We have just witnessed a race for the ages at Monza. It was drama galore from start to finish, and this is exactly the kind of action fans have been demanding for a while now. And Italy didn’t disappoint, nor did Pierre Gasly who won his first-ever F1 race.

He benefitted with the restart (Yeah, that happened) and a well-timed pitstop, prior to it during the safety car window. However, Lewis Hamilton receiving a 10-second stop-go penalty also benefitted Gasly’s cause.

But don’t take anything away from Pierre, who put in a sensational and absolutely deserved the win. In doing so, Gasly surely would have left Red Bull red-faced, considering he was relegated to Toro Rosso midway through his first year with them.

Lewis himself showered praise on Gasly’s performance. He said, “Well firstly, I need to say huge congratulations to Pierre. That’s a fantastic result for him. I have, obviously, seen what he has been through. 

“From being dropped from the top team and now he’s beat the top team. I think it’s just fantastic to see him recover, to see him grow. I’m genuinely very happy for him.”

Lewis Hamilton accidentally name-checks Sebastian Vettel as his title rival while reviewing his own performance

Hamilton won a rather unfortunate 10-second penalty for diving into the pits whilst the pit lane was closed. However, he admitted that it was totally his fault for not seeing the indication boards that the pitlane was closed.

But in the end, he was rather happy with how he recovered from being dead last on the grid. He said, “To get 7 and still get fastest lap, that’s still some good points. I definitely didn’t think that was possible from 26 seconds behind the last car.”

Then came the accidental Vettel mention. About his fellow title contenders not scoring too many points, Lewis said, “I’m grateful, obviously, Seb didn’t score p… sorry, Max didn’t score any points and so not a huge loss today.”

Either Hamilton hasn’t been paying attention to Ferrari, or he is just too accustomed to seeing Seb battle him over the years. Either way, Hamilton hasn’t lost any ground in the battle for the Championship and still looks poised to seal it sooner rather than later.