Monza, Italy – Having qualified behind McLaren; Ferrari; and Mercedes, The Bulls needed to do something different to challenge the front of the pack in Monza. Starting on an alternative strategy to the rest of the field, the early chapters of the race looked promising for both Oracle Red Bull Racing Drivers.
Norris started from Pole Position and got away well. However, Mercedes’ George Russell was forced to cut the first chicane – a mistake that handed a place to Max – Piastri was then able to challenge his team-mate into the second chicane.
Norris almost lost the back end of his car, the Australian muscled through to take the lead. Norris’ slide also allowed Leclerc to pounce and the pole sitter slid back to third ahead of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton.
As the drivers settled into the opening stint, GP came on the radio to tell Max to maintain his pace and let those ahead wear through their starting Mediums. Checo, meanwhile, was stalking Russell and on lap 11 he used DRS to power past Russell into Turn 1 to take seventh place, two seconds behind Max.
Ahead, Norris began to close in on Leclerc, but at the end of lap 14 he was called into the pits in an attempt to undercut the Ferrari. Ferrari responded by bringing Leclerc in at the end of the following lap but despite a slide in the pit entrance from Norris, the undercut worked and the McLaren driver climbed to second place.
Race leader Piastri pitted on lap 17 and as he dropped to P4, Sainz was promoted to P1. And when the Spaniard pitted to shed his starting Medium tyres on lap 20, Max and Checo climbed to P1 and P2 as their longer stint on Hard tyres boosted them up the order.
Max headed into the pit lane on lap 23 to make the switch to a second set of Hard tyres but the stop was slow, with a sticky rear right wheel keeping him stationary for 6.2 seconds. The delay meant he rejoined in sixth. Checo followed him in a lap later but even though the Mexican’s switch to more Hard rubber took a swift 2.8s, he stayed behind the champion, in seventh.
Checo was embroiled in a tough battle with Russell and after Russell was forced to give the place back following a bruising challenge in Turn 1, Mercedes pitted Russell for a second set of Hard tyre on lap 34. Again, it was a slow stop and that gave the Team the chance to call Checo in on lap 36 and get him out ahead of the Mercedes. It was a brief respite, however, and eventually Russell with pace in hand was able to move past the Minister.
Max, meanwhile, held P4 as his second stint drew to a close and he found himself ahead of Norris. Max put up a strong fight, going wheel to wheel with Lando in an attempt to slow his progress up the order, but on lap 41 Norris, aided by DRS, swept past into Turn 1.
That put Norris into P3 behind Piastri but at the front, the shape of the race was changing as Ferrari rolled the dice and went for a one-stop race for Leclerc and Sainz.
Max made his second stop on lap 42 and his switch to Medium tyres left him in sixth behind Lewis Hamilton who was on Hards.
Checo then made his stop for Mediums and he rejoined in P9, behind Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, though he quickly dismissed the Haas driver to claim his eventual finishing position of P8.
At the front, Sainz was struggling on his ageing Hard tyres and on lap 45 Piastri powered past the Spaniard to claim P2, 11 seconds behind race leader Leclerc. Norris then made his way past Sainz on lap 47 to add to the pressure on Leclerc.
The Ferrari driver was up to the challenge, however. And though Piastri managed to close the gap over the final handful of laps, Leclerc was able to maintain his pace and after 53 laps he took his second victory of the season with 2.6s in hand over Piastri.
Norris took third place ahead of Sainz, with Hamilton in fifth place ahead of Max. The champion’s drive to sixth means he managed to somewhat minimise the damage of Norris’ podium and his fastest lap point, dropping eight points to the McLaren driver.
Oracle Red Bull Racing are off to Baku next for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the 15th of September.