Max Verstappen produced a vintage display of dominance at the Italian Grand Prix with a commanding Formula 1 win over Lando Norris, who was at the centre of a McLaren team orders kerfuffle following a slow pitstop.
Norris, who had given up his place in the McLaren pitstop queue to team-mate Oscar Piastri after the two went long into the race on medium tyres, then suffered with a slow stop – prompting McLaren to restore the previous order when Piastri slinked past into second.
For a time, Norris had led the race after fighting with polesitter Verstappen off the line. Verstappen had been asked to give up the lead to Norris as the McLaren driver felt he was ushered towards grass into Turn 1, but ultimately held the inside line.
As Verstappen preserved the lead by skipping across the first chicane, he duly ceded control to Norris at the start of the next lap.
In lacklustre race, Norris offered team-mate Piastri the chance to stop first for softs on lap 45, which proved to be a fatal call as the Briton then endured a slow stop on lap 46.
McLaren then elected to reverse the positions, noting last year’s Budapest race in its message to Piastri – who offered some resistance but duly obliged in letting Norris pass.
Charles Leclerc, who successfully converted his fourth-placed grid position to remaining forth in the finish. George Russell was fifth over Lewis Hamilton, who recovered to sixth after dealing with a five-place grid penalty for a yellow-flag infringement last week at Zandvoort.
Alex Albon went long and claimed seventh, as Gabriel Bortoleto was bumped up to eighth with Andrea Kimi Antonelli given a five-second penalty for driving erratically. Isack Hadjar completed the top 10 over Carlos Sainz, who suffered a Turn 4 prang with Ollie Bearman to prompt a collision – both drivers quickly got going again.
