While Kimi Antonelli celebrated a historic victory in front of the Italian fans, Ferrari endured a very different afternoon at its home Grand Prix.
Expectations had been high heading into Monza. Ferrari brought an engine upgrade for the weekend, while Lewis Hamilton spoke confidently about the team’s chances of fighting for victory, and Charles Leclerc hoped to deliver something special for the home crowd.
Those hopes were soon squashed with their first blow in Qualifying, where both drivers felt Ferrari could have executed its strategy better. Leclerc and Hamilton qualified fourth and fifth, before Oscar Piastri’s penalty promoted them to third and fourth on the starting grid.
With both cars starting near the front, Ferrari remained in a strong position heading into Sunday. But things began to unravel almost immediately.
Leclerc and Hamilton went wheel-to-wheel into the second corner on the opening lap, with Hamilton forced wide and into the gravel. The seven-time World Champion dropped several positions and was clearly frustrated by the incident, telling his team over the radio: “Charles pushed me off!”
Things got considerably worse for Ferrari just one lap later. Leclerc lost control of his SF-26 and crashed heavily into the barriers, bringing his home Grand Prix to an abrupt end. Luckily, Charles walked away from the wreckage unharmed.
The Monegasque later explained that he had experienced difficulties with the car during the opening lap and said the team would need to investigate exactly what had happened.
That left Hamilton as Ferrari’s only remaining hope, but after falling down the order on the opening lap, he faced a difficult recovery drive. He eventually worked his way back to sixth, salvaging some points for the team but falling well short of the result Ferrari had hoped for at its biggest race of the year.
Hamilton described the afternoon as “a bit devastating” and “tough to swallow”, while choosing not to elaborate on his opening-lap battle with Leclerc.
It was a particularly difficult result given the scenes unfolding elsewhere at Monza. While thousands of Italian fans celebrated Antonelli becoming the first home driver to win the Italian Grand Prix in 60 years, neither Ferrari driver was there to join him on the podium.
After arriving with hopes of fighting for a home victory, Ferrari instead leaves Monza with just a sixth-place finish and plenty of questions about what might have been.
