More struggles for Red Bull at Monza as McLaren cut title leads down

Max Verstappen saw his championship lead cut, albeit by only eight points, as Red Bull Racing’s struggles continued at Monza in the Italian Grand Prix.

Both the Dutchman and team-mate Sergio Perez were distinctly off the pace of the McLarens, Ferraris and Mercedes cars at the famous circuit, more than six tenths off the pace of pole position man Lando Norris.

And their race pace was not much better than those around them either. Starting on an alternative strategy to the rest, the team from Tilbrook were unable to make it work, with their hard tyres not running as deep into the race as expected. While the Ferraris gambled and one-stopped, allowing Charles Leclerc to win with Carlos Sainz in fourth, Red Bull were only able to gain one place, passing George Russell’s Mercedes, but only after he sustained damage on the opening lap after a brush with Verstappen.

Unable to make an impression on Lewis Hamilton in fifth, Verstappen came home a lonely sixth, ahead of Perez in seventh.

With Norris finishing third behind his team-mate Oscar Piastri, Verstappen’s lead atop the standings is now down to 62, but in the constructor’s championship, Red Bull lead McLaren by just eight points.

“Overall it was a tricky weekend in Monza both in qualifying and the race,” said Verstappen. “In terms of position, we got the most out of today, there was a bad pit stop and we were also running down on power for most of the race but we just tried to do our own race.

“We could’ve executed a better strategy but in hindsight the two-stop was not optimal so it ended up being damage limitation until the end.

“There is a lot to analyse from this weekend. This is just how racing goes sometimes, we need to put our heads down and work as hard as we can to get back to where we want to be. I’ve given a lot of feedback on the car, so in the next two weeks before Baku we need to focus on turning things around and fixing some of the issues we’ve identified over the past few weekends.”

Perez, who finished seventh, added: “Since lap one of FP1 this weekend has been tricky and unfortunately, we just never got there.

“We struggled with pace but more than that it was the balance, so we must work to pull it all together a bit more, between low speed and high speed.

“I am very confident the team here at track and back at home have the solution, we have produced great cars in the past and there is no reason why we cannot get back on track.

“We have no questions now, we know the problem. Given it is all related to balance, if we can find a fix then we can switch it around but for now, it’s head down until we find the answer.”