ITALIAN GRAND PRIX (#1 - MONZA)

I was braced for a dreadful, crowdless weekend at Monza. Last year, Charles won there and made history for Ferrari, but since they didn't make it out of Q2 this year, all I could see was Ferrari's potential for grueling, horrifying shame.

Ferrari has never looked worse - or, at least, they hadn't looked worse before they set a new low today - and I was sure that, without Ferrari up there to fight, we'd get another typical F1 race ending with Hamilton, Bottas, and Max on the podium. At least Crofty was promising that this race would be short.

But I should not have underestimated Monza.

This was one of those races that, while you're watching, feels like you'll never get your blood pressure back to normal. We watched it live, so the immediacy made everything even more uncertain.

I cannot believe I truly saw this race today, ending with Pierre Gasly getting his first win in F1. Not only that, but both other drivers standing on the top steps of the podium were not from any of the three major teams. This was the first time that no one from Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull was on the podium in some insane number of years.

Ferrari did keep up entertained for the first few laps, though. Seb's brakes blew up and he sailed right through the styrofoam dividers on the chicane. It was later revealed that his car was on fire.

Charles, on the other hand, gave me one of the biggest scares I've had yet in F1 when his car inexplicably shot deep into a tire barrier at over 150 mph. He said he was a little sore, but he's okay after that. It was terrifying and no one has said anything more about what happened... but we've all seen Charles Leclerc do a full 360 in the rain in a Sauber and keep it on track. He doesn't mess up. I sense more Ferrari conspiracy here.

This was truly an amazing race. I haven't been this full of pure joy since I was last at Disneyland watching the fireworks.

Here are my notes from this surprising race weekend...

FP1

• Roy Nissani in for George Russell this session

• Announced this last week that Claire Williams is stepping down as team principal and this is her last weekend as acting team principal that Williams will have someone from the Williams family running it so it’s the end of an era

• Lando has a pizza helmet this weekend which I love

• Ted Kravitz is back from his lobster fishing trip and he’s back in the grand stands doing coverage and I missed him

• This is the first weekend that they’ve got the ban on the qualifying modes so it should slow down Mercedes and potentially the driver will make more of a difference

• Apparently the ban of the engine modes was requested by Honda and Renault. Ferrari claims they don’t have engine modes so it doesn’t effect them. Mercedes will have a problem keeping Bottas in the little gap from Hamilton and third

• Max spins very fast into the barrier but it has slowed down a lot by the time he hits with his front wing. He got some air going sideways over a curb which looked like it would hurt his back and bottom. No medical car called though. He does reverse out and keeps the engine on and reversed back on the track and goes back home without his front wing. They red flagged it immediately but it was pretty quickly red flagged for what it actually was.

• Grosjean has a big off over curbs but is fine

• A cute interview of Charles saying he will give 200% to getting the team back to the top as soon as possible and in big contrast with Seb who says he is going to do his job and think of his future

• Bottas calls both of the Williams drivers blind separately

• Seb goes through the gravel and almost lost it but he’s fine

• Bot has an off but he’s fine

• Gasly has a spin into the gravel and yellow flag but he keeps going

FP2

• when starting quali simulations everyone was slow on the back straight like you wouldn’t believe how many cars there were on there at once

• First quali sims without the engine modes in this session

• Seb has a bad spin and almost hits daniel spinning across track but avoided it

• Lando has had engine issues the whole session but when he goes out with five minutes to go, Lando puts third on the time sheets

• Charles almost had a spin in the same place as Seb but ends up going over the grass

• Kvyat nearly drives into Charles on a turn when they both have their DRS open

FP3

• Charles accidentally got in Lando’s way on a fast lap but waved to apologize but Charles was trying to abide by the new speed minimum imposed for the first time this session and he was asking t he team if they were sure everyone was abiding by the new speed limit

• Daniel had to pull over at end of session have a gearbox issue so they red flag it with 8 min left. Turns out it was a fuel pump issue, not a gearbox

• Lando shot to second place at the end of the session and then Sainz went to second

Qualifying

• in Q1, Charles radios in wondering why Seb overtook him and isn’t going to plan which is insane

• Charles puts in a really good time and they delete it for track limits which was totally unfair. I don’t trust the stewards at all.

