Start, Monza, 2020

Rate the race: 2020 Italian Grand Prix

2020 Italian Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Italian Grand Prix.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2020 Italian Grand Prix out of 10

  • 10 (35%)
  • 9 (34%)
  • 8 (15%)
  • 7 (5%)
  • 6 (2%)
  • 5 (1%)
  • 4 (1%)
  • 3 (0%)
  • 2 (0%)
  • 1 (6%)

Total Voters: 362

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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153 comments on “Rate the race: 2020 Italian Grand Prix”

    1. 10 as well. It had everything; unpredictability, close racing, overtakes, emotion and a spectacular end.

      1. “X” … wow, just wow.

      2. Everything except being won on pace @glynh. Fake drama pushing the Haas away from safety, fake safety car as so often under Liberty, semi lottery result.

        It’s disappointing seeing so many fans falling for it.

    2. why? Almost ended up being one of the biggest farces, since almost every weekend. For a sec I thought Merc were going to pull a Silverstone. The engine mapping directive is as grey as anything f1, they change soc anyway, minefield topic. Drs trains stopped cars from racing as soon as it comes to effect… Russell yielded Hamilton like he was under blue flags, in fact all merc cars. tyre stack where a proper modern barrier should be.

      Great to see a team get lucky and win a race, luck happens from time to time, but in f1 big teams find ways to get all spoils. Last time a team won from nowhere was what? STR 08, 12 years is a long time, even leicester won a premier league title. in the end, this was a good, fair race.

      1. Las time it happened was with Lord Maldonado in Spain 12′, 8 years ago

  1. Blaize Falconberger (@)
    6th September 2020, 16:03

    9 – super exciting and totally unexpected… Worthy winner indeed…

    Someone call the guys who said they were giving up on F1 because it was boring..

    1. The thing that makes these races great is because they aren’t every weekend. It becomes farcical if you try to recreate it! So pleased to see gasly win. I thought Sainz would catch him but Pierre did just enough!

      1. I voted 10, what a race to remember. But personally I think Sainz deserved the win a bit more.

        1. @njoydesign I agree. Sainz was electricfying during qualy, had a fantastic start where he took Bottas and had great race pace.

          He then was the first car to legally pit but then because of the redflag all the guys that hadn’t stopped yet got a free change of tyres. Dispite that he fought back to p2 and left everything he had on the track to get Pierre but came up 0.4 short.

          I do feel good for Pierre though, that kid is a warrior man!

        2. Absolutely, sainz was a much more worthy winner!

  2. What a race, although the SC helped matters.

  3. What a race!

  4. 9 great race.

  5. 10/10. WHAT. HAVE. I. JUST. SEEN. Astounding. Simply astounding. Get the Mercedes out of F1 right now, please.

    1. I’m genuinely shaking out of excitement at the end.

    2. I don’t think Mercedes is the problem. I think they are ok, even though I hate them winning all the time. The problem is qualifying is too rewarding and running in clean air is too rewarding. So you end up with the winning strategy being to qualify first and coast to victory if you can stay in front for the first two corners. The party modes made this strategy too easy. It is still a valid strategy without party modes, just not as strong.

      1. @aliced Actually, in a way, you are right, it’s not Mercedes that makes F1 boring. It’s Hamilton. He’s simply just way too good. Think about it, without Hamilton, Bottas vs. Verstappen would be a proper title fight between two rivals from two teams. Then it is a colossal battle to get into the podium between RP, McLaren, Renault, Albon and Alpha Tauri. It’s not Hamilton’s fault he’s so successful and he owes us nothing, but maybe it would be better for the entertainment if he just called time on his career.

        1. True, you all make good points: without hamilton there’d be quite a fight between verstappen and bottas, but you have to consider verstappen is a much better driver than bottas, there’s also a lot of difference between the 2 cars, you need a pretty bad pair of drivers in that mercedes to give some competition in the series.

          It’s not hamilton’s fault for being a top driver, we just could use him on a not so strong team, such as red bull, as verstappen’s team mate!

          I wouldn’t be surprised about hamilton and verstappen fighting bottas and another average driver on mercedes and maybe winning the title!

  6. WHAT A RACE!! Much needed rest from the usual Ham-Bot-Ver. Great great performance from all podium finishers.

  7. Better than 2008?

  8. Get Mercedes out of the way and you end up with a great race

    1. Yup, get the Mercs out of the way and instead of an occasional dice as Max gets involved we can watch Max coast to victory. Anyway after today I think we can still let Bottas in a Merc.

      1. Ahaha, indeed, this was a bad performance from bottas compared to his season’s standard.

  9. No words to describe what I’ve witnessed.

    But it’s the very reason why I love Formula 1.

  10. petebaldwin (@)
    6th September 2020, 16:07

    9 – if we could have that sort of excitement in a race without multiple red flags, safety cars and penalties, it’d be a 10. So refreshing to be excited in the final laps and to see someone that excited to win a race. Well done Gasly, Sainz, Stroll and Norris. Great drives from all 4 of them.

    1. Victor (@victorandrei1999)
      6th September 2020, 16:10

      One of the best races ever!!! Loved it! 10/10. This is F1! Best top 4 ever!:))

      1. Victor (@victorandrei1999)
        6th September 2020, 16:12

        Sorry! Wanted to comment, not

      2. Victor (@victorandrei1999)
        6th September 2020, 16:14

        Sorry! Wanted to comment, not to answer! I’m dumb! :))

        1. @victorandrei1999 Random comment, but why that particular McLaren as your profile pic?

          It wasn’t exactly a good iteration ;)

          1. Victor (@victorandrei1999)
            6th September 2020, 16:53

            I was a fan of Fernando back then :). I’m waiting for next season!!!

          2. Nice, looking forward to that too!

  11. 10!!!!!!! What a race, absolutely delighted for Pierre Gasly, im close too tears. Need an entire day to unpack all that. Really poor day from Bottas though, and for Ferrari & RBR. But what a day for Pierre Gasly!!! Sainz done a super job all weekend but well done to Pierre

  12. Congratulations FIA, you made overtaking impossible. A one. Remove the red flag and the position lottery that cheated some clueless fans and we had the worst “race” in long, long time.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      6th September 2020, 16:09

      Don’t worry – he’ll get an easy win next time out and he’ll win the Championship anyway.

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          6th September 2020, 16:18

          Unless you support a certain driver and don’t enjoy races unless your guy wins, this was one of the most exciting races we’ve seen in years.

          1. @petebaldwin Talking of clueless people… If the certain driver is Hamilton you also missed to notice that he was the only one that could overtake, not even Bottas. Remove the farcial position lottery: Watch again the first laps, don’t pay attention to the drivers of front after the red flag since you won’t have that the rest of the season and pay attention to what was actually achieved with the change in the rules.
            Next race you will have a processional race with the only difference of a bigger advantage to Hamilton since he will be the only one capable of overtaking.

      1. I mean “He”. Sorry but I can’t read your mind.

    2. There were actually heaps of passes and at least attempts through curva Grande and the roggia chicane. I thought the DRS was actually kinda useful in this race as it allowed cars to fight but didn’t make it too easy. It’s hard to find the balance. I certainly won’t complain about this race.

  13. First 10 I’ve seen in years. The drama of not knowing who would win for more than half a race…and then that fight for the win at the end. AWESOME.

  14. 10.

    Maybe Ham should invest in some driving glasses.

    1. Stephen Dennison
      6th September 2020, 16:10

      It would be funny if he did the next Specsavers ad!

  15. Great race. Found myself rooting for both Gasly and Sainz, wanted both to win. They both deserved it.

    Not a great race for Mercedes, but survivable and not as embarassing as Red Bull and Ferrari, they still opened up their lead in the construtors as both cars scored. Bottas just seemed to struggle, I know he had damage, but he never went anywhere. Hamilton, decent recovey drive, but only has himself to blame. Team has to hold some responsiblity as they should have warned him as they’ll have got the ‘Pit closed’ message too.

    Disaster for both Red Bull (Surviving car out of the points, Albon was sadly useless today) and Ferrari. No points at all for either team.

    1. where did bottas get damage from?

      1. At the start of the race he touched against another driver, I cannot remember who. A lot of cars had little touches at the start.

  16. Very nice race. Great for Gasly but Sainz is my driver of the weekend with both his qualifying and race, Gasly lucked in but deserved the win, I feel bad for Sainz though

  17. The f1.5 is tight and these battles have been going on all season behind the mercs and max. Finally we get to see the f1.5 duke it out for the win. 10/10.

    1. True that, it’s just that some of us don’t pay as much attention to them if it’s for minor positions.

  18. The purists don’t want contrived reverse grid racing, but surely this race will get high ratings.

    1. Because it was a roll of the dice; not a contrived scenario.

    2. Exactly, We don’t want ‘contrived‘ reverse grid races because they will never be as good as something like this where things fall a certain way & create a great race through more natural circumstances.

