Monza maintained its reputation for delivering exciting races, with Daniel Ricciardo showing an amazing performance at the Italian Grand Prix, taking McLaren’s first win since Interlagos in 2012. But was it Ricciardo or one of his rivals who impressed our Aramco F1 Power Rankings judges the most? in the temple of speed? Your grades are in …
HOW IT WORKS
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Our six-person jury evaluates every driver after every Grand Prix and rates them according to their performance at the weekend of 10 points – which takes the machines out of the equation
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Our experts’ results are then averaged over the season to create an overall performance ranking (at the bottom of the page).
It wouldn’t do Daniel Ricciardo a favor to say that he won the Italian Grand Prix just because of the overthrow of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Ricciardo showed a brilliant performance in the sprint and finished P3. He then continued this brilliance in the Sunday race and took the eighth win of his career after leading impressively into Turn 1.
It was a pleasure to see that electric smile and shoey-back after the race when the judges gave him a near-perfect 9.8.
READ MORE: Ricciardo heads for Earnhardt’s NASCAR Chevrolet after winning the bet with Zak Brown
Had things gone a little differently, Lando Norris could very well have “made a gasly” and celebrated his first win at Monza. That wasn’t the case was partly due to Norris’ own maturity when he decided not to attack teammate Ricciardo in the latter stages of the race – while indulging himself with his enthusiastic response to second place in McLaren’s first one-two since 2010 paid tribute to.
READ MORE: Norris admits he “would have loved to race for victory” at Monza but feared a Hamilton / Verstappen-style accident
Similar to his compatriot Kimi Raikkonen in Austin three years ago, Valtteri Bottas’ dismissal from Mercedes also seemed to release something in him, as he had by far his strongest performance of the season so far.
The P1 on Friday was followed by the sprint win on Saturday – although he might have got his first Grand Prix win since Sochi 2020, he would not have been forced to start from P19 after aggregate penalties before moving brilliantly to third at the end of the race Place recovered.
READ MORE: P3 was the “maximum we could achieve,” says Bottas after recovering from the starting grid in Monza
On a weekend when he was a little green behind the gills and in a Ferrari SF21 that did not meet the requirements of his home track optimally, Charles Leclerc rated his performance at the Italian Grand Prix as one of his top 5 in Formula 1. Leclerc could be second best in his fights with Norris, Bottas and Sergio Perez, but he fought like a lion the whole time to get an excellent P4.
READ MORE: Leclerc describes the battle for P4 at Monza as “one of my five best performances in Formula 1”.
Do you remember when Williams’ earning points was a big deal? Now it is barely noticed as George Russell took his third spot in four races after finishing P9 (and never scoring for the team after 47 races).
It’s true that the removal of Verstappen and future Mercedes teammate Hamilton helped, but this was another good Sunday performance from Russell who helped Williams finish 19 points ahead of Alfa Romeo in P8 in the Constructors’ Championship.
READ MORE: Russell “Capitalizing on Other People’s Mishaps” is key to Williams’ points run
Alonso, who missed Q3 on Friday, was a slow runner of a weekend and improved three places on the Grand Prix grid after the sprint result and various penalties before taking P8 for his eighth points place in the last nine races, on a track that he admitted was not competitive for Alpine.
READ MORE: 6 winners and 5 losers of the Italian Grand Prix – Who finished the triple header high?
It was interesting to see how our judges rated Verstappen and Hamilton, with some clearly feeling that one or the other was more to blame for their Round 26 coming together – and that result then influenced their outcome. The result is that Verstappen took P7 this week after the Dutchman lost both Bottas in the sprint and Ricciardo in the Grand Prix before the Hamilton crash.
PALMER: Did the stewards have the right to punish Verstappen for his clash with Hamilton in Monza?
Shortly after his confirmation with Williams for a third season in 2022 – in which he will partner with Alex Albon – Monza was yet another indication that Nicholas Latifi is moving the dial in the right direction.
Canadian team-mate Russell overtook 14th place in the sprint and made it into the top 10 on points, only to be unlucky with the timing of the safety car, which enabled the fresher-tyred Esteban Ocon to finish him as Latifi for P10. to overtake finished just outside the points.
READ MORE: Ross Brawn on McLaren’s Monza magic and what the Verstappen-Hamilton crash means for the title fight
And so on to the other protagonist of the crash, who wiggled tongues throughout the paddock.
In truth, even disregarding the Verstappen incident, this wasn’t Hamilton’s nicest weekend at a Monza circuit where he has been successful in both the sprint and Grand Prix of Norris in recent years, before that with his title rival .
READ MORE: Hamilton Says Halo “saved my neck” in Monza and comments on Verstappen’s punishment
There are now three significant falls by Carlos Sainz over four Grand Prix weekends as the Spaniard continues to push the limits of his Ferrari SF21. However, the crash in FP2 in Monza particularly shocked Sainz as his confidence was forced to catch up in the sprint and Grand Prix as he promised to analyze a “difficult weekend” in Italy and come back stronger in Sochi.
READ MORE: Sainz Says Ferrari “never had the pace or the tools” to fight for a home win at Monza
2021 Italian GP FP2: Sainz leaves a serious accident during FP2 in Monza to hoist the red flags
MISS
Lance Stroll was just before the cut this week. The Canadian experienced a yo-yo weekend finishing FP1 in P4, only to not make it to Q3, only to run to P7 after holding his record of always starting the Italian Grand Prix among the Top 10.
READ MORE: Aston Martin begins work on the new F1 factory and wind tunnel campus at the Silverstone site
THE OVERALL RATING
The big change this week is the re-entry of Monza winner Ricciardo, who is returning for the first time since the Spanish Grand Prix in May. Leclerc, meanwhile, joins Hamilton on a joint P3, the Monegaske had averaged 8.6 in the last two races.
