Lewis Hamilton and Franco Colapinto send messages to Charles Leclerc after Italian Grand Prix win

Follow us on Google Discover

Charles Leclerc sent the Tifosi into raptures at the end of the Italian Grand Prix as they slowly realised he was going to secure his second career win at Monza.

McLaren had the small advantage over the rest of the grid although the margins between the top three teams in qualifying was smaller than it ever had been before in F1 history.

It was a real surprise that Red Bull weren’t included in that battle and they’re watching their championships slip away after months of going in the wrong direction with their development, something Ferrari know all too well.

However, Frederic Vasseur’s team were the outfit celebrating on the podium at the end of the Italian Grand Prix thanks to Charles Leclerc’s perfect performance.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

Nico Rosberg hailed Vasseur’s influence on Leclerc’s victory but it was the Monegasque driver who successfully executed the one-stop strategy despite his gripes on the team radio after his stop where he didn’t understand why he had been allowed to be undercut by Lando Norris.

Leclerc took to Instagram after the race to share a selfie he took on Monza’s incredible podium with hundreds of metres of Ferrari fans on the main straight celebrating alongside him.

At the time of writing the post has more than 4 million likes and was a popular result with some of his fellow drivers as well.

His future teammate Lewis Hamilton replied alongside F1 rookie Franco Colapinto, who drove very well to finish 12^th on his debut and just 14 seconds behind new teammate Alex Albon.

Lewis Hamilton congratulates Charles Leclerc after winning the Italian Grand Prix

Leclerc knew Piastri was approaching on the final laps of the race but with each time he passed the pit lane and the main grandstand, the cheer from the crowd got louder.

Once he took the chequered flag, the 26-year-old couldn’t believe what he had just achieved.

READ MORE: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

He sent a message to the local fans in Italian over the team radio and when he posted on social media in the home fan’s native language he said: “Siete I numeri 1. Forza Ferrari,” which translates to “You are number 1. Go Ferrari.”

In the replies to his post, Colapinto said: “Let’s go!” while Hamilton simply applauded his future teammate’s magnificent achievement.

Frederic Vasseur was worried for Leclerc on the final lap in Monza

Ferrari knew that they only had one option if they wanted to win the race and that was to keep Leclerc on track and hope that his tyres held on.

Both Piastri and Lando Norris said on the team radio that they would need to pit again and Leclerc had to use all of his management skills to make sure he didn’t grain his front-left tyre too badly.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

Vasseur said that he had reliability concerns going into Leclerc’s final lap that would have ended in tears had he not reached the chequered flag.

Piastri had too much ground to make up even if Carlos Sainz didn’t hold up the Australian for too long on his way to finishing 4^th.

Ferrari have an outside chance of winning the Constructors’ Championship at this rate although it’s yet to be seen whether the upgrades they brought for Monza will be as effective elsewhere on the calendar.

Every point will count and Red Bull’s only hope after their recent capitulation is for Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes to continue to take points off each other.