Do you reckon the celebrations within the McLaren camp has stopped yet?
Probably not, and who can blame them – they had one of their drivers on the top step of the podium for the first time since the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2012, whilst achieving their first 1-2 since the Canadian Grand Prix in 2010.
And who would have thought that it would be Daniel Ricciardo securing the bag instead of Lando Norris, given how 2021 has gone for the Australian. Good for him.
It was not a victory that was handed to them due to the clash between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Both McLaren boys had been running up near the top throughout the weekend.
On Friday qualifying, both papaya cars placed themselves in fourth and fifth on the grid for the sprint race, with Ricciardo’s fifth being less then half a tenth from Verstappen’s third. The signs were there.
The actual sprint started beautifully for both. Hamilton’s poor start meant they were both promoted at least one position, with Ricciardo taking advantage of Hamilton choosing to defend from Norris who was on his inside heading into turn one. Something that proved key as Norris would still find himself ahead of the Mercedes driver, and managed to stay there for the remainder of the sprint. But, the sprint did teach the team one thing – they need to get ahead of Verstappen early in the race to be in with a chance.
Valtteri Bottas and Verstappen finished around 14 seconds ahead of Ricciardo in just 18 laps of racing, and 18 seconds ahead of Norris. With Bottas’ grid penalty, it was the the Red Bull who can potentially ruin McLaren’s dreams.
Well, he didn’t. Ricciardo effectively had one hand on the trophy after turn one on Sunday. Monza is a place where many expect overtaking to be easy, due to the slipstream effect and heavy braking zones. Sadly, in this era of cars, it is quite the opposite. The slipstream effect proved to be less effective then thought, which leaves drivers stuck in a DRS train – unable to do anything. And if a driver is not at least half a second quicker in each of the corners, they have no chance of overtaking unless the one in front makes an error.
The Aussie had done the hardest part in the first 15 seconds of the race. By jumping Verstappen at the start, the Dutchman could not pull away out-front, nor could he close enough to the McLaren to make a move. From here on out, Ricciardo just had to control things.
Further behind, Norris was the one who found himself in the battles. Hamilton had got the better of the British boy at the start, managing to get in front as they came out of turn two before the fast run through turn three and into the four and five chicane. Thankfully for Lando, Hamilton was going to come up against Verstappen in the next chicane. Hamilton went wide after that tussle, bouncing over the kerbs and gifting the place back to Norris. 1st and 3rd for McLaren after the opening lap.
Obviously, in true Monza style now, it stayed that way for a while. Verstappen was stuck behind Ricciardo, and again Hamilton found himself looking at the diffuser of Norris.
Laps 25, 26 and 27 blew the race up in all sorts of ways.
The pit-stops are when we were able to see McLaren’s true pace and intentions. They opted to pit Ricciardo before Verstappen, in a move that proved successful. Well, very successful considering the Dutchman’s stop would see him frozen for 11 seconds. They crumbled in that situation. From here on out, barring nothing drastic happened, Ricciardo had it as easy as he would have liked.
During this time, Hamilton had eventually found his past Norris before heading into the pits later in the lap to cover Verstappen – whose race was going down the drain.
Then the clumsy crash happened. A crash that left McLaren rubbing their hands together. With Verstappen and Hamilton bringing the safety car out, Ricciardo’s easy ride to the finish was indeed disrupted, and Norris had been jumped by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc’s in the pits.
Ricciardo had to be ready for anything and nail the restart, but little did we know he had more pace in hand that he wasn’t showing – something he would prove on the final lap. It was now up to Norris to secure McLaren’s dream.
Again, that was something he swiftly made sure of. After being close with the Ferrari through turns one and two, Norris had superior speed heading towards the turn three ‘Curva Grande’. Leclerc allowed a slight gap on the inside, Norris pinned the throttle and flew partially on the grass – which took balls – to ensure that the second position was his. The team was in dream land, and deservedly so.
For a moment, there was a slight worry. The other Red Bull of Sergio Perez was moving his way up to Norris, along with a fast jetting Bottas on fresher mediums. However, it was McLaren’s day.
Perez effectively took himself out of contention by getting penalised for the same thing he did the day before in the sprint race, so smart one by him there. And the flying pace of Bottas came to a halt as he approached the rear end of Perez. Once again, McLaren were having a dream day.
It could have turned into a disaster mind you, if the team did not have two levelled headed drivers at the wheels. Norris tried it, as anyone would. He wanted his teammate to pick up the pace, hinting he could go quicker. Everybody in that position tries it. The Brit then easily accepted what he had to do, this was Ricciardo’s win and the team’s 1-2 finish.
But, they had deserved it. Even if Verstappen and Hamilton had remained in the race – they had the pace. On his final tour around the circuit, Ricciardo set the fastest lap of the race whilst taking the victory. They had pace in hand, yet they did not need to show it. Controlled.
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