Formula One: Gasly's momentous Monza victory

A disbelieving Pierre Gasly reflects on his Monza victory. Photo / Supplied

Pierre Gasly's maiden F1 victory in the Italian GP at Monza was momentous for himself and Formula 1.

His victory, the first for a French driver since Olivier Panis won at Monaco in 1996, couldn't have come at a better moment for his F1 career, for Alpha Tauri (formerly Toro Rosso), an Italian team using a Honda engine, or for fan interest, even though the seven races to date have been closed to the public.

An Italian team racing at the Monza circuit known as the 'temple of speed' will help the tifosi cope with the increasing demise of the Ferrari team, which literally ran into more trouble at their home grand prix.

Gasly has been trying to prove to the Red Bull bosses that his demotion last year from the Red Bull team to the inferior sister team formerly known as Toro Rosso, now Alpha Tauri, was unjustified.

The perfect response was to win a race, a tall order considering it had been 2730 days since a non-Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull driver had won one. That was 146 races ago, when Kimi Raikkonen won with Lotus at the 2013 Australian GP. The only time Toro Rosso won was ironically Sebastian Vettel's maiden F1 victory in the 2008 Italian GP.

When championship leader Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the seventh time at Monza, with Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas starting alongside him, it seemed a formality for Hamilton to notch up victory No 90.

But the racing gods had other ideas. Hamilton made a great start, while championship rivals Bottas and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen had bad starts. Hamilton was leading from McLaren's Carlos Sainz on lap 6 when the first dramatic incident occurred.

Vettel, who had failed to make it into Q2 in qualifying, had brake failure in the Ferrari at the end of the main straight and, after taking out the polystyrene barriers, limped around to the pits to retire from the grand prix. Thankfully, with no tifosi to witness the further fall from grace of their beloved Ferrari team.

A few laps late Kevin Magnussen's Haas car innocently came to a halt just before the pit entrance. Normally marshals would promptly remove the car from the side of the circuit but, as they could only push the car forward, the safety-car was deployed and so were flashing red lights to the left of the circuit, signalling the pits were closed. Notwithstanding this, Hamilton pitted, while the rest of the field, except Antonio Giovanazzi in the Alfa Romeo, stayed out.

As a consequence, first Giovanazzi and then Hamilton, were given 10-second stop/ go penalties. Suddenly, this was anyone's race to win other than Hamilton. But just after the safety-car came in and the racing resumed, Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari had a huge off into the barriers at the Parabolica. It looked like another brake failure but the uninjured Leclerc later confirmed it was driver error. The incident meant the race was red-flagged.

When racing resumed, Hamilton pitted to take his time penalty and dropped to the rear of the field. He would eventually make his way up to seventh, which was damage limitation for the championship, because Verstappen, second in the championship, retired from the race at half distance, while Bottas struggled home in fifth.

An unhappy Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff, tried to explain where it went wrong for Hamilton.

Charles Leclerc's Ferrari crashed out at the Parabolica. Photo / Supplied

"Once the safety-car was deployed, they put the entry to the pit lane on red, but it wasn't exactly red, it was two yellow crosses on the outside," Wolff suggested.

"One of the strategists just shouted into the radio whilst we were entering the pit lane. There was confusion. We can't see the signs, and this is just a sequence of events that screwed Lewis' race. Not happy but you have to take it on the chin."

"From the pit wall, you can't see these yellow crosses, and if the driver doesn't spot them, which I believe is absolutely the truth, the only way you can see that the pit lane was closed was on page four of the FIA communications system," he added.

The problem with Wolff's argument is that either all the other drivers apart from Hamilton and Giovanazzi, managed to see the sign, or their teams saw the FIA communication.

