It's official: there's no stopping Max Verstappen

Unless someone sticks nails in his tires, Mad Max can wrap up the F1 title in two weeks

With Formula One off for a couple of weeks, we thought we'd reflect back one last time on this past Sunday's race at Monza. Enjoy!

This past weekend, Max Verstappen continued to make Saturday qualifying in Formula 1 a mostly irrelevant exercise, as despite being forced to start in seventh position, the Red Bull driver was able to coast home the next day to yet another unchallenged victory.

Verstappen was moved back on the starting grid five places as one of the slew of recipients of engine change penalties, after deciding to bring in a new internal combustion engine from the factory. But since mechanical failure seems to be the only thing that could slow his season at this point, the team had to consider the price small enough to pay.

Charles Leclerc was able to take the pole on merit Saturday, and a rare blunder-free day from the Ferrari team in front of a crowd of their supporters at Monza allowed him a fairly non-contested trip to the second spot on the podium, but once again he had no answer for the speed of the Red Bull driver.

Verstappen was one of nine drivers who took grid penalties for changing various parts of the powertrain, something we’re likely to see more of in the final segment of the season as teams find the series’ limits for engines well short of the necessary amount to stay rolling at a competitive speed.

The sheer number of penalties gave the FIA a bit of a headache in sorting out the starting order following qualifying, but the final result had Red Bull’s Sergio Perez starting 13th, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in 18th, and Mercedes Lewis Hamilton in 19th. McLaren, which has lately been losing ground to Alpine in the battle for fourth in the standings, had a chance to reverse that trend with its cars placed third and fourth on the grid.

Alex Albon was absent for the weekend after a bout of appendicitis that required emergency surgery, and was replaced in the Williams car by reserve driver Nyck de Vries. Despite the late call, de Vries was able to qualify 13th, three spots better than regular Williams driver Nicolas Latifi. Albon would suffer complications from the surgical procedure, but is still hoping to return for the next event on Oct. 2 in Singapore.

The start saw Lando Norris quickly lose ground when his car failed to take off properly, a situation which Norris said was partly due to incorrect launch settings on the car. Leclerc outdueled his front row neighbor, George Russell, at the start, and Russell would for the most part be viewing Leclerc’s rear wing for the remainder of the race.

Verstappen didn’t bother wasting time, picking up three places to move up to seventh on the first lap, then quickly picked off Daniel Ricciardo and Russell to move to second by Lap 5. Sainz similarly had little trouble moving through the field, moving from 18th to fourth by Lap 13. Sergio Perez was unable to join the overtaking party, as a brake overheating issue forced an early stop which, besides the loss of time in the pits, necessitated a long stint on the hard tires.

The rest of the race went largely according to what we’ve come to expect in 2022. Leclerc and Verstappen traded the lead several times during pit stops, but the Red Bull driver’s overall faster lap times meant that by Leclerc’s final tire change, Verstappen was in front to stay.

The biggest drama of the day involving the Top 10 involved Ricciardo, who was in position for just his third point-scoring race in the last eight contests, but had the car stop dead on the track with an oil leak with five laps remaining. Unable to reach an easy position on track to have the car removed, the remainder of the race took place under a yellow flag, as Verstappen crossed the finish line with his fifth consecutive victory and 11th of the season.

Verstappen's 116-point lead in the driver standings means he can clinch the victory as early as the next race, should he win and teammate Sergio Perez finish no higher than fourth. In F1 history, only Michael Schumacher in 2002 and Nigel Mansel in 1992 have clinched with as many races remaining.

Through The Field

* De Vries followed up an impressive qualifying with an equally as impressive race day, finishing ninth. The two points he received make up a third of the entire total for the Williams team this season, and now place him ahead of the team’s other driver. Nicolas Latifi, in the driver standings.

This has certainly done nothing to quell the chatter that de Vries could be replacing Latifi as full-time driver next year (or even sooner). Williams boss Jost Capito praised de Vries and certainly didn’t rule out the possibility that the Dutch driver could become part of the Williams lineup, but as one of the few teams with available seats, Capito may have other choices available to him as well.

* Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly, who continues to be pursued by Alpine for 2023, put in his third strong performance in a row, and has brought his team to within one point of Haas for seventh in the constructor’s championship.

Gasly had been expected to be allowed to leave the Red Bull junior team if they were able to bring in IndyCar driver Colton Herta, but with the FIA now expected to reject Herta’s application for the superlicense needed to join the series, other arrangements would need to be made to free Gasly from his contract.

Sebastian Vettel’s farewell trip to Monza proved to be a short one, as the former Ferrari driver was forced to retire on Lap 12 with engine failure.

Up Next

The teams say goodbye to Europe for 2022 and begin to get ready to build up frequent flyer miles, with two weeks off before the Singapore Grand Prix on October 2nd. Night racing at the Marina Bay Street Circuit will return for the first time in three years following two pandemic-related cancellations.