Monza

The fight at the front was surprisingly dynamic for Monza, featuring a multi-lap chess match between Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen. Sergio Perez also contributed significantly to the tally, carving his way from fifth on the grid to second by executing late-braking maneuvers on both Charles Leclerc and Sainz. The closing stages were highlighted by a "savage" internal Ferrari battle, where Leclerc and Sainz traded positions and locked wheels in a desperate bid for the final podium spot.

While Max Verstappen eventually checked out to a six-second victory, the gap between the podium contenders remained relatively tight for much of the afternoon. Sergio Perez finished just six seconds behind his teammate, and Carlos Sainz crossed the line only five seconds further back. This proximity was primarily due to Sainz’s stout defending, which prevented the Red Bulls from disappearing into the distance during the first half of the race.

The podium was shared between the two dominant forces of the weekend, Red Bull and Ferrari, but the Top 10 featured a healthy mix of six different manufacturers. Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes occupied the top six spots, followed by a standout performance from Alex Albon in the Williams. Lando Norris brought his McLaren home in eighth, while Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas secured the final points for Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo respectively.

The race featured a respectable amount of passing throughout the midfield, particularly as faster cars like the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull of Sergio Perez worked through their respective qualifying deficits. Alex Albon’s Williams was a focal point of the action, using its immense straight-line speed to frustrate Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in a long-running DRS train. In total, 43 overtakes were recorded, a decent figure for a circuit often dominated by single-file restarts.

While Pirelli brought the three softest compounds in their range (C3, C4, and C5) for the Monza weekend, the race itself saw very little deviation in usage. Almost every significant lap was completed on either the Medium or the Hard compound. The Soft tyre was largely ignored during the Grand Prix as teams feared it wouldn't survive the high-speed lateral loads of the Temple of Speed for more than a handful of laps.

Strategy was largely homogenized due to the Alternative Tyre Allocation (ATA) rules and high degradation, which forced most of the field onto a standard one-stop plan. The majority of the frontrunners started on Mediums and switched to Hards, though Lewis Hamilton provided a slight variation by starting on the Hard compound to go deep into the race. Despite some teams considering a two-stop, nearly everyone committed to the one-stop, which Sainz described as being "on the absolute limit" of the rubber's life.

Reliability was remarkably high throughout the 51 laps, with only one mid-race retirement recorded. Esteban Ocon was forced to park his Alpine in the garage on Lap 39 for precautionary reasons. While Yuki Tsunoda failed to start the race, his issue occurred prior to the lights going out, leaving the actual race duration largely free of mechanical drama or contact-related DNFs.

The start was delayed and somewhat chaotic due to Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri suffering a power unit failure on the initial formation lap. The car became stuck in gear on the grass, leading to two aborted starts and a 20-minute delay while the car was recovered and mechanics were allowed back on the grid. Once the race finally began, the opening lap was clean, with pole-sitter Carlos Sainz successfully defending his lead from Max Verstappen into the first chicane.

Despite the 20-minute delay to the race start caused by the recovery of Yuki Tsunoda’s car, the actual 51-lap Grand Prix ran without any interruptions. There were no Safety Cars, Virtual Safety Cars, or Red Flags once the lights eventually went out. The race distance had to be shortened from 53 to 51 laps to account for the extra formation laps, but the green-flag running was continuous.

The 2023 Italian Grand Prix is primarily remembered for Max Verstappen’s historic 10th consecutive victory, breaking the long-standing record. While the Red Bull dominance was the headline, the race was elevated by Ferrari's refusal to yield easily on home soil. The intense pressure Verstappen applied to Sainz for 15 laps and the subsequent heart-in-mouth battle between the two Ferraris at the end provided genuine tension that was often missing in other rounds of the 2023 season.

The weather played no role in the proceedings at Monza, as the Italian sun beat down on the circuit for the duration of the weekend. High ambient temperatures actually increased tyre degradation, making the one-stop strategy more difficult for the drivers to manage, but there was zero threat of rainfall to spice up the tactical landscape.