F1 Italian GP: Max Verstappen wins as McLaren swaps cars around

Max Verstappen produced a vintage display of dominance at the Italian Grand Prix with a commanding Formula 1 win over Lando Norris, who was at the centre of a McLaren team orders kerfuffle following a slow pitstop.

Norris, who had given up his place in the McLaren pitstop queue to team-mate Oscar Piastri after the two went long into the race on medium tyres, then suffered with a slow stop – prompting McLaren to restore the previous order when Piastri slinked past into second.

For a time, Norris had led the race after fighting with polesitter Verstappen off the line. Verstappen had been asked to give up the lead to Norris as the McLaren driver felt he was ushered towards grass into Turn 1, but ultimately held the inside line. As Verstappen preserved the lead by skipping across the first chicane, he duly ceded control to Norris at the start of the next lap.

However, Verstappen remained within DRS range of Norris, and got a run at the start of lap four to return the favour into the opening corner. From there, Norris very quickly fell out of the one-second buffer as Verstappen began to put together a series of quick laps to build a break over the field.

The Dutchman continued to stretch the gap over Norris over the subsequent 30 laps, cultivating a six-second lead and maintaining the bulk of that as Norris tried to find a way back into the mix.

Verstappen made his sole stop at the end of the 37th lap to trade his aged mediums for a set of hards, while McLaren attempted to go longer in an effort to goal-hang for a safety car and take softs late on.

However, this plan did not appear to be forthcoming; Norris offered team-mate Piastri the chance to stop first for softs on lap 45, which proved to be a fatal call as the Briton then endured a slow stop on lap 46.

McLaren then elected to reverse the positions, noting last year’s Budapest race in its message to Piastri – who offered some resistance but duly obliged in letting Norris pass.

The decision to go long helped Verstappen extend his net lead, as he was given full licence to crack open his advantage on the hard tyres – ending with a 19.2s gap over Norris.

With Norris ahead of Piastri, McLaren drivers flanked Verstappen on the podium after their switch of position, ahead of Charles Leclerc, who had successfully converted his fourth-placed grid position.

Leclerc had got past Piastri at the start of the race, although had been dispatched again by the Australian on that opening lap as he streaked back past at the first Lesmo. The Monegasque got back past on the following tour, forcing Piastri to take a more patient approach – and he duly repassed Leclerc on the sixth lap.

George Russell was fifth over Lewis Hamilton, who recovered to sixth after dealing with a five-place grid penalty for a yellow-flag infringement last week at Zandvoort.

Alex Albon went long and claimed seventh, as Gabriel Bortoleto was bumped up to eighth with Andrea Kimi Antonelli given a five-second penalty for driving erratically. Isack Hadjar completed the top 10 over Carlos Sainz, who suffered a Turn 4 prang with Ollie Bearman to prompt a collision – both drivers quickly got going again.