Max dominantly wins GP Italy: 'Fantastic execution by the whole team'

Published on 07 September 2025 by Florence Cobben

Max Verstappen has won the Italian Grand Prix. After a 53-lap masterclass, Max crossed the line with a nineteen-second lead. It’s the four-time world champion’s 66th victory, and a win that was loudly serenaded by the Tifosi. McLaren-drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri completed the podium.

After crossing the line, Max sounds off on the team radio: “Yes! That was unbelievable guys. Insane. Well done everyone, well done. We executed that really well. What an unbelievable weekend. We can be really proud of that. Well done everyone!” He also congratulated Laurent Mekies, who now has his first win as team principal at Oracle Red Bull Racing under his belt.

To the cameras the race winner also had thoughts to share: “It was a great day for us. Of course lap one was a bit unlucky, but afterwards we were flying. The car was really enjoyable, I could manage the pace quite well during that first stint. We pitted at the right time, and with the hard tyres at the end you can push a bit more. They’re a bit more resilient. Fantastic execution by everyone, by the whole team. The whole weekend we were ‘on it’ and it’s of course super enjoyable to win here.”

The interviewer asks how it felt, after Norris passed him at the start of the race? Max: “I could see that immediately the pace was quite good, I just needed to settle in. There was a lot of fighting going on. I could see that the pace was there, and quite quickly we were back in the lead.” In closing, he has some thoughts about a potential repeat of his Monza win in the remainder of the season: “We’ll try for sure. We’ll go step by step, race by race, but of course for us this was an unbelievable weekend. I think a couple of circuits will look better than others, but I think a couple of them should be good for us. We know the McLarens are good through turns and have a strong front wing. On a track like this, where you have a lot less downforce, you can get away with it if you have a bit of understeer in the middle of a turn. There will probably be be a couple of circuits where we have a good chance, but it's not like we've completely turned the car around and now will be leading the pack. We needed to be succesful this weekend, and we were."

For the third time this season, Max Verstappen starts from pole position. In sunny Monza, Max start on medium tyres like the rest of the top thirteen drivers on the grid. Nico Hulkenberg was forced to withdraw from the race – during the formation lap, he was told to retire the car due to a hydaulic issue, and he made his way back to the pits before the race start. Nineteen cares cross the starting line at 15 o’clock. Max gets away clean, but Lando Norris (McLaren) has a promising start. The Brit places his car next to the world champion and tries to attack for the lead. Max cuts a corner to keep his position. A lap later he receives team orders to let Norris by in order to avoid a penalty. Meanwhile, the battle for third place is on between Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari). Leclerc emerges the victor from the skirmish and advances into P3.

Although Max has been demoted to P2, the race is far from over. In the hunt for the lead, the four-time world champion is faster, and in lap four makes his move to reclaim the position of race leader. Max overtakes around the outside into turn one, and emerges ahead of the papaya car. The Dutchman starts putting in fastest lap after fastest lap, increasing the gap to his rival in P2. In lap fifteen, he’s about four seconds ahead of Norris. Piastri, meanwhile, has also reclaimed his starting position. In lap six, he passed Leclerc for third place; the Ferraris simply don’t have the pace that the race leaders do. The Monégasque’s teammate, Lewis Hamilton, nevertheless has a good start to his race – he started P10, but worked his way up to sixth by lap fifteen.

The expectation for the Italian Grand Prix is that it will be a one-stopper. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) makes an early stop in lap eleven, but lap nineteen is when many cars head in. Oliver Bearman (Haas), Yuki Tsunoda (Oracle Red Bull Racing) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) come in for new sets of tyres. The Spanish driver has little time to break in his new set – after a bumpy trip over the kerb stones, his suspension fails and he resigns to being the second DNF of the day. At the front, the drivers stall for time. The chatter on the McLaren radios is to drive as long as possible and come in for softs only towards the end. George Russell (Mercedes) comes in for a swap in lap 28, switching to the hard tyres. In lap 33, with just twenty laps to go, Max is leading the pack with a six-second gap. He cruises ahead of Norris, Piastri, Leclerc and Hamilton. All five are yet to make a mandatory pit stop.

For Max the moment of truth comes in lap 37. He heads into the pits for his stop – the crew come through with a succesful 2.3 seconds stop, swapping the Dutchman’s tyres to hards. He rejoins the grid in third place, and is told by the team to push till the end. Max advances on the McLarens a second a lap, closing the gap blisteringly fast. In lap 46, Piastri heads into the pits to make the switch to a used set of soft tyres. He resurfaces seventeen seconds behind Max. Norris heads in a lap later, but disaster strikes as he suffers a slow 5.9 second pitstop. He returns to the race just as his teammate passes by and into the distance. As the McLarens wring their hands over P2, Max is in a different postcode. Comfortably ahead of the grid, he’s back to making jokes: informed that he just needs to bring it home and take no risks, he quips, “No risk, full push!”

The McLarens, meanwhile, have resolved their moral conundrum: Piastri is asked to swap places with Norris since the Brit had a bad pitstop. Piastri struggles to understand, but complies with team orders. Ultimately to the race win, it makes no difference – Max is in a league of his own. After a stellar performance, he finishes +19.207s ahead of P2, the largest winning margin all season. It’s his third win of the year, and 66th in total. The week saw Max set the fastest lap in Formula 1 history, and win the sport’s fastest ever race. As a cherry on top, the Dutchman is crowned Driver of the Day by the public.

Results Grand Prix Italy: