The Italian GP from this past Sunday was quiet a spectacle to watch. Huge difference to the sprint race from Saturday which was pretty anticlimatic. McLaren won their first grand prix in 9 years. Yes it’s been that long. So long, that McLaren, in that 9 year span, they used a Honda, Renault and circled back to a Mercedes engine.

Daniel Ricciardo also won his first race since 2018. Lando Norris finished second, and third was Valtteri Bottas. Bottas especially had a strong performance as he was fighting from the back of the grid to make a podium out of it. A podium he got at the expense of Sergio Perez, who had a 5 second time penalty added to his race time.

It was a great race. However there’s the main talking point. That point is the lap where Max Verstappen ended up with his car on top of Lewis Hamilton. On the first lap, at turn 3 and 4, Max missed the first apex and squeezed Lewis out. Lewis backed off and actually cut the corner to avoid skating on the curbs. On lap 25 Max decided to do a pit stop. It was a calamity, the pit ended up being 11 seconds. I’m certain that this disaster added fuel to the fire. On the 26th lap, Max was on the outside coming down the main straight, Lewis was ahead on the inside after exiting the pit. Max was squeezed out onto the left but didn’t back out (or opted for a switchback overtake). This resulted in a wheel collision and Max’s car was on top of Lewis’s helmet. Thanks to the halo he was okay.

The stewards felt it just to dole out a 3 place grid penalty for Verstappen’s next race. So what do I think? Well I think that this sort of competition is what the sport needs, however there also has to be a point where there’s an intervention to remind both parties that scrapping for points doesn’t need to result in an injury or worse.

I love the emotion that competing in motosport brings out. It’s the passion Max and Lewis have that inspires an ordinary man like me. This rivalry has gotten even hotter and after the last 7 years of dull championship battles, I’m for it.