| 2023 Italian Grand Prix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 14 of 22 in the2023 Formula One World Championship
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 Layout of theAutodromo Nazionale di Monza | |||||
| Race details[1] | |||||
| Date | 3 September 2023 | ||||
| Official name | Formula 1 PirelliGran Premio d'Italia 2023 | ||||
| Location | Monza Circuit Monza, Italy | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 5.793 km (3.600 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 51 laps, 295.134 km (183.388 miles) | ||||
| Scheduled distance | 53 laps, 306.720 km (190.587 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Sunny | ||||
| Attendance | 304,134[2] | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Ferrari | ||||
| Time | 1:20.294 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Oscar Piastri | McLaren-Mercedes | |||
| Time | 1:25.072 on lap 43 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT | ||||
| Second | Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT | ||||
| Third | Ferrari | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2023 Italian Grand Prix (officially known as theFormula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio d'Italia 2023) was aFormula One motor race held on 3 September 2023 at theMonza Circuit inMonza, Italy. It was the fourteenth round of the2023 Formula One World Championship.
The race was won byMax Verstappen forRed Bull Racing for his tenth consecutive win in a row, breaking previous Red Bull Racing driverSebastian Vettel's record of nine consecutive race victories of2013, and extending Red Bull Racing's consecutive race wins record as a constructor to 15. Verstappen,Sergio Pérez and polesitterCarlos Sainz Jr. ofFerrari made up the podium, Sainz's second podium atMonza Circuit.
The event was held across the weekend of 1–3 September. It was the fourteenth round of the2023 Formula One World Championship and the 93rd running of theItalian Grand Prix.[3][failed verification]
Coming into the weekend,Max Verstappen led the Drivers' Championship by 138 points from teammateSergio Pérez, withFernando Alonso third, a further 33 points behind.Red Bull Racing led the Constructors' Championship, leadingMercedes by 285 points andAston Martin by a further 40 points.[4]
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list, with the exception ofLiam Lawson, who was in the seat originally held byNyck de Vries.[5][a]Felipe Drugovich drove forAston Martin in place ofLance Stroll during the first practice session.[8]
Tyre supplierPirelli brought the C3, C4 and C5 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.[9]
A reduction in allocated tyre sets from the standard 13 to 11, referred to as the Alternative Tyre Allocation (ATA), was trialled again during this Grand Prix, with the intention of making tyre usage more sustainable. This is the second and last time this season that it was trialled after theHungarian Grand Prix. The usage of tyre compounds during qualifying was mandated as hard in Q1, medium in Q2 and soft in Q3, assuming that the weather is dry.[10]
Threefree practice sessions were held for the event. The first practice session was held on 1 September 2023, at 13:30 local time (UTC+2).[11]Max Verstappen topped the session, withCarlos Sainz Jr. recording the second-fastest time andSergio Pérez recording the third-fastest.[12]
The second practice session was held later that day at 17:00 local time (UTC+2).[11] It was topped by Carlos Sainz Jr., withLando Norris recording the second-fastest time and Sergio Pérez recording the third-fastest. The session was red-flagged early whenLance Stroll's fuel system failed, forcing him to sit out the rest of the session. It was later red-flagged again when Sergio Pérez spun into the gravel at turn 11. However, Pérez's crash was late enough in the session to retain the third-fastest time.[13] The third practice session was held on 2 September 2023, at 12:30 local time (UTC+2),[11] with Sainz topping the session ahead of Verstappen andLewis Hamilton.[11]
Qualifying was held on 2 September 2023, at 16:00 local time (UTC+2).[11]
Max Verstappen topped the first session, which was to be set on hard tyres, ahead ofAlexander Albon andCharles Leclerc whileZhou Guanyu,Pierre Gasly,Esteban Ocon,Kevin Magnussen andLance Stroll did not advance to the second session. Zhou,Oscar Piastri, who would recover by recording the eleventh-fastest time,Fernando Alonso and Verstappen had their lap times deleted due to track limits violations.[14]
The second session, set to medium tyres, was also topped by Verstappen, ahead of Leclerc andCarlos Sainz Jr. This time,Yuki Tsunoda,Liam Lawson,Nico Hülkenberg,Valtteri Bottas andLogan Sargeant did not advance to the final qualifying session.[14]
The third session was run on soft tyres. In his fastest lap, Verstappen's left-rear wheel snapped into the gravel but he still set the provisional fastest lap. However, Sainz beat Verstappen to pole by 0.013s, taking pole position in front of theTifosi.[14]
The race was held on 3 September 2023, and was scheduled at 15:00 local time (UTC+2),[11] but was delayed by 20 minutes due to an aborted start procedure.[17]
The formation lap was aborted afterYuki Tsunoda broke down on track; his car was wheeled off via truck. Race control declared an aborted start, but Sainz made a mistake similar to what happened a year later in2024 São Paulo Grand Prix, and led the field away on what he assumed was supposed to be an extra formation lap. Then, following the aborted race start procedure nevertheless, race control imposed a 20-minute delay.[18] A third formation lap was held at the end of the delay, before the race start. As two unscheduled formation laps had taken place, the race distance was reduced by two laps.[17]PolesitterCarlos Sainz Jr. had a good start and held off second-placedMax Verstappen for the first 14 laps. Even when Verstappen was allowedDRS, he was unable to make an overtake as Sainz continued to make a strong defence. Sainz locked up coming into the first corner on lap 15, giving Verstappen a chance. Verstappen eventually passed Sainz and led the race for the next five laps until he came in for a stop. Meanwhile,George Russell andSergio Pérez were having their own fight for fourth place behindCharles Leclerc. On lap 14, Pérez was able to pass Russell at the first corner, but both cars missed the chicane and Pérez had to give the position back. Due to another incident againstEsteban Ocon at the same corner after his stop, in which Russell overtook Ocon off the track, Russell was given a five-second penalty.[19]
Behind Verstappen, who quickly pulled several seconds ahead, the other drivers were having close battles, with Pérez and Leclerc duelling at the second corner.Lewis Hamilton made an error trying to passOscar Piastri, cutting across him in the braking zone of turn 4. Piastri's front wing was damaged and he had to make an unscheduled pit stop for repairs. Hamilton was given a five-second penalty for the collision but he had enough of a gap overAlexander Albon at the end to avoid losing any positions when the penalty was applied. Meanwhile, Sainz would run out of room at the first corner. He was forced not to only take the run-off area, but give Pérez second place. As the race was reaching its closing stages, Leclerc locked up twice and almost collided with Sainz. Sainz himself would lock up into the first corner as Verstappen won his second consecutiveItalian Grand Prix. With ten consecutive wins since theMiami Grand Prix, this brokeSebastian Vettel's2013 record of nine consecutive wins in a row – andRed Bull Racing extended their record of most consecutive wins for a constructor to 15, having won every race since the2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.[19][20]
Notes
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| Previous race: 2023 Dutch Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2023 season | Next race: 2023 Singapore Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2022 Italian Grand Prix | Italian Grand Prix | Next race: 2024 Italian Grand Prix |
