2019 Italian GP: Gained and lost

Let’s take a look at the winners and losers from the 2019 Italian GP. Which drivers managed the maximum number of overtakes during the race? Let’s take a look at the numbers.

Most positions gained

Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen were the big winners during the last race. Checo had to retire during Q1 and took engine penalties, while Max could not even complete a lap on Q1 and also took engine penalties.

Checo has been on fire for the last two races, and this time, gained an impressive 11 positions. The Mexican driver is coming alive once again, and on Monza, managed to keep Max Verstappen at bay in order to finish in 7th place.

Max had a nightmarish start. The Dutchman crashed against Checo before reaching turn 1, but showed the type of driver that he is by managing to gain 11 positions over the race. An 8th place will be disappointing for Red Bull though, but credit to Max for a strong comeback.

Pierre Gasly, Lando Norris, and Kimi Raikkonen had difficult races, but they all managed to improve their starting positions. Gasly’s race was ruined after mistakes by Vettel and Stroll, but the French driver is looking good while driving a Toro Rosso. Lando Norris was hoping to get one or two points, and the McLaren driver managed to steal the last point of the race. Kimi had an awful weekend, and his race was doomed after starting the race with the wrong tires. Kimi still fought for positions, but there was no way to salvage the race after the 10 second stop-and-go penalty.

Alex Albon was praised for his ability to overtake in Spa, but he had a more discrete race in Monza. Albon managed to climb from 8th to 6th position, but his race was far from perfect. The newly promoted Red Bull driver failed to overtake Carlos Sainz on lap 3, and lost positions against Antonio Giovinazzi and Kevin Magnussen. He eventually managed to get those positions back, and had a mostly unventful race affter that, but he never managed to challenge for the top spots.

Most positions lost

I am quite sure that most of you were already expecting this one, but still. Sebastian Vettel was the biggest loser at Ferrari’s home race. The experimented German lost control of his car at the Ascari turn, and ruined Stroll’s and Gasly’s race at the same time. To make matters worse, he received a 10 second stop-and-go penalty and had to fight from the back of the grid. Vettel lost a total of 9 positions over the race, the worst of all drivers by a big margin.

Romain Grosjean has had a miserable season, and his woes continued in Italy. Haas as a team has no pace during the race, and they end up being overtaken left and right over and over again. Romain finished in 16th place, only ahead of Robert Kubica. Ouch.

Talking about Kubica, he has been perhaps the worst driver of the season. Yes, it is true that Williams as a team has been pretty poor, but Robert has been poor as a driver as well. He only lost 2 places, after starting in 15th position and finishing in 17th place, but Robert just has no pace to defend any position.

Total overtakes

Important note

Total number of overtakes includes overtakes in the pits, as well as drivers overtaken due to the retirement of a driver who was ahead.

Number of on track overtakes removes the overtakes done while other drivers were in the pits, as well as overtakes caused by the retirement of drivers ahead. It is important to note that this analysis may underestimate these overtakes. For example, if a driver X overtook driver Y during lap 20, and driver Y stopped for pits during that same lap, the overtake is not considered. This is an unfortunate caveat of the raw data provided by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).

Analysis

Max Verstappen charged through the field and managed 17 total overtakes during the race. I am sure that he would have been way happier with a final 18th overtake over Checo, but it was not meant to be. Still, Max is an aggressive driver who will always fight for positions, something that we all want to see in Formula 1.

Pierre Gasly finished second in this category with 15 total overtakes. Pierre had a strong race once again, and while he would have liked to get some points as a reward, he looks better than he looked a couple of months ago. Can he challenge Albon for next year’s seat at Red Bull?

Checo Pérez managed 14 total overtakes over the race, and took his points tally to to 27. The Racing Point driver will try to make his hot streak continue in one of the hardest tracks of the calendar, the Marina Bay

On track overtakes

Important note

Number of on track overtakes removes the overtakes done while other drivers were in the pits, as well as overtakes caused by the retirement of drivers ahead. It is important to note that this analysis may underestimate these overtakes. For example, if a driver X overtook driver Y during lap 20, and driver Y stopped for pits during that same lap, the overtake is not considered. This is an unfortunate caveat of the raw data provided by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).

Analysis

Both Max and Checo managed 8 on track overtakes. If I had to chose which driver was most impressive, I would go with Checo. The Racing Point car is not as strong as the Red Bull, and managing to keep Max behind at the end of the race was an incredible victory for Sergio.

Seb was took the bronze medal in this category. Sometimes having many overtakes is not necessarily a good thing. Ferrari, and himself, would have preferred to have 0 overtakes and a finishing 4th place, but sometimes things just go south.

Final remarks

Sergio and Max were impressive in the overtaking category, but the prize this time goes to Checo. Charles Leclerc took the spotlight, but Checo was among the best of the race, no question about it.

Seb was among the best overtakers, but unfortunately, he was also the driver that lost the most number of positions. Vettel keeps making mistakes, and seems to be under pressure at the moment. Is Seb’s time at Ferrari coming to an end? We will see during the next few races.

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