The event, held over the weekend of 10–12 September at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, was the fourteenth round of the 2021 World Championship.

After Max Verstappen's win at the Dutch Grand Prix, he took the lead of the Drivers' Championship with 224.5 points.

Free practice 2 and sprint qualifying took place on the Saturday, while the race is the sole event on the Sunday.

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time, with Max Verstappen in second and Valtteri Bottas in third.

The red flag was brought out when Carlos Sainz Jr. spun and crashed at the Ascari chicane.

[19] His situation was monitored by medical staff and ultimately, he was cleared to take part in the Sprint.

At the end of the first part of qualifying, Lewis Hamilton was fastest, with Valtteri Bottas second and Lando Norris third.

The final part of qualifying saw Bottas go fastest, with Hamilton second and Max Verstappen third.

He managed to make up one place, due to Pierre Gasly crashing out at Curva Grande.

The damage meant Gasly's front wing came off and subsequently went under his car, bouncing him through the gravel and into the wall.

The session ended with Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, and Daniel Ricciardo finishing on the top three positions respectively.

Verstappen entered the pits on the next lap, but was held for 11.1 seconds due to an issue with the right front tyre.

Due to this, Norris was able to overtake him, and Hamilton ended up side-by-side with Verstappen on the pit exit and into turn 1.

Verstappen was squeezed into turn 2, bouncing over a sausage kerb and making contact with Hamilton's left rear tyre, launching Verstappen's car into the air and over the top of Hamilton's car.

On the safety car restart, Norris overtook Leclerc to move up into second place.

[43][44] Damage to his Aston Martin's front wing meant that Sebastian Vettel could not finish higher than twelfth.

Kubica's fourteenth-place finish allowed him to move ahead of Nikita Mazepin into twentieth place in the Drivers' Championship standings.

[47] Three-time Formula One World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart criticised Verstappen's behaviour following the incident with Hamilton, saying he was "taking longer than expected to mature".

[49] Meanwhile, race winner Ricciardo stated that that was the first time he had ever been overwhelmed by winning, especially considering he had been consistently outperformed by teammate Lando Norris in the first half of the season.