• Peoples lap times are being deleted left and right because of their tires going over a white line at one turn and a sensor automatically deletes it

• Big rush to the track everyone at once at the end of Q1

• Majorrrr drama with Ocon getting in Kimi’s way at the end of Q1 and Seb in a bad place and gets out in Q1

• Seb threw a tape measure out of his car at the end of Q1 and no one knows how it got there

• Out in Q1: Grosjean, Vettel, Gio, Russell and Latifi

• the stewards are investigating Ocon and Kimi, also apparently involving Latifi, will be investigated at the end of the session

• This is such a mess, so much drama, everyone getting into each others way

• Daniel goes off track on a fast lap but still makes it into Q3

• Out in Q2: Kvyat, Ocon, Leclerc, Kimi, Kmags

• Neither Ferrari into Q3 at Monza for the first time since 1984

• It’s weird. Hamilton, Bottas, Sainz, Perez, Max, Norris, Ricciardo, Stroll, Albon, Gasly

Race

• apparently no penalty for Ocon for driving dangerously against Kimi in qualifying which is dumb

• Latifi breaks smoking after formation lap

• Hamilton keeps first of course but Bottas in second just falls right back to seventh which is bizarre and it must be some kind of mechanical failure

• Bottas reports puncture

• Albon and Gasly have a racing incident on the opening lap and under investigation and then no investigation necessary

• Seb went right through the polystyrene dividers for brake failure and break is on fire like literally on fire, and he gets the car back to the pit but it’s absolutely brutal to watch and just oh the humanity

• A ghost yellow flag around lap 8 probably to clean up SEB debris

• Albon gets a 5 second time penalty for not leaving a cars width when Grosjean snuck up behind him which seems like a weird thing to penalize but I think they have a thing against Albon to be honest

• How did Seb’s brakes even light on fire that fast

• By lap 14 it’s evident that the ban on engine modes has really changed things up because Max is in 7th and two McLarens are in 2 and 3, Perez in Racing Point in 4, Daniel in 5, Bot in 6th and Stroll in 8th. The field is a mess and the engine modes ban has really backfired

• The engine modes ban seems to have not effected Hamilton at all

• Albon is really stuck in the back behind Charles in 14th

• They pit Charles first of everyone around lap 18 and they think they’re being really smart

• 20/53 Kevin pulls over and yellow flag and something broke so he retires

• Kevin pulls the safety car and the pit lane entrance closed at the same time as the safety car and then Ham and Gio pit and under investigation for putting when pit lane closed because they were gonna push Kevin’s car in through the pit lane

• It’s super clear that Ham and Gio pitted when the pit lane was closed

• Now the pit lane is open again and everyone is actually purring now that the lane is open

• 27/50 CHARLES HAS A HUGE HIGH SPEED CRASH INTO THE BARRIER

• Charles is okay but they red flag the race, first red flag since 1995, so they can repair the tire barrier from the huge crash

• Gio gets a ten second time penalty for obviously entering the pit lane when it was closed

• Then it takes the stewards like EIGHT YEARS to say that Hamilton also gets the same penalty as Gio even though exactly the same infraction and Hamilton is complaining he didn’t see the signs because it wasn’t showing at the end of the pit lane even though there are 2 clearly visible signs before that

• Red flag everyone in pit lane

• Hamilton scootering around in the pit lane

• Lando under investigation for going unnecessarily slow through the pit lane

• Hamilton going to have a chat with the stewards to complain about his penalty while they are still in red flag

• At the restart, it’s Hamilton, Stroll, Gasly and Kimi

• This is INSANE

• Hamilton’s trip to the stewards made no difference and he still has to take the penalty YAY

• Ham squabbling with his engineers about when to take the penalty after the standing start

• No further action on Lando

• Max and Perez under investigation for something before the

• No further action for Max and Perez

• Gio serves his time penalty

• 31/53 retire Max with a problem we don’t know what it is yet

• George Russell has a close call trying to get past Grosjean but he’s okay

• Sainz passed Kimi into second

• Ocon passed Kimi and lost part of his car

• THE END OF THIS RACE IS INSANE

• IN THE END, GASLY WINS, SAINZ IN SECOND, STROLL IN THIRD

• IVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS IN F1 BEFORE