After losing the lead of the drivers’ standings following Max Verstappen’s successive victories at Spa and Zandvoort, Monza’s long straights presented the perfect opportunity for the empire to strike back, with Mercedes’ power units remaining, just about, F1’s benchmark. Even in a season increasingly difficult to predict, the script for the Italian Grand Prix seemed relatively set in stone when Mercedes completed the formality of a front-row lockout in Friday’s qualifying session. Valtteri Bottas, it was universally assumed, would lead away from the front of Saturday’s sprint and instigate the swap when a Mercedes one-two was secure before shuffling to the back to serve his...
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