MONZA, Italy (AP) — Charles Leclerc gave Ferrari a rare victory at the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, much to the delight of home fans, as the team’s audacious one-stop strategy paid off Sunday.

Ferrari, which brought nine upgrades to its home race, was one of the teams that opted to pit just once.

And that turned out to be the right decision from Leclerc, who managed to keep Oscar Piastri and his McLaren teammate Lando Norris behind him despite the badly worn tyres.

As it became clear what was about to happen, the passionate, red-clad tifosi jumped to their feet, stamping and roaring at Leclerc every lap, going absolutely wild as he crossed the finish line 2.664 seconds ahead of Piastri.

Polesitter Norris finished 6.153 points behind Leclerc, closing the gap to 62 points over championship leader Max Verstappen, who finished sixth in his Red Bull.

Leclerc also won in 2019, making it Ferrari’s second victory at its home circuit in the past 14 races.

“It’s an incredible feeling, I actually thought the first time would feel like this and the second time not so special. But my God, the emotions in the last few laps,” Leclerc said immediately afterwards.

“The tifosi were incredible, mamma mia!”

Before Sunday’s victory, the Italian Scuderia had managed only second place to Leclerc in 2022 and third to Sainz last year since winning in 2019.

It was Leclerc’s second win of the season, his first as special as the one at his home circuit in Monaco.

“Monaco and Monza are the two races I want to win every year and I managed to win them this year. It’s so, so special,” he said.

Leclerc started fourth at Monza, while the McLaren duo took the lead of the grid.

With Norris pursuing the title, questions were raised about whether team orders would play a role.

That was quickly answered. Both McLarens had a good start — unusually for them — but Piastri managed to get a slipstream and overtake his team-mate into the second chicane, while Norris slipped into third position as Leclerc also managed to get past.

Norris managed to undercut Leclerc and because he was right behind Piastri after the first pit stops, the two were told over the team radio that they could race.

But the expected battle for victory did not materialise due to Ferrari’s bold move.

As more and more drivers came in for their second pit stop and the laps continued to tick by, it became clear that the Ferrari duo would continue to use their hard tyres until the end.

And that proved to be the case: Leclerc managed to keep Piastri behind him, despite his tyres being almost 40 laps old.

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

“It hurts. It hurts a lot. I did a lot of things right today,” Piastri said. “There were a lot of question marks about the strategy before the race. A one-stop decision seemed like a very risky decision — and in the end it was right.

“Today we unfortunately got it a bit wrong, we had everything to lose by being in the lead. Charles could have tried something else, because he would have finished third anyway. Painful.”

There was some consolation for McLaren: the team reduced the gap to Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship to just eight points.

“At the moment, both championships are not realistic,” Verstappen said. “Last year we had a great car, which was the most dominant car ever. And we basically turned it into a monster. So we have to turn it around.”

With only eight races left, Norris was asked whether he thinks team orders should play a role.

“I’m not here just to beg someone to let me pass, that’s not what I’m here for,” Norris said. “I’m here to race, he (Piastri) had a better race than me so I finished third and that’s where I deserved to finish.”

But when pressed, Norris admitted he would rather see the team make his title a priority.

“I mean, I would love it, but it’s not up to me,” he said. “It’s a tough one, I wouldn’t say we’re out of time, of course, but time is going slowly and I still believe we can do it. The pace is obviously great. I still believe we probably have close to, if not the best car today.

“I don’t know, it’s not up to me to decide, it’s up to the team… when you fight for a championship you want everything and I do everything I can. The best way is just to win the race and I didn’t do that today because of some stupid things.”

Birthday boy Carlos Sainz Jr. finished fourth on Sunday, the 30-year-old just ahead of Lewis Hamilton who will replace him at Ferrari next year.

Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell finished seventh after a dreadful start, sandwiched between Red Bull duo Verstappen and Sergio Perez, with Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen completing the top 10.

Williams debutant Franco Colapinto finished his first F1 race in 12th place, better than Logan Sargeant — whom he replaced — has managed in all but one of his races this year.

Magnussen will miss the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in two weeks after being given a two-point time penalty for causing a collision with Pierre Gasly.

This gave Magnussen 12 penalty points over a 12-month period, earning him a one-race ban. The Haas driver is the first to be banned since Romain Grosjean in 2012.

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