Once Hamilton pitted, it was essentially a race between Gasly, who was left in front, and Sainz, while Racing Point driver Lance Stroll and McLaren's Lando Norris squabbled over third place. Gasly and Sainz had both finished on the podium in last year's Brazilian GP, ironically after Hamilton was demoted from second place that day for forcing Alex Albon off the track. Sainz wanted to win badly, and appeared to have the faster car, but there was no stopping Gasly, who had a point to prove, and wasn't going to let a rare chance of victory slip away.

"Honestly, it's unbelievable," Gasly said post-race. "I'm not realising what is happening right now. It was such a crazy race and we capitalised on the red flag...

"The first podium last year I was already like 'wow' and now my first Formula 1 win in Monza. I struggle to realise [what has happened]."

Alex Albon has been under pressure to retain his Red Bull drive in the light of his teammate Verstappen being the only driver to challenge the Mercedes on a regular basis, but team boss Christian Horner has defended Albon's performances.

He might struggle to defend his driver this time after he tangled with Gasly early in the race and later incurred a penalty for a clumsy move on Romain Grosjean, and finished 15th of the 16 finishers. Talk of Albon being replaced by Gasly at Red Bull can only resume after this result, with Hamilton pointing out "he beat the team that demoted him, so it's gonna hurt for them."

Gasly was asked if he was ready for a second chance at Red Bull.

"I think I'm ready," he said. "But it's not up to me to make that call. The only thing I've done since they moved me back to Toro Rosso has been just to focus on myself and just show what I can do."

A delighted Alpha Tauri boss, Franz Tost said he expects Gasly to stay with the team, but only for the rest of the year.

"I'm afraid we're going to lose him again," Tost said. "If so, it means that our team has done well. Otherwise that wouldn't happen."

Sainz believes he would have finished second in the race even if Hamilton had won it, and says he was undone with the pit lane being closed.

"It's incredible that I'm half disappointed with P2, you wouldn't have believed that I would have had a chance to fight for victory today," he told Sky F1.

"We were very close, but honestly with a normal race I think we would have believed that we would have got P2 behind Lewis because we had really good pace. So, I think it's what we deserve, but Pierre in front, it's like wow, how did that happen. It was a bit of bad luck with the safety car, but then we did a good job to recover it with the red flag."

Hamilton's time penalty gave Bottas a great opportunity to close the points gap but, after missing the start, he was unable to improve, convinced he had a slow puncture, but the team could not find any tyre damage. He only gained three points on Hamilton in the championship and remains 47 points behind, but has overtaken Verstappen for second place. Red Bull, like Ferrari, scored no points in this race, and McLaren is getting close to being the second-best team on the grid.

That is good news for Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo, who finished sixth at Monza and moves to McLaren next year when they switch from Renault power to Mercedes power. Sainz on the other hand must be cringing, currently in a car capable of finishing second, but knowing next year he moves to a Ferrari team that goes from one calamity to the next. Credit though to Seb Vettel for retaining his sense of humour, with his post-race tweet.

"On Tuesday I will be in the simulator. At least there the car stops!"

Some F1fans will rejoice at the temporary setbacks suffered by Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, but there will be universal sorrow at the Italian GP being the last race that a member of the Williams' team is part of the team, which they sold to Dorilton Capital, a New York-based investment company.

Sir Frank Williams stopped attending races some time ago, handling over the management reins to daughter Claire, but she too will now leave F1. Williams' drivers George Russell and Nicholas Lafiti both paid tribute to the Williams family for giving them their chance in F1.

In time we may see Gasly thanking Red Bull for restoring its faith in him after an historic win that has put F1 back on the front page of the sports section of newspapers if not the front page. That goes to tennis No1 Novak Djokovic for his DQ from the US Open tennis after hitting a lineswoman after angrily swatting away a ball. It wasn't deliberate, just like Hamilton's pit error, but you pay the price for breaking the rules.

F1 now heads further south in Italy for the Tuscan GP at the Mugello circuit, which is owned by Ferrari and used as it's private test track. It will be Scuderia Ferrari's 1000th grand prix, and if the winning-est team in F1can't improve on recent results, we will know it's problems are deep-seated.