Conclusions | We are witnessing a historic title fight in F1

Mazepin and Schumacher clash again

Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher will not be friends anymore. In the race, they were at it again. After the Russian almost sent his teammate into the pit wall at full speed in the Dutch Grand Prix, he tapped his teammate at Monza. It is the umpteenth incident between the two of them, which also makes you wonder to what extent Günther Steiner's conversation last week was useful. Is he even being taken seriously?

Bottas is still better than Perez

Valtteri Bottas may have to leave Mercedes, but he again showed in Italy that he is still a better wingman than Sergio Perez. Bottas drove from the back of the grid to third place. Perez started from the middle of the field, but was penalised (which he could have easily avoided if he had given the spot back to Charles Leclerc) and ended up on P5, losing the battle to his rival at Mercedes.

Ricciardo is back

You could say Ricciardo was lucky with Hamilton and Verstappen dropping out, but on the other hand the Australian was leading the race from start to finish. No one went past the McLaren's, so it remains to be seen if Hamilton or Verstappen would have managed it at all. After half a year of struggle, there finally seems to be light at the end of the tunnel for the McLaren driver.

We're part of a historic title fight

The image of Verstappen's car on top of Hamilton's will stay with us for a long time. Every great rivalry of the past has its unique clash, and this was Lewis and Max's moment. It shows once again what a unique fight we as viewers are witnessing, after years of Mercedes dominating the race, we are finally seeing two top drivers, driving for two top teams, fighting for the world title again.

Is the penalty system equal?

While there is something to be said for Verstappen's penalty, what Verstappen gets is almost in line with Bottas' penalty. Hamilton received a ten-second penalty for his incident at Silverstone, which is perhaps slightly weaker than a three-grid penalty. Verstappen has won from fourth on the grid three times in his Red Bull career which is the highest place he can start from in Russia. Bottas received a five-place penalty after his blunder in Hungary, where he was responsible for two DNF's (Lando Norris and Sergio Perez) and another spoiled race for Verstappen.