      Gasly winning the race today partly because things fell his way but also because he drove a brilliant mistake free race means something special. Gasly winning a race because a reverse grid qualifying race put him in-front of the top guys will never mean as much.

    3. F1 is already contrived racing. Reverse grids is not going to make it any more or less contrived.

  19. Not sure what to think. Very happy for Gasly! Hamilton messed up and was correctly punished.

    At the same time, the chaos was created from an unnecessary safety car. Now they will continue to throw safety cars instead of VSCs I presume to spice up the show. It leaves a sour taste, but I guess I’m in the minority.

    1. I agree with that, mostly because this race already looked set to be decent before those unnecessary safety cars and red flag @john-h

    2. @john-h I’m not sure about sour as I’m really happy with Gasly winning and other smaller teams (sorry McLaren) on the podium. Hamilton, yes he could have swerved out of entering the pit lane and maybe next time will. But he was already instructed to enter and had little time to process the contradictory information. It was a unique situation. However, there could have been a dangerous incident in the pit lane, so failing to follow the closed pit lane sign was a clear penalty situation.

      1. Sorry, I meant to say I agree with the unnecessary SC.

    3. Pretty unusual to have the pitlane closed though. Any other safety car scenario would have seen hamilton pit and then take the restart in the lead on fresh tyres and be unchallenged for the win. Would still have been a good race for the rest of the podium! But yes, these races are special because they’re not manufactured.

    4. I don’t think i will ever be a fan of a vsc, it is that element of change that a SC provides that almost always results in some excitement. I have never seen a VSC provide anything except slow laps and a clean track

      1. You don’t have to be a VSC fan. VSC was made for safety reasons, not the “spice things up”. In fact.. VSC does it’s job pretty well by maintaining differences while making the track safe.

    5. I think you make a good point. There was no need for a full safety car. Although I expect the stewards will tell us there was. Still an unexpectedly exciting race though.

  20. That’s why I watch the boring races, 100% a 10/10

  21. About a 4 up until the safety car and 11 afterwards.

  22. Awesome race.
    But so sad this much chaos and mayhem is needed for a competitive race.

    Let’s hope Brawn’s Technical regs make it better in 2022.

  23. 7/10
    Great to see the lead car defending its position till the last corner

  24. 10 minus 1 because it’s excellence was built on the farce of pushing Magnussen’s car all the way to the pit lane rather than 5 metres backwards!! Clearly a SC contrived by the race director. Fine for the occasional race, but let’s not pretend it isn’t a farce.

    Really happy for Gasly who has been on a roll this year and truly deserved the win over the others behind him. Brilliant job!

    1. There was no gap backwards, just a small gate with a marshal post. Can’t put a car there. They had two options, rolling the car forward or bring out a truck. Both necessitated SC

      1. @chrischrill It seemed possible to push the car back behind the barriers, perhaps not. But even so, there was virtually no risk leaving the car there on the inside of the Parabolica, completely off any racing line and with no real prospect of another car ending up there. I know it’s not done any more. I was watching a race from 2008 the other day, and kind of shocked to see marshalls to the side of the track with cars flying past under yellows.

        1. There was a metal column behind that exit, so even if they cleared out the marshalls’ lunch table, you’d still be unable to successfully push a car out through the escape road.

          People calling the safety car a farce are just selfish.

        2. My add on is that the Haas was at the start of the pit lane entry during the middle of the pit window. I bet they didn’t want marshals being at risk from pitting cars. I think that’s the main reason.

          1. @nerrticus That’s what I presumed actually, the combination of marshals clearing Magnussen’s car and the SC (and inevitable pit stops). I don’t expect marshals to risk their lives in such a situation, no. But I thought a VSC could get the car cleared safely.

  25. 9 for me, it was ABSOLUTELY brilliant!

  26. Typical Mercedes giving both drivers “different” strategies.
    They really do sleep on Bottas side of the garage.

    1. Blaize Falconberger (@)
      6th September 2020, 16:44

      Bottas is not taking his chances… Hamilton proved that the Merc can overtake, but how many overtakes did Bottas make? He had a poor start and lost lots of places, I don’t see how that is the fault of his side of the garage.

      I think this ‘second driver’ narrative comes from people who refuse the admit that Hamilton is as good as he is.

