Ferrari seems to find their pace with the last few races in the 2019 F1 season. They might not be getting much closer to the first place, but at least the team manages to add an enormous stack of point to their total and secure second place for the season. While their doing better, it seems as if either one of the Ferrari drivers fails to keep up when the other gets an excellent finish. The Hungarian GP was excellent as both finished in the top five. At the Belgian GP, Leclerc finished in first while Vettel finished in fourth, which is still a great result.
Then comes the Italian GP where Leclerc once again managed to impress with a first-place finish while Vettel failed to bring any points in his 13th place finish. Mercedes got in at second and third, meaning as a team they collected more points than Ferrari, even though Leclerc finished in first. While these race results are rarely predictable, things don’t seem to go well for Ferrari with most of the 2019 races. Mercedes manages to stay consistent and stack up to enjoy points to keep their incredible lead through the 2019 season. Let’s look at some race highlights and see how it all happened.
Italian GP Highlights
The from the start from the race, Leclerc managed to grab the first place with both Mercedes’ on his tale. Vettel had a great start as well in fourth place, giving us reason to foresee a big race for the Ferrari team. Vettel’s trouble started very early as he spun out and went off the track. It all seemed fine as he made his way back, but he went right in front of Lance Stroll as he went through the corner. It resulted in Lance clipping the front of the Ferrari, causing damage to the Ferrari. Of course, this meant a slow lap to the pits and an abrupt stop for Vettel. Since the Ferrari cut off Stroll, Vettel also received a 10 second stop and go penalty.
Through the race, we saw Leclerc and Hamilton battle for first place. There were multiple times when both made mistakes and almost lost their position, but that didn’t stop them from trying. Amazingly, Leclerc managed to handle the pressure and defend the first-place position even after out breaking himself and going over the chicane.
Hamilton was less than a second behind Leclerc for just about the entire race, but at lap 42 the Merc also got on the breaks too late and had to go through the runoff area at the first chicane. It cost him so much time that even Bottas in third managed to get past, giving Leclerc a lead of more than two seconds. The pressure didn’t stay off Leclerc for long as Bottas caught up and now gave the Ferrari a hard time. However, the first chicane seems to be the downfall for the Mercedes team as Bottas went wide and lost the opportunity to overtake.