Carlos Sainz was robbed of his $A973,000 watch just hours after his third-place finish in the Italian GP.
According to reports in Italy, the Ferrari driver was targeted by thieves near the Armani hotel in Milan around 8:30pm.
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However, Sainz, who was still in his Ferrari kit, chased them with members of the public, who saw the robbery take place.
The Spanish driver managed to catch the robbers and recover the precious Richard Mille watch while police have now arrested two suspects.
Britain’s Lando Norris had his $280,000 Richard Mille robbed from him after England’s Euro finals loss to Italy.
But the young racer never got the watch back and a man was found not guilty of robbery.
Sainz’s robbery attempt came after Max Verstappen made it ten wins in a row to set a new F1 record.
Verstappen was held up for 15 laps by Sainz, who had taken pole the previous day for the Italian team in their home race.
At first the Dutchman locked up as he tried to squeeze past the Spaniard’s Ferrari into turn one.
But he got the move done four corners later to move into the lead and was untroubled to the end to open up a 145-point advantage in the championship over his teammate Sergio Perez.
It was so comfortable, his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase labelled it “a stroll in the park” over the team’s radio.
When quizzed about his landmark victory, Verstappen said: “I never would have believed that it was possible but we had to work for it today and that made it a lot more fun.
“I was just trying to stay patient. I could see they [Ferrari] were struggling with rear tyres and I had to pick my moment.”
This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.