  27. Yay, pure randomness. That’s not racing, that’s just dice throwing. 3 at best.

    1. Yep, totally agree. I hate all those wet races too, the weather is too random. Let’s have sheltered tracks, as well as road car engines so people don’t break down randomly.

      1. Rain is both annoying and nice. More random, but also rewards skill. This was nothing like that.

        1. Oh yeah, it rewarded attention! HAM + Mercedes boys should buy a truckload of Zeiss glasses.

      2. LOL, sounds like you would love indy cars on ovals. The moment it rains they stop :)

    2. If you don’t want randomness, watch train wagons racing. Tired of your favorite team winning everything and ruinning action.

  28. 11!!!
    I can’t remember the last F1 race that made me feel so happy!

  29. It’s not often a F1 race hits me emotionally, but somehow this race gave me the feels so much.. Tears for Gasly. Liteally, not ashamed to say I am tearing up. This felt even more emotional than the Brazilian GP last year.

    To have gone through so much ups and down…awesome race. If only Sainz had that extra pace to catch up to Pierre, oh what a battle we would have got.

    To those who say what do ferrari bring to the table, this shows we definitely need them

    …need them to muck up more often to get us good races ;).

    1. Hehehe You think FERRARI are responsible for today’s race? No! Ferraris incompetence cannot lay claim to what unfolded today. I hope all Ferrari fans are ashamed of their teams efforts this season and all preceding seasons, where they have cheated their way to second place in the account & WDC

    2. Ahah, I cried slightly when they showed claire williams after the farewell, thanks messages from the williams driver, and I’m all except a fan of what claire did these years!

      1. Drivers*

  30. Congrats to Pierre but I still don’t see why we needed a SC given that A) the pit lane was closed and B) they could have just wheeled the car backwards.

    1. There was no gap backwards, just a small gate with a marshal post. Can’t put a car there. They had two options, rolling the car forward or bring out a truck. Both necessitated SC

    2. Thank you! Why didn’t they just push it backwards?
      I just looked on Google maps, surely that’s what the gap’s for.
      K Mag parked the car perfectly.

      1. Masi didn’t install google maps on his phone so him wouldn’t know the gate’s length.

  31. this is a preview of what a reverse grid can do.

    1. @f1fan-2000 A reverse grid race will never be as exciting as that as it will just come across as a contrived gimmick.

      Races like this are only exciting when they happen due to more natural circumstances that catch everyone off guard. As soon as you start throwing artificial gimmicks at it to try & artificially recreate it you never end up with something anywhere near as good & the end results will never feel as special.

      1. I don’t agree with you @f1fan-2000. You are talking rubbish. This race has kind of emulated a reverse grid and it was great. The rewards of qualifying is too great in F1. It makes the race dull and pointless. Time to kill F1, long live F1.

      2. @stefmeister then you can wait for that one random race that comes once in a blue moon.

        1. @f1fan-2000 And it will always be great, special & memorable like today. If we had seen a race like today’s 7 times already this year there would be nothing special about it.

          Races like this happening due to odd circumstances once every so often is what makes races like this special.

          1. @stefmeister welp i guess this race is also an example of why we still watch sundays despite knowing the defualt results should be HAM BOT VER every race

          2. I actually “stopped” watching in this one’s case, I gave a look at the highlights, saw it wasn’t a mercedes 1-2, so I watched, the mercedes standard situation got boring enough.

    2. If the race had not been redflagged, GAS would have looked like a fool not to pit under SC…… Race would have been an easy 10 if SAI won….

  32. That was excellent! It’s just wonderful to see a podium of totally new cars! So pleased to see Gasly win! Alpha Tauri Honda taking a race win, that was totally unexpected! Do think Sainz might have got him with one more lap. It was great – absolutely great to see a race contested right to the line, let alone from different teams!

    It’s this kinda race that they need to emulate more – a shame that it has to take a red flag and penalties to achieve it. Fantastic though. Actually got emotional on seeing Gasly win!

  33. What?!
    Great excitement but also completely random. Very happy for Gasly and Sainz though.
    Gave it a 9.
    Was the first SC really necessary? Couldn’t the car just stay there for the rest of the race?

  34. An obvious 10. Battles everywhere, including for the win. All three on the podium had never won.

    Sainz was faster, Gasly just made it happen. Very impressive from them all.

    With Mercedes and Red Bull gone, the races come alive. Beautiful.

