“We paid the price for the lack of speed” – Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto

Scuderia Ferrari may have got the best they could have asked for Italian Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc Fourth and Carlos Sainz Jr Sixth place ahead of the Tifosi at Monza National Autodrome.

If you consider how mixed Ferrari’s weekend had been in the run-up to the race, positions four and six were actually a strong result for the Scuderia. Leclerc fought hard the whole race and even finished second after that Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen crashed. In the end, however, the Ferrari’s poor straight-ahead speed made Leclerc a sitting duck, Lando Norris, Sergio Perez (albeit illegal) and Valtteri Bottas they all quickly found their way past the Monegasque driver.

Leclerc, who actually crossed the finish line fifth, was promoted to fourth after Pérez was awarded a five-second penalty for gaining an unfair advantage over Leclerc. The Mexican overtook Leclerc by leaving the track at turn five.

For Sainz it was a largely uneventful race in his first for Ferrari before the Tifosi. The most dramatic moment of the Sainz race came on the first lap, the Spaniard sent Antonio Giovinazzi into a half-turn after the Italian returned to the track in an unsafe manner. Sainz was not to blame for the collision and luckily received no damage to his car.

Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto believes fourth and sixth places were a good result for the team given the speed on the straight line, he congratulated that too McLaren F1 team in her first win in nine years.

“A decent result that reflects what we could expect on a track that definitely doesn’t match the characteristics of our car. In fact, we paid the price for lack of speed on this route, which made us particularly vulnerable on the reboots, as we saw again today. Still, the race pace was reasonably satisfactory, given what we expected for the weekend.

“Congratulations to McLaren who have won for the first time in nine years: they are back in third place but there is still a long way to go this season and we will do everything we can to fight for it until the end.”