Heroics Into Saint Devote

Nevermind Ricciardo, Heroics Into Saint Devote is back and better than ever! With a huge announcement on the horizon, it only felt fitting we return today. Last weekend saw multiple records set by a seemingly revitalised Max Verstappen in his RB21. He really does show his class sometimes doesn’t he.

Qualifying

The Italian Grand Prix Qualifying session was without real incident, and saw last week’s podium-finisher Isack Hadjar bow out of Q1 for the first time in his Formula One career. The Frenchman was rather vocal about how unhappy he was with the preparation the team had put in place for him. He was particularly unhappy with the tyres he was given for his final run, evident by the radio outburst when he was informed of his Q1 exit.

The Frenchman missed out on Q2 by a tenth of a second. Joining him in the loser’s circle was Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who extended his own deficit against Aston Martin Teammate to 16-0 now. Colapinto and Gasly made it a double Q1 exit for the Alpine team, and Liam Lawson was the slowest of them all in Q1.

Q2 saw a few surprises, with Verstappen topping the timesheets instead of a Mclaren, but with both Williams cars bowing out at the second time of asking, with Sainz and Albon in 13th and 14th respectively. Bearman suffered an exit too, barely missing out on the top 10 and qualifying 11th. Hulkenberg followed in Bearman’s wheeltracks and went 12th fastest.But it was Ocon, making it a double exit for Haas who was 15th and slowest.

Q3. Now it was time to get serious. It looked like it would be Leclerc and Ferrari who would take the Saturday Spoils. After the first round of runs, it was a Ferrari 1-3 with Piastri splititing the difference, Russell in a shock 4th, Norris down in 5th, ahead of hometown-hero Kimi Antonelli. Tsunoda went 7th, ahead of wily old fox Fernando Alonso. Bortoleto actually went quicker than Norris and went 6th, while Verstappen pipped Leclerc by 0.084s and went to provisional pole.

Fast forward to the final runs and people weren’t really improving. It looked like it could’ve been anybody for pole. Leclerc couldn’t improve, neither could Hamilton. Piastri with two purple sectors went 2nd, Norris went to the top by 0.054s with Piastri’s tow. But while the Mclaren garage were celebrating, Verstappen rained on their parade and pipped Norris by 0.077s, setting both a new lap time record and a new average speed record in the process.

The Race.

The time has finally come. It’s race day. But it was an early bath for Nico Hulkenberg who was told to box and retire the car on the formation lap. The Sauber team noticed a power unit issue on the grid, and thought they could work around it. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The remaining 17 cars took their places on the grid, with Hadjar and Gasly starting from the pitlane. And then? Well the lights went out didn’t they?

It was a lightning start for Norris on the front row, immediately drawing alongside Verstappen. But Max wasn’t letting him have it easy, squeezing him all the way to the right of the track, forcing Norris to break out the MCL39 Lawnmower again. Norris was later on the brakes, taking a leaf out of Verstappen’s tactic book and diving for the apex first. But Verstappen was wise to it, going off-track to avoid a collision with Norris, and sprinting off. Behind them, Leclerc jumped Piastri into the Rettifilo chicane. But around curva Grande, all of the top 4 were barely separated. Through the della Roggia chicane, Verstappen maintained his lead, but with Piastri carrying a little more speed than Leclerc, it opened the door for him. Leclerc made a single defensive move into the first of the Lesmo corners, and Piastri just danced his car around the outside in a stunning lap 1 overtake. Norris however, had some choice words for Verstappen’s antics in the first chicane. Verstappen was told to give back the position, which he did on Lap 2 on the run into Rettifilo.

Leclerc was NOT happy with Piastri’s overtake and decided to pull something special out himself. He switchbacked Piastri twice in two corners, before pinning the loud pedal all the way around the outside of curva Grande. But Piastri was keeping Leclerc in the pressure cooker for a few laps beyond that. Behind the main protagonists, Hamilton and Bortoleto were making great moves to move up a few places.

Onto Lap 4 now and Verstappen was perilously close to Norris’ rear wing. Norris moved defensive into turn 1, but Verstappen showed why he’s a four-time World Champion and simply drove around Norris like he was some sort of mobile chicane. And truthfully, that was the last Norris saw of Max. Max proceeded to jsut control the race and eke out his advantage over the Papaya. But behind, it was Formula One’s old guard going at it. Hamilton moved by Alonso into turn 1 with a great, tidy move, as he attempted to recover from his 5-place grid penalty on his Ferrari-Monza debut. But Russell had a front-row seat, watching Championship Leader Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc have a brilliant battle for the final podium position. Leaving eachother a car’s width and no more, it was a spectacle. But after Hamilton passed Bortoleto for 6th, it was Russell in a Ferrari sandwich.

