1) Italian Grand Prix
Anyone who wasn’t filled with happiness by the sight of Pierre Gasly on the top step of the podium at Monza has a heart of stone. It was one of those F1 moments where fans could set aside their personal preferences and favourite drivers, and just enjoy what this sport is all about. Back at the beginning of September I thought it would be the most shocking, surprising and drama filled race of he year, but it found stiff competition in Mugello, Sakhir, Bahrain and Turkey. However, it was the combination of an utterly unpredictable race, buckets of heart and emotion, some gorgeous overtakes, and two standing starts thrown in for good measure, that made the Italian Grand Prix my favourite race of the season.
There was a little bit of the slip stream drama we’ve become accustomed to at Monza during qualifying, but predictably Mercedes locked out the front row. That was as good as it would get for the Black Arrows though, with their race coming apart almost instantly as Valterri Bottas had a terrible get away, losing four places. The Finn was then stuck in the pack for the rest of the race, swamped by the two Mclaren’s, Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo, who were all helped out by the Red Bull’s poor qualifying and starts. Whereas 2019 had been Ferrari’s best home race since 2010, 2020 will definitely go down as one of their worst. Brake failure for Sebastian Vettel saw him hurtling straight through the barriers at the first chicane, his inability to avoid them and the chunks of polystyrene flying up in the air somewhat hilariously summing up his woeful final year with the team.
With Lewis Hamilton pulling out a lead and most of the cars behind him in a DRS train, the first few drivers, including Gasly, trickled into the pits. Then, in a rather un-dramatic fashion, came the moment that would inject the race with more drama than anyone could have imagined. Kevin Magnussen pulled over on the start-finish straight, bringing out a safety car, the placement of his Haas necessitating the closure of the pit lane. Much has been written about the details surrounding whether and when drivers and teams realized this, but to cut a long story short, only Hamilton and Antonio Giovinazzi pitted, Mercedes being caught out by Hamilton’s proximity to the pit entrance due to his sizeable lead. In two laps time, with the pack nicely bunched up, the pit lane re-opened and everyone who was still on their first set of tyres (bar Stroll) headed in for a new boots, boosting Gasly up the order from 15th to 3rd. Normally pitting right before a safety car is a race-ruining move, and Gasly himself admitted he thought they had chosen the worst possible time to pit, but in this rare circumstance it brought the French driver one step closer to his first F1 victory.
Racing resumed but for just the one lap, as Leclerc brought out the red flag with a monumental crash at the Parabolica. He was ok, but the barrier was not, and all the remaining cars returned to the pits (Lance Stroll managing to sneak in spare pit stop) and waited there for 25 minutes until they were called to the starting grid. The FIA elected to re-start the race with a second standing start for the first time since Spa in 2001, adding an extra element of pressure for those who had lucked out through the safety car and red flag. Stroll unfortunately did not respond well to this pressure, fluffing his start and dropping back, and once Hamilton ducked out of the lead to serve his 10 second stop go penalty for the pit lane entry drama (that was also handed out to Giovinazzi), Gasly found himself leading a Grand Prix for the first time in his career.
As the championship leader fought his way back through the pack from stone cold last, the top three of Gasly, Sainz and Stroll found their groove, and it started to settle in that for the first time in 8 years we might have a podium with no Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull. I couldn’t quite let myself believe it though until the final lap, when Sainz really started to mount a challenge on Gasly, and the tension and excitement reached boiling point. But with the gap between them only 0.415 seconds, the top two crossed the line, Gasly victorious for the first time in F1. Overcome with emotion, he screamed, swore and cried down his radio, and I must admit the reaction from my sofa was pretty similar. After a tumultuous and deeply upsetting 18 months, he had finally achieved his childhood dream. There was cause for tears further down the field as well, as George Russell and Nicholas Latifi thanked the Williams family, on what was their last day with the team, in a series of heartfelt radio messages.
Whilst it was devastating that there were no tifosi for the podium sitters to celebrate with, the usual electric atmosphere of Monza snatched away by coronavirus, it was still an undeniably special prize ceremony. It was Alpha Tauri’s second ever victory (including their years as Torro Rosso), and the setting of their home race made it even sweeter. The image of Gasly sitting alone on the top step, incredulous to what he had just achieved, is one that will be etched in the minds of fans for years to come. The first podium with no previous winners since Canada 2007 (Hamilton’s first win) was a wonderful reminder that regardless of Max Verstappen and Leclerc, the future of this sport is very bright indeed. If you ever need to convince a non-believer of why F1 is the greatest sport on the planet, show them the 2020 Italian Grand Prix.
