Charles Leclerc and Ferrari win the Italian Grand Prix – Ireland and World Sport

By Philip Duncan, PA F1 Correspondent, Monza

Charles Leclerc fended off the challenge from McLaren to take a famous victory at Ferrari's home race in Italy.

In the final stages, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris seemed to be fighting for the lead, but Leclerc managed an excellent one-stop strategy and took his second victory in Monza.

Piastri finished second, Norris, who was mourning a poor first lap, third. Carlos Sainz finished fourth, one place ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Max Verstappen started seventh and moved up just one position on Norris, who received a bonus point for the fastest lap, reducing the Dutch driver's lead in the championship from 70 to 63 points with eight races remaining.

Norris has never led a lap after starting from pole and his miserable streak continued at the Temple of Speed.

Norris' first start went well, moving to the right to defend the inside line from Piastri on the 200-mile stretch to the Variante del Rettifilo.

But his work was undone when Piastri was caught in the slipstream at the exit of the Curva Grande after a bumpy exit from the opening chicane.

Norris was exposed and Piastri did not need a second request to drive his McLaren past his teammate on the outside in the following Variante della Roggia.

The Australian carried out his maneuver and an unsettled Norris slid through the chicane while Leclerc was ready to jump.

The Monegasque pushed under Norris while escaping from Lesmo and suddenly the McLaren man was third.

Russell started third but dropped to seventh after having to take evasive action at the first chicane to avoid crashing into the rear of Piastri.

Piastri controlled the race and Norris, who was making no progress behind Leclerc, was brought back for his first stop.

The Englishman accelerated to comply with the 80 km/h speed limit in the pit lane and crashed into a Styrofoam advertising board.

Norris, who was four seconds behind his teammate at the stop, managed to avoid any damage but it was clear how quickly he wanted to make up for it as he sought to create another lap to forget.

Leclerc was forced to stop next time, but a quick out lap from Norris put him ahead of the Ferrari driver. Piastri was forced to stop on lap 16, 2.3 seconds ahead of his teammate.

Norris set about closing the gap on Piastri and by lap 20 he was 1.8 seconds behind. “You're allowed to race, Oscar,” Norris was informed by his race engineer Will Joseph. “Papaya rules,” he added. In other words, don't crash.

However, Norris was unable to catch his teammate and was three seconds behind at the start of lap 31, while Ferrari smelled blood.

Leclerc was forced to accelerate and on the following lap Norris made a mistake. He went off the track in the Variante della Roggia and lost even more ground to Piastri. Leclerc was now hot on his heels.

At the end of lap 32, Norris, now five seconds behind Piastri, came in for his second stop.

Norris closed the gap and got closer to Verstappen, but was out of step with his rivals after starting on the hardest tyre compound.

Piastri stopped for a second time on lap 38 and rejoined the track ahead of Verstappen and Norris.

Norris tried to overtake Verstappen at the start of lap 40, but Verstappen finished him off. The 24-year-old tried again and managed it. Norris was now four seconds behind Piastri.

But suddenly McLaren was faced with a new problem. Unlike the rest of the field, Ferrari was trying to implement a one-stop strategy, and the McLaren drivers suddenly realized the bold idea.

“Just drive damn fast,” Norris was told. Sainz was swept aside first by Piastri on lap 45 and then by Norris on lap 48.

When Piastri started chasing Leclerc, the Monegasque had a lead of 11.7 seconds.

“Leave it to me,” Leclerc said to the Ferrari pit wall after they radioed him a message.

The Tifosi cheered wildly as the lap counter counted down and, despite having 38 laps of old tyres, he kept his Ferrari going until the end to take a famous victory by 2.6 seconds over Piastri.