  35. 7
    An unusual looking result but otherwise the racing was poor. Sainz never looked like he had a chance to pass Gasly, every car was stuck in a train.

    1. Sainz was consistently pulling 0.1-0.2 about every lap but he had a slight lapse (or gasly brilliance) at around lap 46-50, if it weren’t for that we might have seen the final 2 laps wheel to wheel with who knows winning @francorchamps17

    2. Yes, 7 also for me. Largely random results from safety car and odd mistakes from Merc and Red Bull. But we got to watch the tight midfield racing out front. So 7.

      -1 for the commentary. I miss the old NBC crew in the US. Tired of being yelled at. Maybe I’ll try to find the Spanish feed next weekend.

      +1 for Gasly getting a win. Most of the grid are really talented and deserve a win at some point. Glad to see Gasly get one.

  36. 10 out of 10. That was one hell of a race even though it was a nightmare for the tifosi !

  37. 8 for me, sure the red flag and penalty spiced it up, but once Gasly took the lead it was pretty much done, too hard to overtake on these tracks in these cars.

  38. Gave it a solid 9….race was brilliant..wouldnt be surprised if what caused Vettels brakes to fail on rear also affected Leclercs incident…who if he had gone in straight..not worth thinking about…Well done Gasly

  39. 2/10. This track doesn’t belong in F1 calendar. Gimmicky, dull, pointless, whatever…

    1. Sorry Toto. We will remove it next year.

  40. Yes! Completely agree!! While we are at it let’s get rid of all English football league teams and give Cameridge United a clear run at the premiership title!! WHOOP WHOOP

    1. Meant as reply to one of the above comments

  41. 10
    Now this is the type of Circus that I love watching. So glad that horrible party mode switching has been removed. This race has shown me that F1 is soooo boring if the top qualifying car starts first. Qualifying is way overpowered in F1. F1 needs to give points to qualifying and then reverse the grid of those in q3 and those eliminated in q2 and then those eliminated in q1. So you end up with staggered reverse grid. I know Mercedes will still win, but this way they won’t be able to just put all their eggs in the qualifying basket and have that win races for them as well because they are the only ones in clean air. I want to see Mercedes overtaking for position every race. I might even enjoy seeing them win if they have to make some passes in order to win.

  42. Was it an interesting race? – yes, for sure.
    Was it a wierd race? – yep
    Was it a good race? – well…. hmmm … not really.

  43. 1 – because of Ferrari 2x DNF. No, actually a 10 :)

  44. Great race. Yes the red flag made it happen but awesome nonetheless.

    Fun fact: in the last 14 year, Minardi and Ferrari have won the Ferrari home race same number of times :)

  45. I’ll give it an 8/10. The result is great for the sport and it’s super cool to see some different faces leading and fighting for a win, but… Overtaking was really difficult, while i ain’t fully satisfied with the way they deal ed with Magnussen’s car. It’s good to have a race like today, but we need some equally exciting races without having the luck/unexpected factor involved

  46. 9.9.

    Docked .1 points for letting Stroll pit for tyres under red flag conditions. It might be in the rulebook, but it’s absurdly unfair. As Lando told Sky post-race, he essentially gained 24 seconds for free. Had he won the race, I’d be rating this about a 2.

    1. I thought the rule was changed after we got one ruined race, I think in Monaco where all strategy was reset and everyone got new tyres. Sadly we still have this rule.

    2. @maximilian agree though I voted 9 for same reason.
      Is there another series that lets you work on the cars in red flag conditions? Not just Stroll tire change (I think more drivers than Stroll did that) but Merc was changing cooling on their cars during red flag. That’s parc ferme regs prohibited changes.
      Although legal, should not be permitted. Run what you brung. And no free tire changes when there’s a “mandatory” tire stop in the rulebook.

      1. Parc Ferme ends at lights out as far as I’m aware.

    3. Changing tyres under red flags introduces randomness, but no more than having a SC right after a pitstop which also benefits select drivers (e.g. Gasly today)

      And I presume the rules of allowing tyre changes is there because mid race red flags are usually more common in wet races and changing conditions races and in those situations, not allowing tyre changes could be a safety concern.

  47. Some real questionable ratings here. Voted a 7, race ruined by a unnecessary safety car though resulting in 2 out of 3 undeserved podium sitters. Not a fan of race wins decided by safety car.

    1. Questionable? 89% of the voters who gave the race 8, 9, 10 are questionable? The gist of it to me is people like some unpredictability, especially in a period where the same car is winning 80% of races since 7 years by now.

