Pierre Gasly and the Cinderella story of the year

PIERRE GASLY: It's the Cinderella story of the year in Formula 1: Last year, Pierre Gasly initially received what was supposed to be the chance of a lifetime at Red Bull. But the Frenchman fell significantly short in the stable duel with mega-talent Max Verstappen and was sent to the subsidiary team Toro Rosso after just twelve races (AlphaTauri since the beginning of the year). In the family environment with the Italians he caught himself again, took his first podium place in Brazil last November, impressed with consistently good performances - and struck ice cold on Sunday when the strange circumstances made it possible. The 24-year-old is the first Formula 1 winner in seven and a half years or 147 races who has not been behind the wheel of a Mercedes, Ferrari or - to be precise: Red Bull. And suddenly he seems called to greater things again.

Pierre Gasly celebrated after his debut victory. © APA/afp / LUCA BRUNO

FERRARI: The traditional Ferrari party had to be canceled because of the coronavirus, but what the Scuderia delivered at the home race in front of almost empty stands could only be endured with sarcasm. Sebastian Vettel lived it out when he remarked: “On Tuesday I'll be in the simulator - at least it'll hold up.” This year's real racing car is a faulty design, which no one in the team management no longer disputes. A race to run away on the power track in Monza was expected, it got even worse: Ferrari was shown in qualifying, in the race a brake failure stopped the four-time world champion Vettel in 18th place (!), teammate Charles Leclerc lost the wildly sliding SF1000 in the fast Parabolica and was lucky to escape the scare. Next weekend, Ferrari will contest its 1000th Grand Prix at the company's own track in Mugello. There, too, the Scuderia should nip any thoughts of a party in the bud with their performance.

LEWIS HAMILTON: The world champion literally floated over the Autodromo Nazionale. On Saturday Hamilton turned the fastest lap in Formula 1 history in qualifying, on Sunday he flew away from everyone - until he and not least the Mercedes command post made a rare mistake under stress: When Kevin Magnussen had to park his Haas near the pit entrance , the race management banned access to the garages. Hamilton didn't notice anything, he turned off, got a new set of tires and only seemed to have increased his advantage. But the signals were there, even if not in his immediate field of vision. The engineers weren't in the picture either. The leader received a ten-second stop-and-go penalty, which, to make matters worse, he had to serve immediately after the race restarted. Hamilton was suddenly last instead of first. The fact that he still stormed up to seventh place and didn't lose any of his lead in the World Championship says a lot about his driving class. Victory number 90 will have to wait, but probably not for very long.

MCLAREN: For Hamilton's former team, the curve is pointing steeply upwards again after years in the Formula 1 no-man's land. In Monza, the traditional British racing team was the second force; Carlos Sainz's first victory in almost eight years was only thwarted by Gasly, who had the best timing of all when changing tires and successfully defended himself against Sainz. The German team boss Andreas Seidl and his colleagues have made a lot of good decisions recently, and even if the race goes normally, McLaren should always be a podium candidate in the future. And Sainz is now probably annoyed that he signed with Ferrari in the spring for the coming season.

SAYING OF THE WEEKEND: “I'll be in the simulator on Tuesday - at least this car will last.” (Sebastian Vettel after his early exit from Monza about his plans for the next few days)

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Pierre Gasly and the Cinderella story of the year

Pierre Gasly sensationally crowned himself the premiere winner at a chaotic Italian Grand Prix on Sunday. Here we deliver the maturity certificate from Monza.

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