How much can a slow pit stop cost? For an answer, ask the Red Bull mechanics. Yes, you read that right, the Red Bull mechanics. The fastest working group in the entire pit lane, able to change tires in just over 2 seconds, made a sensational mistake during the Monza GP, unleashing an incredible domino effect.
The second Italian race on the calendar is also the second appointment where the leaders of Formula 1 decide to experience the Sprint Qualifying with results that are not at all exciting in terms of spectacle.
The winner on Saturday is Valtteri Bottas, but the pole for the real Sunday race goes to Max Verstappen due to the replacement of the Mercedes power unit on the Finn’s car. Hamilton, on the other hand, closes in an anonymous fifth position thanks to a start to forget from second place.
The same uncertain start is then repeated by Max Verstappen on Sunday. The Dutchman nullifies the pole inherited from Bottas at the start and is immediately overtaken by a Daniel Ricciardo in a state of grace.
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
At the Roggia there is already a first moment of tension between Max and Lewis. Hamilton, after having overtaken Norris, gets in the wake of Red Bull number 33 and then joins it on the outside in braking. Verstappen is not there and further delays the braking taking Lewis wide and forcing him to a trajectory cut that recalls what he saw in Imola at the beginning of the year.
The seven-time world champion must thus get back to the back of Norris’ McLaren, while Max continues his hunt for Ricciardo’s MCL35M.
The moment in which the fate of the race takes an unexpected turn occurs on lap 24. The Red Bull wall calls Verstappen to the pit to change tires, but something goes wrong. The mechanics have problems in correctly screwing the front right and the stop turns out to be slow. 11.1 seconds. An eternity.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, in the pits
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Hamilton, meanwhile, manages to overtake Norris with a great maneuver at the Canal and two laps later enters the pits to abandon the hard Pirellis in favor of the medium-sized ones. Even in this case, however, the Mercedes mechanics are not flawless and, thanks to a problem on the rear right, the stop lasts 4.2 seconds.
Hamilton exits the pit lane just as Verstappen arrives on the main straight. The Dutchman is like a bull that sees red waving and understands that he can’t let his rival for the title escape.
Max takes advantage of the wake provided by Norris and arrives at the braking of the first variant completely flanked by Hamilton, but at that moment he makes a maneuver that leaves us dumbfounded.
Anyone who has seen a few races in Monza, even in the propaedeutic categories, knows that two cars are unlikely to go through the first chicane side by side. Usually the pilot outside is forced to cut the variant passing on the bollards. Max, however, opts for an unusual maneuver.
Verstappen joins Hamilton and decides to keep the car on the asphalt trying to walk the chicane side by side with the Mercedes driver. The result is catastrophic.
Max hits an internal bollard, loses control of the front of his car and hits Lewis’s Mercedes. The Red Bull takes off on the W12 and then hits the roll bar and halo of Hamilton’s car with the rear end, which do an excellent job of protecting the head of the seven-time world champion.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, and Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
The RB16B remains plant with the nose in the gravel and the rest of the car lying on the Mercedes. Verstappen comes out of the cockpit and returns to the pits without paying a glance to the Englishman, while Hamilton will take a few seconds longer before abandoning his car and realizing that the second close contact after Silverstone will cost him a zero in the standings too.
Obviously the controversy was not long in coming.
Lewis shoots to zero on Max: βI had given him the space on the outside when I reached the braking point of the first variant and he lost control and then ended up on my head. He made an opportunistic maneuver. He was aware that we would collide and he kept pushing β.
Verstappen responds in kind to the Mercedes driver: βHe pushed me to the left already under braking. I went outside, swerved, but he kept pushing me. At a certain point I had no more room to make the curve. Lewis pushed me into the raised curb and in that moment we touched. It’s a shame, but it takes the cooperation of both to tackle that curve. For my part, I think I have done everything correctly β.
The race direction will be called to intervene and will decide to punish Verstappen with the retreat of 3 positions on the grid to be served in the next appointment in Sochi.
In Monza the world duel experiences one of the most intense moments of the whole season and at the end of the race someone remembers the words spoken on the eve by Fernando Alonso: “The one between Max and Lewis at Silverstone will not be the only clash on the track between the two in this season “.
The accident between Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12 and Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B
Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images
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