Max Verstappen on brink of another world championship after Italian victory

Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday to take another giant stride towards defending his world championship after Charles Leclerc’s pit-stop gamble backfired.

Ferrari driver Leclerc led Verstappen by two seconds at Monza when Sebastian Vettel broke down after a dozen laps and the virtual safety car was deployed.

Leclerc dived into the pits in the hope of making his rubber last to the end, but 125,000 Ferrari hearts sunk in Monza as the Monegasque was forced to concede the lead when he stopped for a second time.

Their hopes were revived when a safety car was sent out on lap 46 of 53 after Daniel Ricciardo stopped in his McLaren.

But the marshals could not clear Ricciardo’s McLaren before the end, and the race effectively finished behind the safety car to boos from the Ferrari fans.

Verstappen took his fifth win in a row, his 11th from 16 this season, and extended his championship lead to 116 points with just six rounds remaining.

"We had a great race, on every compound we were quickest and the degradation was really good," said the Dutch driver.

"We had a really good race car and just controlling the gap in the end as the safety car came out, unfortunately we didn’t get a race restart but overall we had a really good day.

"The start was very good I had a clean chicane and I could quickly get back into my rhythm and get into second. It was really good on the tyres, it was really enjoyable to drive today even though it was quite hot out there.

"It took a bit of time to be put on a great podium like this (Monza) but finally we are on it."

✋ wins in a row