Max Verstappen Won The Italian GP Behind Safety Car, Leclerc P2

Illustration of F1 (Twitter @f1)

JAKARTA - Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix after finishing behind the safety car to prevent Ferrari's victory at home as polesitter Charles Leclerc was forced to finish runner-up on Sunday, September 11.

The 24-year-old Red Bull driver looked determined to secure victory before the safety car came out on lap 48 following Daniel Ricciardo's McLaren crashing on the track. This allowed the top five riders to enter the pits and change to soft tires in anticipation of the restart.

However, Ricciardo's car could not be evacuated until lap 53 and the race ended under the control of the safety car as Verstappen led the race ahead of Leclerc. George Russell completes the podium for Mercedes, according to the official Formula 1 website.

It was Verstappen's fifth straight win and eleventh in 16 races this season.

He widened his gap at the top of the standings to 116 points off Leclerc with six races remaining.

If Verstappen scores 22 more points than Leclerc in the next race in Singapore on 2 October, the world title race will be over. Otherwise, the fight will continue to Japan one week later.

"You deserved the victory. Unfortunately, it didn't last until the end but you had the fastest car during this weekend," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told Verstappen as quoted by Antara.

"Amazing job, guys. We have an amazing car," he replied.

It was also the 31st victory of Verstappen's career to surpass the record of 1992 British world champion Nigel Mansell.

Verstappen started from P7 following a penalty related to the power unit component, but managed to move into third at the end of the opening lap and was 19.5 seconds ahead of Leclerc, who started from pole position, with 20 laps remaining.

The Monaco rider pitted for the second time to change from medium to soft tires and exited the track behind Verstappen.

The safety car triggered by the crash of Ricciardo's car dashed tifosi's hopes in which Ferrari ran out of time and opportunity to fight for P1.

Even though the Italian manufacturer pinned a special livery to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Monza circuit, but there was no celebration in his hometown.

"Frustrating end of the race, I was hoping we could get more fights in the race," said Leclerc.

"Unfortunately, but I gave my best today. I hope I can win in front of the amazing fans but I couldn't do that today."

Carlos Sainz finished fourth in his second Ferrari after starting from P18 and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton raced off the back of the grid to finish P5 for Mercedes.

Sergio Perez secured P6 for Red Bull, and took bonus points from the fastest lap, ahead of Lando Norris (McLaren) and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri).

Debutant Nyck De Vries, who replaced Alex Albon with appendicitis, finished P9 for Williams and got the most votes as the best rider of the day. Zhou Guanyu rounded out the top ten for Alfa Romeo.

Before the race started, a minute's silence was observed in honor of the late Queen Elizabeth, who died at the age of 96 last Thursday.