Three teams arrived at the Italian Grand Prix fighting their rivals. All three left fighting themselves. Oscar Piastri would not tow Lando Norris in qualifying. Charles Leclerc forced Lewis Hamilton wide at the first chicane, then put his own Ferrari into the barrier three laps later. And at Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli started 12th, hunted down teammate George Russell, passed him, and won.
Monza did not just decide a race result. It confirmed exactly what each of these teams has become.
The Result
Antonelli took the chequered flag from 12th on the grid, having started at the back of the midfield after an engine penalty. George Russell finished second, with Max Verstappen completing the podium in third. Norris crossed the line fourth, Piastri fifth, and Hamilton sixth. Pierre Gasly, who claimed a shock pole position on Saturday, came home seventh.
Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll all retired. Mercedes collected 43 points on the day and extended their lead in the Constructors’ Championship to 468 points, while Ferrari managed just eight and McLaren twenty-two.
McLaren: The Tow That Never Came
Saturday’s qualifying session set the tone for McLaren’s entire weekend. Monza rewards the driver who runs in front on the out lap, and every team on the grid knows it. Piastri led the pair out for Q3, but Norris never got the run he needed behind him. Piastri then locked up at the first chicane on his final lap, ruining his own effort and leaving Norris ninth on the grid, with Piastri third.
Nobody inside McLaren has used the word “sabotage,” and this article will not either. But there was a version of that session in which both cars start from the front two rows — and a version in which one starts third and the other ninth. The second version is what happened, because the two drivers are no longer running the session in a way that helps them both.
Sunday’s finishing order — Norris fourth, Piastri fifth — brought just 22 points from a car that had won the previous two races. McLaren remain third in the championship on 287 points, some way adrift of Mercedes’ 468. That gap is not purely down to car performance.
Ferrari: Thirty Seconds That Cost a Home Race
Ferrari brought a Schumacher tribute livery to Monza to mark thirty years, and the largest Tifosi crowd of the season turned out to see it. It did not last long. At the first chicane on lap one, Leclerc and Hamilton ran side by side; Leclerc gave no room, and Hamilton was forced off the road, dropping to eighth. By lap three, Leclerc himself was in the gravel at Parabolica — the same corner that has caught him out before — his home race over.
Ferrari left Monza with one car sixth and one car in the barrier, taking eight points on a day Mercedes took 43. The pace had been there since Friday, and the new engine upgrade had delivered. But a team out of championship contention still let its two drivers collide with each other before the opening lap was finished. It is not the first time Ferrari have faced this question, and Monza suggests they are no closer to answering it.
Mercedes: The Team That Actually Won
This is the result that matters most. Antonelli took his grid penalty on Friday, qualified seventh, and started 12th. Russell led from lap five, but Antonelli’s team put him on a different tyre strategy, giving him fresher rubber later in the stint. By lap 28, under the virtual safety car, Antonelli had closed to within a second of his teammate and was setting the fastest lap of the race. He passed him. He won.
Mercedes did not hold their faster driver back, invent a pace-management call, or ask Russell to defend. They let the quicker car through and took the maximum result from a weekend that began with their championship leader 12th on the grid. Russell now sits more than 50 points behind his own teammate, and Mercedes lead the Constructors’ Championship by 122 points over Ferrari.
Red Bull and Aston Martin: Steady and Sinking
Max Verstappen’s third place was a strong recovery for a car that struggled through Friday practice. Liam Lawson finished 14th after a Saturday exit in Q2 left him with no realistic route forward. Rookie Arvid Lindblad again scored points in eighth, while Yuki Tsunoda’s unconventional hard-tyre strategy brought him home tenth, ahead of three full-time contracted drivers.
Aston Martin’s weekend, by contrast, unravelled further. Fernando Alonso failed to complete a final qualifying run after abnormal data was detected on his power unit, forcing a pit-lane start before retirement with suspected car damage. Lance Stroll retired after turn one with a suspected hydraulic issue. Two cars out, no useful race data, and nothing to carry forward from a new-specification power unit at the one circuit built to test it.
What Monza Actually Revealed
Three teams, three internal battles, three very different outcomes. McLaren’s drivers stopped cooperating and lost track position they may not recover. Ferrari’s drivers raced each other into the first chicane at their home race and finished with eight points. Mercedes, meanwhile, fielded the fastest car, the cleanest strategy, and the only driver pairing that did not cost itself points all weekend.
Two questions remain heading into the next round. Should Ferrari impose a formal lap-one rule between Leclerc and Hamilton? And is George Russell now, in all but name, Mercedes’ number two driver?
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Formula 1, Italian Grand Prix, Monza, Kimi Antonelli, Ferrari F1, McLaren F1, Mercedes F1, F1 2026 Season
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