In the hometown of Ferrari, Verstappen returned to his dominant form, finishing ahead of the McLarens. A slow pit stop for Norris and team orders for Piastri allowed Verstappen to cruise his way to the top step of the podium.
The top 13 drivers opted to start the race on mediums. Albon in 14th, Ocon in 15th and Stroll in 16th all started the race on hards. Drivers in the pit lane also started on hards, with Lawson in 18th on the soft compound tyres.
Early Retirement
As the drivers returned to the grid from the formation lap, Hulkenberg was instructed to box the car before lights out. The issue was suspected to be mechanical.
Both Verstappen and Norris made a good start, but Norris had wheels on the grass and managed to keep it under control. Verstappen went off at turn one and ultimately had to give the position back to Norris.
Leclerc overtook Championship leader Piastri for 3rd place on Lap 1. 2 laps later Piastri tried to gain position back from Leclerc, but ran out of track.
Verstappen overtook Norris to regain the lead on Lap 4. Lap 6 saw Piastri going around the outside of Leclerc for him to regain 3rd.
Penalty and Pit Stops
Lap 9 saw Ocon receive a 5-second time penalty for forcing another driver off the track. The incident occurred in the earlier stage of the race when Ocon didn’t leave enough space for Stroll in the second chicane.
On Lap 16, Verstappen was over 4 seconds ahead of Norris and 10 seconds ahead of Piastri.
Lawson of the Racing Bulls and Bearman of the Haas team opted to make early pit stops. Later, the Red Bull of Tsunoda entered the pits for him to make his initial stop.
On Lap 21, Bortoleto makes his first pit stop, closely followed by Fernando Alonso. Unfortunately it was a slow stop for the Sauber which allowed Alonso to overtake him in the pitlane.
Retirement
Following his pit stop, Alonso was going very slowly down the back straight. The Spaniard came into the pits and confirmed the cause of his retirement was his front right suspension failing.
Contact Between Sister Teams
On Lap 28, Lawson and Tsunoda made contact 3 times into turn four. Lawson emerged ahead but eventually gave the position back.
Verstappen’s blistered tyres allowed Norris to bring down the gap between them down to 5.8 s on Lap 31. Verstappen responded to this pace and managed to extend the gap to 6 seconds again.
Leclerc pitted from 4th on Lap 34 and emerged on hard compound tyres comfortably ahead of Russell.
Verstappen In The Pits
Lap 38 saw Verstappen pit from the lead for fresh hard tyres. He re-emerged in 3rd ahead of Hamilton. McLaren reacts to this by staying out.
Sainz and Bearman make contact at turn 4. The Williams of Sainz was trying to make an overtake around the outside, but the two collided and spun on track. This later resulted in Bearman receiving a 10-second time penalty.
Piastri pits from 2nd for soft tyres, whilst Norris stays out on Lap 46. Norris followed a lap later, but it was a slow stop, leading to Piastri undercutting him.
McLaren gave Piastri the order to give the position back to his teammate.
Chequered Flag
Reigning champion Max Verstappen won the Italian. His first win since Imola 2025. Norris came second (+19.139), followed by Piastri (+1.988), shrinking the gap between them to 31 points.
The rest of the point scorers include Leclerc in 4th, Russell in 5th, Hamilton in 6th, Albon in 7th, Bortoleto in 8th, Antonelli in 9th and Hadjar in 10th.