Charles Leclerc gave Ferrari a stunning home Italian Grand Prix victory and sent the crowd wild with delight after nursing his tyres on a bold one-stop strategy to deny favourites McLaren a one-two finish.

Australian Oscar Piastri, who had seized the lead from pole-sitting McLaren teammate Lando Norris on the opening lap, finished runner-up with the title-chasing Briton third.

Both McLarens made two stops but the strategy unravelled when Leclerc eked out his set of hard tyres for 38 laps around Monza’s super fast circuit as the crowd roared him on.

The result left Norris 62 points behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who finished only sixth, with eight races remaining.

“Mamma Mia, Mamma Mia,” screamed Leclerc over the car radio as he took the chequered flag waved by former Italy soccer player Alessandro Del Piero.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” Leclerc said before the podium celebrations.

“I want to win Monza and Monaco every year and I have managed to do so. It is so, so special.”

“I wasn’t surprised you stayed out, I was surprised you survived,” Piastri told Leclerc in the cooldown room.

“It hurts. It hurts a lot. I did a lot of things right today,” Piastri said. “There was a lot of question marks on the strategy going into the race. Doing a one-stop looked like a very risky call - and in the end it was right.

“Today we unfortunately got it a bit wrong, we had everything to lose from being in the lead. Charles could try something different as he’d finish third either way. Painful.”

Leclerc was 11 seconds clear with seven laps to go and 8.3 ahead with five remaining as the massed ranks of ‘tifosi’ willed him on. But he crossed the line 2.664 ahead.

“We considered a one-stop strategy the whole race but it was not possible with the amount of (tyre) graining I had,” said Norris, who had started the day 70 points behind Verstappen and hoping to gain far more.

“We are disappointed but Ferrari drove a better race.”

McLaren could also have taken the lead in the constructors’ championship but ended the day still eight points behind Red Bull.

Carlos Sainz was fourth for Ferrari with the Italian team’s future driver Lewis Hamilton fifth for Mercedes.

George Russell was seventh for Mercedes with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez eighth and Alex Albon taking precious points for Williams in ninth.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished 13th in the Red Bull, having started in 12th on the grid.

Meanwhile, stewards handed Haas’s Kevin Magnussen a one-race ban after the Dane received 12 penalty points in a 12-month period.

Magnussen, who is leaving Haas at the end of the season, was given a 10-second penalty and two points for causing a collision with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly at Monza, triggering an automatic ban.

The Dane still finished 10th but stewards said Magnussen’s super licence had been suspended for the next race, in Baku, on September 15.

With AP