  48. Never drove an F1 car obviously but If I couldn’t do a better job than bottas and Alvin I’d give up

    1. Albon 😂

    2. Ahaha, that’s a good one.

  49. Quite boring. Similar cars can’t race at Monza. A safety car and bizarre circumstance produced some unexpected results, but that’s about it.

  50. easy a 9/10. the drama of it all was great to watch. really happy for gasly and the team but i must admit i was praying for mclaren to win it. looked to me they had the 2nd fastest car this weekend.

  51. 08 overall., with10 for the result and 06 for the race. No huge fights for places, unless you count Hamilton charging through the field (which, given his skills and the cars quality, shouldn’t be that surprising), even Gasly’s lead was safer than the broadcast led viewers to believe. If it wasn’t for the SC coming out – which, if Charlie Whiting were still in charge (God rest his soul) would have never been deployed – the race would have been very, very boring.

    Having said all that, I am so happy Gasly won!

  52. Amazing race, but only because Bottas buggered his start and Lewis made mistake. And RB and Ferrari were somewhere else this weekend.

    BUT.

    That restart and that podium cannot go unrewarded.

  53. Not sure I’d rate this 10/10, as the race was abysmal until the SC and red flags. I suppose we are just so bored with Mercedes winning that any upset is seen as the greatest thing ever.

  54. Very good race just because of the unpredictability. I am really happy that red bull had an off day, so they weren’t the beneficiaries of Mercs mistake yet again, and then Horner spew about how they don’t EVER make mistakes. It is good that other teams were able to capitalize. I just wish it was 10 laps longer. We were about to get a really good battle for the lead. It also would have been good to see if Lewis would have been able to continue moving up when the competition was tougher at the front. Bottas was sure having a hard time.

    1. I think sainz would’ve passed gasly pretty soon, much less than 10 laps, hamilton had a big gap from the renault in front (guess ricciardo) but could’ve passed him, maybe another car if he were fast.

      1. Oh, wait, that other car in front of ricciardo must be bottas, in that case even more interesting!

  55. Well, this proves that Liberty is right, people don’t want racing, they want show, even if it’s achieved by farcial means.

  56. 11 out of 10. Most exciting race in years. Nice to see the midfield racing for P1!

  57. I missed all the excitement. After the restart, half the field passed RAI, and HAM passed a bunch, but there wasn’t any other racing going on. If HAM isn’t penalized, he finishes first by a bunch, RAI gets passed by half the field, and everyone from 1-6 finish 2-7.

  58. 10, if that’s not a 10, I dunno what is.

    Also, what happened to Keith doing a summary of Rate the Race results? We just now do this poll then hear nothing

  59. Yeah I didn’t get the excitement here. All it took was a safety car to turn the race on it’s head. Outside of that, it seemed relatively processional, and the teams at the front were only there by good strategy while faster cars were unable to get back on terms in the dirty, hot air.

    I’m not here to tread on the podium places, as they definitely deserved their results, but it was underwhelming for me as cars struggled to race wheel to wheel.

  60. 10/10 From start to end very thrilling race. McLarens and Force India (or whatever it is called nowadays) challenging Mercedes. Very close racing. Super exciting. Ferrari failure and a crash hurt a bit, but some could say it shortened their suffering. Was hoping for McLaren win and maybe double podium, but as it is in life you need both skill and luck. Pierre and Lance had Lady luck on their side. Last 10-15 laps I was on the edge of my chair, clasping to my Mclaren umbrella (left my cap in the car) and with my heart racing. Excellent race!

    1. Likewise, was desperately hoping for a McLaren double podium.

      BTW – I believe that the team formerly known as Force India is now referred to as (T)racing Point! ;)

  61. As a McLaren fan I’m completely biased but that was at least a 9 out of 10.

  62. isaac (@invincibleisaac)
    7th September 2020, 13:23

    A very intriguing race with a shocking result! There are some topics which I’d like to dive into, and would like to know people’s thoughts as well …

    I’m wondering how the race would have unfolded without the first Safety Car (either a VSC or no SC) – HAM a comfortable win, ahead of Sainz. BOT was planning to go long, and I reckon he would have been 3rd or 4th, but as he really struggled to overtake McLaren could have been 2nd and 3rd on merit.

