Motorsport enthusiasts can make a date for the 14th round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship. The Italian Grand Prix, at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza this Sunday 12 September 2021 will be live on your World of Champions, SuperSport.
This past weekend’s race in the Netherlands saw home favourite Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing-Honda claim a dominant victory to reclaim first place in the Drivers’ Championship standings, with the Dutchman now leading Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by three points.
“Max was remarkable this weekend,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. “If you drive through the town to the circuit, every house has got Verstappen flags. There is so much support for him, and I have never seen a nation get behind a driver in this manner.”
The ‘Silver Arrows’, however, still have the edge in the Constructors’ Championship, holding a 12-point advantage over the Red Bulls, and they will hope for a strong showing at Monza, where they have been the dominant force in recent years.
“We needed everything perfect to even have the slightest chance,” Hamilton said. “Pit stops, strategy and traffic needed to be on point, but none of those three were ideal. But we got second and third and got really good points in the Constructors’ Championship and we will come back fighting next week.”
This round sees Formula 1 return to one of its spiritual homes, Monza, where Ferrari will be the centre of attention. The Italian team come to their home race on something of a high after drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished a strong fifth and seventh respectively at the Dutch GP, seeing Ferrari move into third place on the Constructors’ standings ahead of McLaren.
Sainz, though, said he struggled for pace and is hoping for an improvement at Monza: “Really I was struggling a lot with the front and tyres. I was degrading the tyres, it felt like I was sliding a lot and I couldn’t match the pace I had on Friday,” said the Spaniard.
“This means we need to look into what went wrong because I have never felt so slow in a race, to be honest. I was struggling a lot and had no pace whatsoever. I was looking forward to battling for the top five, and [instead] I was defending for the top 10.”
The schedule for this weekend is different from the norm, with Qualifying late on the afternoon of Friday 10 September; a Qualifying Sprint Race on Saturday 11 September; and the Race at the usual mid-afternoon start time on Sunday 12 September.
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Italian Grand Prix broadcast details, 10-12 September 2021:
- All times GMT
Friday 10 September
- 3:55pm: Qualifying – LIVE on SuperSport Motorsport
Saturday 11 September
- 2:25pm: Sprint Race Qualifying – LIVE on SuperSport Motorsport
Sunday 12 September
- 12:55pm: Race – LIVE on SuperSport Motorsport