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Formula 1's Italian Grand Prix gave the Tifosi the result they were desperate for, but it also gave a really good race for the neutrals.
Ferrari's unlikely victory and those who should have won inevitably feature on this weekend's winners and losers list, but there are plenty of others further down the order leaving Monza off the back of a triumphant high or a crushing low:
LOSER: McLAREN
Front row sweep, double podium, only beaten by one driver/car combination that made what seemed like a wild strategy gamble work against everyone else's expectations.
So not too bad a weekend for McLaren, really...?
That was how Andrea Stella tried to portray the outcome. Fair enough, given his position.
But it was clear both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were gutted with the race outcome and they were absolutely right to be, because they and McLaren not only let another win slip through their fingers, but did so on a day when championship rival Red Bull was nowhere near the front.
Maybe a one-stop was only possible for Charles Leclerc's particular set-up, driving style, tyre management and the Ferrari's characteristics and McLaren was right to not even try it with one car. Maybe Norris and Piastri's first-lap scuffle didn't make any critical difference to their race times.
But for a team with such a good car, there are just too many races in 2024 ending on a 'maybe' and this risks going down in history as an incredible championship chance squandered. - Matt Beer
WINNER: CHARLES LECLERC
A stealth win felt like something new from Leclerc - whose stereotype tends to be that he's either glory or disaster. Tyre whispering his way to a success that only becomes obvious in the final moments doesn't necessarily fit the 'raw speed monster' Leclerc brand but he's clearly very, very capable of it when needed.
Given how he and Ferrari have faded from the headlines in recent months, this was both a reminder of what they can do and a massive morale boost. And yet another curveball to throw into the remainder of this surprisingly fascinating season. - MB
LOSER: Red Bull
OK, so the damage loss to McLaren was less than expected. But that was more thanks to Ferrari than any turnaround for Red Bull.
Red Bull continued to struggle for pace, the drivers were left grappling with "a monster" of a car, there were slow pitstops and there was the added issue of an engine gremlin on Max Verstappen's car.
All that capped off a bruising weekend for Red Bull which has seen its constructors' championship lead slashed from 30 to eight points.
Ferrari in third is now only 39 points off Red Bull too, making a quick fix to the problems that are causing the team so much grief very time-sensitive.
On the current trajectory, Red Bull would walk away from the Baku-Singapore double-header scrapping for second in the constructors' championship with Ferrari, and would have Norris (even more) uncomfortably close to Verstappen in the drivers' race. - Josh Suttill
LOSER: LANDO NORRIS
Outduelled on the first lap by his team-mate and outpaced for most of the race thereafter, the man who dominated Zandvoort was under-par seven days later at Monza.
Given Norris is 44 points clear of Piastri still and this particular long-shot title chase requires such a relentless hacking away of the gap to Verstappen, there's definitely a logical case for McLaren to impose team orders and get Piastri into wingman mode.
But there's absolutely no moral one when Norris is too often outraced and outpaced by his team-mate. - MB
Winner: Alex Albon
Williams was always expected to be quick at Monza given its prowess at high-speed circuits and Alex Albon delivered with two points on Sunday.
The Thai driver started and finished ninth, inheriting a further place when Kevin Magnussen’s penalty - for which the Dane will be banned for one race - was applied.
Albon accomplished this with the one-stop strategy, like winner Leclerc - who pitted two laps earlier than him.
This was despite Albon saying he had to “underdrive” the car to prevent graining on the front left tyre, which was a common problem on Sunday.
He accepted Magnussen’s penalty for clashing with Pierre Gasly was, for him, a fortunate turn of events, but Albon credited the strategy above all.
This was another race in which Albon outdrove the Williams and a valuable couple of points for the team. - Samarth Kanal
Loser: Kevin Magnussen
Kevin Magnussen left Monza with one championship point but collected an extra two penalty points on his superlicence - which means he will miss the next race of the season in Baku.
Magnussen’s 10-second penalty was applied after he scrapped with Pierre Gasly and collided with the Alpine on lap 19. He said he was “completely confused” by the penalty and Gasly even sympathised with him.
He makes a winner of Ollie Bearman who can probably add news of an early Haas debut to his Monza F2 sprint triumph.
Meanwhile team-mate Nico Hulkenberg took a 10-second penalty as he collided with Yuki Tsunoda at the start of the race.
The German driver also experienced what he called “disturbing” bouncing at Monza and finished 17th on a tough day for Haas.- SK
Loser: Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin did not expect to perform at Monza and Fernando Alonso said Sunday was “much, much better than expected”. Yet, the team missed out on a point as Alonso finished behind penalised Magnussen (by a tenth) and Albon.
High tyre degradation forced Aston Martin to shun the favoured one-stop strategy as the car is, as Alonso said, “quite hungry for tyres”.
This was almost an exercise in damage limitation for Aston Martin and while 11th isn’t something to scoff at, it’s certainly not an ideal result for the team that finds itself in no man’s land and fifth in the standings.
Not only that, it was beaten by Williams and Haas in Italy and Alonso said the situation will be similar in upcoming races if things don’t change. - SK
WINNER: FERRARI
Leclerc and Carlos Sainz played it wisely cool about the role of Ferrari's big floor upgrade in the Monza success. It's designed primarily to cure the car's bouncing problems, and they've never been prevalent at Monza and weren't expected to be this year even if the old floor had been used.
But as the weekend went on, the drivers couldn't help but let out a little more optimism that when they do get to a circuit where the upgrade really matters, it's going to prove it's solved their problems and that the Monza performance is actually sustainable.
And the nature of the win vanquished another Ferrari ghost too. The days when this team seemed like it could only ever pick the wrong strategy now feel like a memory. - MB
LOSER: RB
Remember when RB was the clear class of F1's midfield? Yeah those days are well and truly gone.
You can't fault Yuki Tsunoda on Sunday as an over-zealous Hulkenberg ruined his race before he could try to mount any kind of recovery from his Q1 exit.
Daniel Ricciardo flirted with scoring points but the RB just didn't have the legs on the Williams, Aston Martin or the Haas. An early stop (lap 11 of 53) for hards left Ricciardo with a painfully long second stint where he fell to 13th.
RB will be very lucky to maintain the sixth place it has in the constructors' championship until the end of the season on its current form. - JS
Winner: Franco Colapinto
He didn't get much airtime but Franco Colapinto had a perfectly respectable first F1 grand prix.
He had a car capable of points as Albon showed, so making progress from 18th on the grid was expected but Colapinto drove a really solid race up the field to finish in 12th via a one stop that would have taught him plenty about F1 tyre management. He logged an impressive 37-lap stint on hards, only one lap less than what Leclerc managed.
Colapinto avoided the big error that cost him dearly on Saturday and finished 14 seconds adrift of his team-mate without any safety car help - that's certainly no worse than the average Logan Sargeant Sunday and it's only Colapinto's first-ever grand prix.
So a positive start overall for Williams's surprise stand-in, even if the qualifying mistake might leave him wondering if a dream point on debut wasn't totally out of his reach. - JS
Loser: George Russell
It could have been a podium for George Russell on Sunday after he qualified a brilliant third on Saturday.
The Mercedes driver had to bail out in the Turn 1 melee and lost part of his front wing soon after, which essentially ruined his race as the following pitstop was too early and too long.
“We could have potentially gained a place on Verstappen if we had committed to the one stop but ultimately the opening lap damage was the bigger cost,” said trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin.
Not only did Russell fall out of podium contention but he finished seventh on Sunday - behind Lewis Hamilton, who was irate at his own qualifying performance.
The silver lining for Mercedes is that it outscored Red Bull by four points. - SK
