Race Report: Difficult Italian Grand Prix at Monza

George Russell finished P5 and Kimi Antonelli P9 in today’s Italian Grand Prix.

Both drivers lined up on the third row of the grid on the Medium tyre, George P5 and Kimi P6.

George maintained his position on the opening lap but Kimi unfortunately dropped to P10 having suffered from excess wheelspin off the line.

Having threatened the Ferrari of Leclerc early, George dropped back to manage his tyres before boxing for the Hard compound on lap 27.

Having cleared the Red Bull of Tsunoda on track for P9, Kimi then deployed his pace to overcut several cars ahead.

He stopped on lap 28 and rejoined in a net P7, also on the Hard compound tyre.

As others pitted, George and Kimi cycled through the field. Kimi was unable to hold off the Medium shod Williams of Alex Albon and dropped to P8.

Kimi was adjudged to have forced Albon off track as part of the move and was handed a five-second time penalty. That dropped him to P9 behind Bortoleto in the final standings.

For George, he ran a lonely second stint to come home in P5.

Kimi Antonelli

That wasn’t the Italian Grand Prix we were hoping for. I had a bad start with too much wheelspin. I lost a lot of places and that obviously really compromised my race unfortunately. It was a shame as my pace on the Medium tyre once I was in clear air was good. In the closing stages, I was trying to defend from Albon but unfortunately picked up a penalty. That dropped me one more position at the flag which is frustrating.

There are positives we can take from the weekend still. I took a step forward in Qualifying and my feeling with the car was good. Hopefully we can get into a better rhythm on these weekends, starting in Baku, and that will enable us to show exactly what we can do when performing at our optimum.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

That was a frustrating Italian Grand Prix for us. George was able to put some pressure on Charles early on but, even with DRS, we just didn't have the straight-line speed to be able to pass. His race from there was about controlling the gap to the other Ferrari of Lewis behind. We were able to time our stop well to avoid losing position, but we had too much degradation on that stint to be able to challenge Charles ahead. Once that stop was out of the way it was an uneventful run for George to a P5 finish.

For Kimi, his race came undone when excessive wheelspin on the launch led to a slow start. He dropped to P10 and had to battle back from there. He deployed his pace on the Medium compound well to complete the overcut on several of the cars he was racing, but traffic in his second stint left him vulnerable to the Williams of Alex Albon who had started on Hard and ran long. He duly made the pass despite Kimi’s best efforts, leaving him P8 at the flag. In defending from Albon, Kimi also picked up a time penalty that relegated him to P9 at the flag.