Max Verstappen took his third victory of the season with a dominant performance ahead of the championship-leading McLarens at the Italian Grand Prix.
The reigning world champion, who started from pole position, crossed the line 19 seconds clear of Lando Norris in second place after the two McLaren drivers became entangled in an awkward team orders controversy in the final ten laps.
McLaren attempted to gain an advantage over Verstappen by leaving their pit stops as late as possible, but in doing so accidentally shuffled Oscar Piastri ahead of Norris when the British driver had a slower pit stop.
McLaren had hoped a late switch to soft tyres would give its drivers a chance to take advantage of a late safety car, but in doing so extended their first stint to 45 laps.
The pit wall called Piastri, who was running third, into the pits first despite a team policy of ensuring the lead car, in this case Norris, would usually get preference.
There was a concern that leaving Piastri out a lap longer than Norris would put him under threat from the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in fourth place, and Norris was told that he would not lose a position by pitting later.
McLaren executed a 1.9-second stop on Piastri, but a slow change on the left front tyre of Norris’ car a lap later saw his pit stop extend over five seconds, meaning he rejoined the race behind his teammate.
Based on the agreement over team radio before the pit stops, the team then ordered Piastri to give the position back to Norris – a decision reminiscent of last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix when Norris was told to cede the lead to his teammate.
Piastri complied with the order but questioned the logic over team radio.
“We did a slow pit stop [on Norris’ car] that’s part of racing, I don’t get what changed here,” he said.
The finishing order means Norris cut the gap to Piastri by three points to 31 — a significant lead for Piastri that remains largely built on Norris’ retirement from last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s victory marks his third of the year following wins at Suzuka and Imola, and the team’s first since Christian Horner was replaced as team principal by Laurent Mekies.
However, a successful title defence has long looked beyond Verstappen’s grasp with a points difference of 94 points to Piastri after 15 rounds and 63 points to Norris.
“It’s super enjoyable to win here,” Verstappen said after the race. “It was a great day for us. Lap 1 was a bit unlucky but after that we were flying. The car was really enjoyable. I could manage the pace quite well throughout that first stint and we pitted at the right time.
“Fantastic execution by everyone by the whole team. The whole weekend, we were on it.”
Norris pulled alongside Verstappen on the run down to Turn 1 at the start, but was forced to take to the grass as the Monza circuit tapered inwards towards the braking zone.
Despite briefly running off the circuit, the McLaren driver was still able to get alongside the Red Bull into the first corner, forcing Verstappen across the inside of the second part of the chicane.
To avoid a potential penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, Red Bull ordered Verstappen to give the position to Norris on the second lap, but such was his pace that he retook the lead around the outside of Turn 1 on Lap 4.
On the incident, Norris said: “I always know it’s going to be a good fight with Max and it was [at the start]. So enjoyable but just not the speed today of Max and the Red Bull.”
While in regard to the team orders, Norris said: “I felt like I was there quite a long time. Every now and then we make mistakes as a team and today was one of them.”
In a performance reminiscent of his recent championship-winning years, Verstappen then comfortably built a lead over Norris that he only relinquished when he for a handful of laps when he made his mandatory pit stop on Lap 37.
Leclerc secured fourth place for Ferrari in front of the team’s home fans ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell in fifth. Lewis Hamilton finished his first Italian Grand Prix for Ferrari in sixth place after a five-place grid penalty for a yellow-flag infringement last weekend saw him start the race from tenth place.
Alex Albon secured seventh for Williams using an alternative strategy ahead of the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in eighth, the second Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli in ninth and Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar in tenth.