    The full SC did feel unnecessary and I am a bit frustrated by the amount of races where a SC has ensured all of the drivers pit at the same time, so there is little strategy variation (Austria 1, Silverstone 1, and Spa). Also, not sure why HAM initially pitted for Medium’s – without the red flag this might have cost him a second stop?

    Also the gap between GAS and KVY in Qual was 0.16 … just imagine if KVY would have been P10 instead – he might have started on the prime tyres and been in the same position GAS was, but personally I couldn’t imagine him winning the race.

    After the red flag did make me think of what a reversed grid would look like with an Alpha Tauri leading 2 Alpha Romeo’s. Definitely an exciting race however luck did play a big part. Also SAI closing in on GAS … 1 more lap and I think he would have caught him. Didn’t fully understand why the “second formation lap” was counted as a racing lap (although I suppose the same as a normal SC) otherwise it could’ve given SAI one decent chance!

    1. Well, I agree, mclaren had a very decent chance to end up with a double podium, both bottas and verstappen seemed unable to overtake due to the drs train, and mclaren was possibly even the 2nd fastest car today.

  63. All I ask is that this not become an example for how competitive current F1 is. It was a one-off that required a lot of things to happen for anyone but Merc to run away with this. I enjoy a good random race just as much as everyone else, but it is the exception that proves the rule. If the last time a non-big 3 team won was the first race of 2013 (Lotus, RAI), it is an issue.

    Bottas had a horrible start, likely some damage, and severe overheating. Hamilton got a mid-race penalty sending him to the moon. Verstappen overheated/DNFd. The race was red flagged right around the pit window. And the Ferraris look like they have the 1.6L from a 1990s Nissan Sentra. So instead of Bernie’s sprinklers, we just need to recreate all that each race Sunday.

    1. Oh and we had to have engine mode changes outlawed.

      1. Which I’m not sure is a good thing btw, I’m not sure if with the other modes we’d have seen more overtakes, but as far as the DRS trains go, it was pretty dull.

        Indeed, it makes you think a race like this might come again not earlier than 2027, which is ages, however keep in mind ferrari lost its place in the big 3, it’s the big 2 now, and aside from mercedes, which is very much ahead of the rest, red bull was incredibly disappointing here, we’ll have to watch closely next race to see if they’ve become part of the midfield or still ahead.

        1. @esploratore – I would say it is the big 1. But fair points all.

  64. So 95% voted between 7 and 10 (inclusive), 89% 8-10, 36% 9 and 37% 10, says enough about how people would like f1 to be.

    I personally voted 9, I’d have liked some rain and maybe 1 more lap, so that a more deserving driver could win for a 10, but in any case great rate, its main ingredient was unpredictability.

    To the point I had even decided, since I couldn’t watch it live, to just watch the highlights and if it sucked (mercedes 1-2 without interesting events) I’d have skipped watching the race replay for the first time in years, cause I’m really really tired of that, I gave a look, saw gasly won, what?

    So I didn’t watch the highlights and watched the full replay when it came online, and I’ve been thinking how a gasly win could happen, my first thought was a crash between verstappen and the mercedes, but in the end I see that stuff happened to pretty much all the usual top cars: hamilton with a “strategy” mistake that was incredibly costing, bottas, verstappen and albon with a terrible start, first lap and a not properly working car, ferrari obviously aren’t a top team any longer, vettel even without the problem wouldn’t have done anything, leclerc was doing well but made a mistake, probably not helped by the car’s balance.

    Apart from that, mclaren did well in the circumstances, unlucky with the SC and I have a feeling they’d have probably got a double podium, behind hamilton, in a normal race, which really hints to the mclaren of long time ago, and I really think sainz deserved to win in the circumstances, 1 more lap and would’ve happened.

    Red bull’s performance is very hard to understand due to the DRS train that didn’t allow even verstappen to get back some places, I’m not even sure they were the 2nd best car today, in that case it’s definitely mclaren, and then ofc some of the midfield cars like renault and toro rosso; sauber was really terrible, despite a good performance from raikkonen early on, the car always goes back to its place.

    Great recovery from hamilton, he’s really good at monza, noticeable gap at the start as well, impressive compared to bottas.

  65. Wow depressing. People here don’t want to see a sport. They wan’t to see random results.

  66. I have an opinion
    8th September 2020, 10:41

    My personal score for races this year has been approximately 2 above the mode of racefans voters. Monza is the exception, where it scores 2 below the mode. I am very happy to see any hard, fair racing this year but not so happy to see lottery results and dangerous accidents.

