Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen moved another step closer to his second world title with his latest win at the Italian GP, his fifth in succession since the summer break.
The Dutchman built a comfortable lead after another stellar drive before the race was completed under a safety car prompted by Daniel Ricciardo retiring from the race. With his win at the Italian GP, Max Verstappen moves to 116 points ahead of his nearest rival Charles Leclerc and can seal the title in the next race in Singapore if he finishes 22 points ahead of the Monogesque.
The win also happens to be Verstappen’s 31st, lifting him level with Britain’s 1992 champion Nigel Mansell on the all-time list.
Leclerc, meanwhile, finished second after starting from the pole, twice surrendering the race lead in the pitlane while Mercedes’ Geroge Rusell finished on the podium once again in third place.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fourth, after starting 18th with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton managing to finish fifth. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was sixth, after taking a bonus point for fastest lap, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly.
Nyck de Vries finished ninth for Williams in his debut race with Guanyu Zhou rounding up the points finishers.
Verstappen started 7th on the grid but easily cleared the field to romp to third place after just the first lap. He built up 19.5 second lead over Leclerc with 20 laps remaining when the Ferrari pitted from the lead to go from medium tyres to softs.
Unfortunately for the Ferrari driver he never got a chance to test Verstappen as Riccardo stopped his McLaren on track with an engine failure and the race never resumed with the safety car leading the cars past the finish line.