Esteban Ocon received the first penalty of the race, after failing to leave racing room on his right side for Lance Stroll, who attempted an overtake into the della Roggia chicane. But ahead of them, it was a race on pitlane between master Fernando Alonso and Apprentice Gabriel Bortoleto. Fernando used his wealth of experience to perfectly judge his braking distance and closed right up behind Bortoleto at pit-entry. An okay stop from the Aston Martin crew meant that Sauber’s slow stop was compounded with disappointment after Bortoleto re-emerged behind Alonso. But it didn’t last long. Lap 25 spelt the end for Fernando Alonso, who suffered a suspension failure on the rumble strip on the exit of Ascari. The rear of his Aston showered Bortoleto in sparks before he correctly moved off the racing line and slowed down before retiring in the pit-lane.

But out front, it was a flashback to 2023, Verstappen stretching his legs out infront again. Differently, it’s the second race in a row where Lawson has made contact with another car, this time the Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda, who was having a quiet race. Into the della Roggia chicane, Lawson made contact with Tsunoda on the right hand side, causing both to bail off-circuit, Lawson ahead of Tsunoda.

But what about strategy? Well it seemed like tyre wear was optional this weekend. With last year’s resurfacing and the natural characteristics of the Temple of Speed, the tyres weren’t being punished for any driver really, and pitting couldn’t be justified by the fresh-tyre delta. With an average pit-loss of 25 seconds or so, it made more sense to continue on worn mediums than pit for new hards for the leading group of cars. Consequently, it was not until lap 37 that Verstappen stopped and took the hard compound tyre. Meanwhile, Mclaren were still having a nervous breakdown on the pitwall trying to assess their strategic options. They spoke to their drivers about the soft tyre instead of the hard. But I get the feeling neither driver was really up for the discussion. But once he was back within the ‘safety car gap’, it was cruise control for Verstappen. With Verstappen gaining between a second to two seconds per lap on the Mclaren pair, it seemed like their day was done. But for some reason, they still made a big deal out of which car would pit first, seemingly unnecessarily to us, here at Heroics into Saint Devote.

Piastri stopped first on lap 45, with 8 laps to run. Mclaren actually set the season-record for fastest pit-stop here, with a 1.91s pitstop. But next lap, it was Lando’s turn. He came in for the same tyre, but due to an issue on the front left, his stop was almost 6 seconds. This allowed Piastri an easy undercut, though the team swapped the cars almost immediately, much to Verstappen’s amusement, when told by Gianpeirro Lambiase. But even on the soft tyre, Mclaren didn’t have an answer to Verstappen, not even gaining a tenth on his overall lead. And on lap 53, Verstappen crossed the line first for the first time in 3 months, recording his 3rd win of the season, and two more all-time Formula One records.

The 2025 Italian Grand Prix felt short. But do you know really how short it was? The previous record was held by Michael Schumacher at the 2003 Italian Grand Prix, at a time of 1:14:19.838, but after this year’s the record had the majority of a minute shaved off, with the new record figure being 1:13:24.325. Verstappen also set the record for the highest average speed across a race, at 250.706 km/h (155.781 mph). Norris also set a record for a race fastest lap average speed at 257.781 km/h (160.178 mph).

At the chequered flag, Norris was +19.207 adrift, with Piastri a further 2.144 behind. Fouth went to Leclerc, 4 seconds behind, followed distantly by Russell, over 7 seconds back. In 6th came Hamilton, 4 and a half seconds back, and 7th, some 13 seconds behind was Alex Albon’s Williams in what was a great recovery. Antonelli scored points on home-turf in 8th, ahead of Bortoleto in 9th, who has seemingly really got to grips with his Sauber. And in 10th, Isack Hadjar shows his quality and converts a pit-lane start into points. Sainz, Bearman and Tsunoda fill up 11th, 12th and 13th respectively, ahead of Lawson, Ocon, Gasly, Colapinto and Stroll the last of the finishers. Alonso had his DNF around lap 25 and Hulkenberg did not start.

All in all, not the weekend some of us were expecting here at Heroics into Saint Devote. But it seems, whilst Mclaren’s car is a rocket ship around corners, it doesn’t have the same kind of pace Red Bull or even Ferrari in some cases can muster on the straights. But, it has to be said. The booing and jeering of drivers on the podium is unacceptable, regardless of which drivers or teams you support. Direct your booing to the people who deserve it. Like Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the FIA stewards or even Stefano Domenicali. Have you heard what he’s said?! You will soon.