In 1994, the Ferrari's had their strong V12 engine in the back of the 412T1B, and with Schumacher banned in the Benetton, it was an opportunity for victory with Alesi taking pole position, but Hill took a much needed win to close on the championship battle as Berger came home in second.
In 1995, the race Coulthard span out on the warm up lap from pole position, but a red flag on the first lap gave him another opportunity, but a wheel bearing failure meant he retired early on. Hill, in the other Williams, took out Schumacher in the Benetton and that meant the main front runners were out of the race, with Alesi and Berger leading the race comfortably. But it was all too brief, as Alesi's camera fell off his car, and in the process damaged Berger's suspension and he had to retire. With 7 laps to go, Alesi's car also had wheel bearing issues, with flames visible in the wheel at one stage.
In 1996, Hill crashed out early from the lead, hitting the clumsy tyre wall on the side curb. Villeneuve's Williams was somewhat off the pace, and Schumacher, in his debut Ferrari year, led Alesi's Benetton home to a popular victory for Ferrari in Monza, and the celebration was awesome. For me, I got caught up with the emotions and that victory lives long in my memory.
So for Ferrari fans who have not witnessed a Ferrari victory at Monza since 2010, it has been long overdue, it introduced newer fans to one of the best things about F1 that comes by all too rarely.
Qualifying was amusing to watch, it was always going to happen, with such a premium placed on slip-streaming, that the majority of cars would run out of time to begin their timed lapped. We don't want this to become a common occurrence on the fast tracks, but it was amusing that for all the money and effort and time and thousands of employees to put the best drivers in the world on the track for qualifying and the majority don't make it around on time to get a lap in. There's a brilliant comparison video on the F1 Youtube channel with the benefits of the slip-stream clear to see. In the end, Leclerc got pole by the slimmest of margins, and had Raikkonen not gone off at the last corner, it might have been a Mercedes one-two.
There was an overwhelming will for Leclerc to win in Belgium, because of the tragedy of the day before, but I think there were still quite a majority that willed Leclerc to do it again, in a Ferrari, at the Italian Grand Prix, and to witness that joys of the emotional, fanatical and passionate Tifosi. We know the Ferrari is harder on its tyres, but at the same time, they had such an advantage on the straights, but the Mercedes were always going to be a threat.
Hamilton's Mercedes chased Leclerc through the first stint and into the second stint. Leclerc wasn't faultless, on lap 23, Hamilton was alongside into the second chicane, but Leclerc came across and edged Hamilton off the track. Leclerc was given a 'yellow card' warning, a 'do not do that again' message that was new for this race. It seems to me that you're allowed to push the boundaries once and get a warning i.e. absolutely no consequence at all.
On lap 36, Leclerc locks up into the first chicane, and around Curva Grande pretty much weaved in front of Hamilton, blocking any further attempts into the second chicane. We got nothing from the stewards on that. Hamilton has used up his tyres by lap 42, and locked up into turn 1, giving Bottas the chance to chase Leclerc. But, honestly, if Hamilton couldn't do it, what is Bottas going to do? Run deep into turn 1 and have no meaningful attempt at getting alongside Leclerc. So Leclerc won with a fiesty drive, and deservedly so. He took the good-will of the questionable consistency of the stewards, and became a Ferrari hero (if he wasn't one already!).
However, on the other side of the Ferrari garage, Vettel had another one of those days. He was hard done by in qualifying, that's probably fair to say, being caught up in the traffic on his turn to get a tow. But he's in charge of his own car at the end of the day, and it's your own fault for not getting to the line in time, whatever the agreement is in place. And then in the race, he lost it... again! How many times are we going to say that. Since France 2018, he has lost the car, on average, once every three races. His recovery was just plain dangerous, but understandably sitting still was also dangerous. I don't know why the radio or the marshalls weren't more reactive in telling him when it was clear to go. He clumsily hit Stroll as he went past, and in turn Stroll did the same to Gasly (though Stroll was sitting on the track whereas Vettel was mostly on the grass). I felt the penalty was fair, understanding that all this safety around the cockpit is really hampering safety due to lack of visibility. But once again, it all happened fundamentally because Vettel lost the car. He's now three points away from a ban in three races. Ferrari have got to get a reserve driver ready. I respect Vettel, and it's a tricky car, so perhaps next year's car might be more suited to him, but on the evidence of his driving for over a year now, does he really deserve that top drive? He's had the benefit of doubt a fair too many times now.
Both Renaults had a good weekend, but Daniel Ricciardo in particular was super fast. He claimed Renault's best result for years, having dropped behind Hulkenberg at the start, but passed him by lap 7. They finished fourth and fifth, good work for this weekend, closing in on McLaren, but I suspect fortunes will reverse when we get to Singapore.
Kvyat and Sainz were both having good drives until various issues outside of their control retired their cars.
Perez had another strong run in the Racing Point. Gasly had a good day too, though he punted Grosjean off in turn 1, and was unlucky to be forced off by a rejoining Stroll and lost time when Grosjean had his spin on lap 7, he was running ahead of Perez at that stage and could have finished strongly in the points. Gasly has had two strong runs now, a completely different situation from his Red Bull days.
It's difficult to judge Giovinazzi's performance when Raikkonen had probably the worst weekend of his career (off in FP1, Q3 and 10 second stop-go penalty in the race), but at least the Italian finished in the points at his home race.
Formula 1 is on a wave of good races, and with Red Bull and Ferrari looking strong on various tracks coming up, we should see some more fantastic racing as Hamilton continues to swan towards his inevitable sixth Championship.
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