Valtteri Bottas wins the Monza Sprint but will miss out on pole after engine penalty.
The Mercedes driver led from lights out to chequered flag, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton couldn’t find the pace and is starting behind two McLaren’s in fifth tomorrow.
Highlights:
At lights out, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas on the medium Pirellis led Max Verstappen in the Red Bull as Lewis Hamilton dropped four places after a terrible start.
Disaster struck Pierre Gasly in the opening moments of the Sprint as he hurtled into the barriers on Turn One – summoning a safety car and marking an end to his day.
When racing resumed, Valtteri Bottas stormed away to begin Lap 4 of the Italian GP Sprint, while Max Verstappen began to chase him down.
On Lap 7, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was holding safely onto third, 1.5s ahead of his teammate Lando Norris in fourth.
After dropping back on Lap 1, Hamilton was charging his way back up the grid in his usual fashion and was hunting down Norris.
With six laps to go this afternoon, Bottas still held the lead and was 1.7s ahead of Verstappen, while the McLaren duo was holding on to their positions as well.
It was a fairly straightforward run to the final lap, with little movement among the field, and ultimately Valtteri Bottas came home victorious after leading from lights out to the chequered flag.
Verstappen remained in second when the Sprint ended and was followed by the two McLaren’s of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris in third and fourth respectively, and will begin tomorrow’s race ahead of Hamilton who finished in fifth.
After being dealt his penalty, Bottas will take off from the back of the grid while Verstappen leads tomorrow’s race from Pole.
More to follow.
