2025 Italian GP winners and losers: Max Verstappen’s record-breaking return, McLaren’s controversial driver decisions, Lewis Hamilton’s regained confidence at Ferrari, and more from Monza
Following a dramatic return to action at Zandvoort, the F1 season roared on at the iconic Autodromo Nazionale Monza for the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, September 7.
A record-breaking weekend for Max Verstappen, more micro-management from McLaren, and the tale of two rookies - the ‘Temple of Speed’ has once again delivered some big talking points.
Sports News Blitz’s F1 writer, Henry Eccles, takes a look at five winners and losers to come out of the 2025 Italian Grand Prix.
Winner: Max Verstappen
This was Max Verstappen at his very best, dominant and breaking records while he was at it.
On Saturday, the Dutchman shocked the world when he pipped McLaren’s Lando Norris to pole position, setting the fastest lap ever recorded in F1 history - his 1:18.792s beating Lewis Hamilton’s 2020 record at the same track.
A remarkable achievement considering the trouble his RB21 has given him throughout most of the season, and with the two McLarens just behind him on the starting grid, he still had an awful lot of work to do, or so we thought.
On Sunday, Verstappen was ordered to give up his lead to Norris after cutting the corner at the first chicane, but once he got ahead of the Briton - with a remarkable overtake at the same corner - there was simply no stopping him.
The four-time world champion won the race at a canter, finishing nearly 20 seconds ahead of Norris in P2, and setting the fastest F1 race time ever at just 1:13:23 around the Temple of Speed.
After finishing just sixth last year at Monza, expectations had not been particularly high for Verstappen, but with Red Bull able to use a skinnier ‘Monza-spec’ rear wing this time around, hopes are now high for a strong end to what has been a turbulent season.
The Dutchman currently sits P3 in the Drivers’ standings, 94 points behind leader Oscar Piastri, but now 36 ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell in fourth place.
Losers: McLaren
With Verstappen in red-hot form, a P2 and P3 finish for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, respectively, was the best McLaren could have hoped for.
But once again, their race management was what everyone was talking about.
On Lap 46, with Piastri behind having pitted the lap prior, Norris’ slow stop saw him lose P3 to his team-mate, and with it further ground in their championship battle.
McLaren then ordered Piastri to let Norris back ahead, reminding him of Norris doing the same for him at last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix, before telling the pair they were free to race to the chequered flag.
The Aussie reluctantly obliged, but was not able to catch Norris and finished just over two seconds behind his title rival.
The team orders mean that Norris, who had led his team-mate comfortably throughout, has now cut his gap to Piastri to 31 points - had it not been for the swap, that gap would currently be 37.
Team principal Andrea Stella explained the decision after the race:
“Today, when we started the pit stop sequencing, we started the sequencing pitting Oscar first but with the clear intent that we would have not swapped the positions. Unfortunately, this compounded with the fact that we had a slow pit stop [for Norris].
“Because we had the sequence with Oscar first and then the slow pit stop, we thought that the fair thing to do was to go back to the positions that we had before the pit stops. I’m sure Oscar will be very comfortable with this; he already was comfortable during the race.
“We showed again the values and the principles we have at McLaren.”
Others, however, were not as convinced, believing McLaren may have set a dangerous precedent.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff weighed in on the driver swap:
“There's no right and there's no wrong. I’m curious to see how that ends out.
“You set a precedent that is very difficult to undo. What if the team does another mistake? Do you switch them around?
"But then equally, because of a team mistake, making a driver that is trying to catch up lose the points is not fair either.
“The answer with managing it that way will come towards the end of the season, if it's going to get more fierce.”
With just eight races of the season to go, when even the slightest mistakes make the biggest difference, McLaren will surely face at least one more tough decision before the chequered flag at Abu Dhabi - it is safe to say how they respond will be fascinating.
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Winner: Lewis Hamilton
While a P4 and P6 finish, particularly at Monza, was nothing spectacular for Ferrari, the team will be encouraged by their weekend.
Finishing fourth, Charles Leclerc kept championship leader Piastri honest towards the end of the race.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, who started P10 thanks to a five-place grid penalty, recovered well and pulled off some impressive overtaking manoeuvres to take his best result since the British Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s performance throughout the entire weekend was without a doubt his most positive for the Scuderia, boosted by the Tifosi on his first race for Ferrari at Monza.
