced into F1 in 2018 following the deaths of Jules Bianchi in F1 and Justin Wilson in IndyCar in 2015.
A differing view of events
Both drivers have been summoned to race stewards to discuss the incident, and penalties could be handed out. Hamilton told Sky Sports afterwards: "I'm a little bit stiff and sore on my neck because it (Max's tyre) landed on my head but I'll be OK. The stop was slow and I lost a couple of seconds - I came out, saw Daniel (It was Norris) come past, Max was coming and I made sure to leave a car's width on the outside. I was ahead into turn one, turned into turn two and then Max was on top of me. It's exactly the same scenario that happened at Turn Four where I was in the same position as Max and I gave way, that's racing - this time he didn't want to give way. He knew what was going to happen as soon as he went over the kerb but he didn't back out - I don't know what else to say."
Verstappen said: "We knew it would be tight. I went around the outside and he kept on squeezing me. I just wanted to race. People will start to talk about Silverstone but I didn't expect him to keep on squeezing and squeezing because we still would've had a car's width out of turn two. I don't know why he kept pushing wider and wider. You need two people to work together to make the corner work but unfortunately, we touched. If one guy is not willing to work, it is not going to happen. It's very unfortunate what happened today but I think we are professional enough to step over it. I think for sure we can talk about it."
The rest of the field
Nicholas Latifi narrowly missed out on the points, the newly re-signed Williams driver coming home eleventh. He was ahead of Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel, and Alfa-Romeo's home racer Antonio Giovinazzi, who was penalised early on for colliding with Sainz. Then came the other Alfa-Romeo of Robert Kubica, with Mick Schumacher coming home as the last classified finisher. His Haas teammate Nikita Mazepin suffered an engine failure on lap 41 to take him out of the running. Before Hamilton and Verstappen, both of the AlphaTauri cars of Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda came a cropper before the start.