  67. From the ratings I know a lot of people enjoyed this race but I didn’t think it was that good personally and only rated it a 6.

    I think part of the reason why the it proved so popular was the actual result with a surprise new winner and with none of the usual suspects on the podium, not the race itself or due to any on track action, I understand why that would be enough to earn it a high rating and on a different day I might have liked it more but there were a few things which hampered my enjoyment.

    I only see Channel 4 F1 highlights so I try to maintain a news blackout so as not to spoil the result, over the years I have been largely successful with only a few slip ups, unfortunately I did not manage it this time.

    On the day of the race I had been out and when I got back in my car I had actually forgotten about the race so put the radio on, I only heard a little bit of 5 Live before I realised and turned it off but what I heard was something like “Gasly wins”, I thought there was no way that Gasly could have won the Grand Prix so it must have been something like Gasly wins the dual with driver X for a lower points scoring place, but it was something I kept wondering about.

    Watching the actual race highlights the next thing that I didn’t like was the officials deciding to call a full safety car for the Magnussen’s stopped Haas car which had pulled off track, it looked like it was not in a dangerous place and it looked like it was at one of the marked places where drivers are supposed to pull off to so the car can be easily recovered without any problems. It seemed to me that the full safety car was an artificial method to try and spice up the race, if that was the intention then it certainly worked this time, but it is something that annoys me in general.

    Initially it looked like it would be a textbook example of making a pit stop to take advantage of the safety car, however Hamilton and Mercedes both didn’t notice in time that the officials had also closed the pit lane, thus earning a penalty which cost them a certain win.

    On the TV coverage they said that the notice stating that the pit lane was closed was on page 3 or 4 of the timing screens and that the only on track signal for the drivers was the electronic warning boards on the outside of the corner, if that is true it seems really odd and frankly a bit stupid that there wasn’t an actual red light at the pit lane entrance.

    The next event which secured this odd result was the red flag needed to fix the tyre barriers after Leclerc’s crash, I may have missed it but I don’t think Channel 4 mentioned anything about drivers changing tyres during the red flag period but I assumed it was still the rule that drivers could still change tyres, which meant the drivers who had pitted early had gained on track position and would then not be disadvantaged on tyres.

    When the race restarted and with Gasly taking the lead I understood what I heard accidentally heard earlier on the radio and it was Gasly wins the Italian Grand Prix, and so I knew that Sainz would not chase Gasly down and pass him so I didn’t get to experience the drama of a nerve racking close finish.

    I was thinking afterwards that this must be one of the most fluky unexpected wins in F1 that I could remember. Usually when one of the favourites runs in to trouble another driver from a top team is there to pick up the pieces so although there have been plenty of unexpected wins or lucky wins when the best driver on the day was dominating but retired through no fault of their own, the winner is still not a complete surprise.

    If you look back at most of the surprise wins over the last few decades, if before the race began, so after you had seen performances in practice and knew the grid order, someone had told you that a certain driver would win, you can normally think up some reasonable circumstances that would enable that to happen. But with this result Gasly would have been way down the list of drivers you would have listed as having a chance of winning especially if you were told that there would still be 16 classified finishers.

    But after Bottas’s bad first lap dropped him down and with Verstappen retiring the drivers you would normally expect to take advantage in 2020 when Hamilton makes a mistake were unable to do so.

    Then with the full safety car, but with the unusual situation of the pit lane being initially closed it actually benefitted drivers who had stopped early, and everyone was then able to change tyres during the red flag period so no one had a tyre life advantage.

    Another factor in the result was the banning of engine modes meaning no one could turn their engine up during the race to aid overtaking.

    There were some other unexpected fluky wins that came to mind.

    Alonso in Singapore 2008, but at the time it was still double World Champion Alonso who had won so it wasn’t as big a surprise and obviously now we know the full story behind the special circumstances which helped him win.

    The other win which came to mind was Fisichella’s first win Brazil 2003 in a Jordan, from memory he only won because of the timing of pit stops and the red flag due to a huge crash, he was not in serious contention for the win before that. Then a timekeeping error meant the win was awarded to Raikkonen and he collected the trophy on the podium and it was only after the race weeknd that Fisichella was crowned the winner, they ended up presenting him the winner’s trophy at the next race.

    If I recall his Jordan car also caught fire in the pit lane during the red flag period so if the race had been restarted he couldn’t have taken the restart and so it would have been a DNF instead.

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