The Brit praised the home support post-race: “It’s everything you could ever hope for. Of course, you want to be fighting at the front, but it’s unbelievable to just be on the receiving end. It’s Ferrari all the way around the track.
“You see the pit straight now - it’s as far as the eye can see. It’s a dream to drive for this team, and I’m really just going to work as hard as I can to one day stand on the top of that podium. That’s my dream.”
“I’m genuinely quite happy with the overall performance, and I think that’s as good as we could have got. We possibly could have got fifth if we had maybe undercut Mercedes, but we just missed it, I think.”
Hamilton’s positivity since last weekend’s Dutch GP has been a notable change from how he was before the mid-season break, having described himself as “useless” after qualifying P12 at the Hungarian GP.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur reflected on Hamilton’s race and improved mood:
“It was a very good race and I'm very pleased for him because he had a tough time in July and he's back. He's back on the pace.
“During the race, he was fighting with Russell until lap 30. That means that he was back in a better position. And I think the energy that he received from the Tifosi Wednesday, Thursday in Milano was something very special for him.
“I don't know if it was expected from him or I don't know what he was expecting from this, but it was something mega.
"He had a good weekend, a good mood, good approach and I think it will help [for the rest of the season].”
Loser: Kimi Antonelli
The pressure really is ramping up on 19-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli after he suffered his first public admonishment from Mercedes boss Wolff following an incident-filled weekend at Monza, his home Grand Prix.
Costing himself valuable practice time, Antonelli put his car in the gravel during FP2, and his race start was disastrous - excessive wheelspin caused him to drop from P6 to P10 on the opening lap.
The rookie recovered to P8, but not without being shown the black and white flag for repeated track limit violations.
And while he crossed the line in eighth, a five-second penalty for forcing Alex Albon off track meant he ultimately finished a place lower.
It was the sort of messy performance that you would expect from a rookie, but also one we have seen from Antonelli a tad too often this season.
This has finally led to Wolff criticising him publicly for the first time - a clear change in tone from how the Austrian usually speaks about the Italian youngster.
“Underwhelming this weekend, underwhelming. You can’t put the car in the gravel bed and expect to be there,” Wolff said.
“All of the race was underwhelming. It doesn't change anything in my support and confidence in his future because I believe he's going to be very, very, very good. But today was… underwhelming.”
The Mercedes boss also believed that Antonelli’s apparent timidness to pass Pierre Gasly during the race - spending six laps behind the Frenchman - was a consequence of prior mistakes, such as his race-ending crash with Leclerc at Zandvoort.
And when asked on how to go about losing that “baggage”, Wolff said:
“Just freeing him up, freeing him up. You know, he's a great driver. He has this unbelievable ability and natural talent. He's a racer. It's all there. But we need to get rid of the ballast.”
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Winner: Gabriel Bortoleto
While Antonelli’s season unravels, Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto continued his fine form at Monza - equalling his best qualifying finish of P7 after Hamilton’s penalty saw him bumped up a place for Sunday’s start.
The young Brazilian was lent another hand on Sunday after Antonelli’s five-second penalty, with his consistent pace throughout the race rewarded with a P8 finish, his third points score in four races.
During the early parts of the race, Bortoleto impressed while keeping his manager, Fernando Alonso, behind, although he lost some time during his pit stop.
However, his eventual points finish moves him ahead of Haas’ Ollie Bearman in the Drivers’ standings while also helping Sauber close the gap to Aston Martin in P6 to just six points.
Bortoleto said post-race: “We had a very solid race, with good calls and good strategy. My pit stop was a bit slow, but I also put this on me, because I possibly arrived a bit too long in the pit box and it definitely didn't help.
“Overall, I am happy to have finished eighth and have made it back in the points, this is also important for the Constructors’ Championship.
“I am obviously hungry for more, but I believe this is the best we could have achieved this weekend - it’s been a consistent, productive one, and a good way to close the European leg of the season.”
Up next for F1 is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, held on the streets of the country’s capital, Baku, on the weekend of September 19-21.
The race will get underway on Sunday, September 21, at 12pm UK time, with fans able to catch all the action live on Sky Sports F1.
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