It seemed like Lewis Hamilton would be registering yet another victory at Monza today, but a faltering start on the opening lap ensured that Nico Rosberg dominated the race securing the pole position in the Italian Grand Prix. The German driver won by a massive lead of 15 seconds over Hamilton who recovered to the second place after dropping to sixth. Having initially passed Hamilton, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel finished third on the podium (+20.990s), followed by teammate Kimi Raikkonen (+27.561s). The poor start has cost Hamilton dearly with his world championship lead shrinking down to just two points over Rosberg.
Nico had a lead of 2 seconds over Vettel in Lap 1
It was a sea of red at Monza, as the crowd cheered for the Italian drivers. Hamilton had a disappointing start despite the pole position, only to see Rosberg lead past, followed by a fast Vettel into Turn 1. Raikkonen moved into third ahead of Bottas, Ricciardo and Hamilton. Hamilton now worked his way back up as he first passed through Ricciardo through Curva Grande taking the fifth place. The British driver then attacked Bottas on lap 4, who put up a tough and didn't let him pass for the next six laps. However, Hamilton using DRS on the front straight sped past Bottas, now just 11 seconds behind teammate Rosberg, who continued lead the race in the distance.
Nico Rosberg Italian GP F1
Nico Rosberg advanced forward since turn 1 with a 2 second lead over Vettel, while Raikkonen trailed closely behind his teammate. Nico stopped for mediums at the end of lap 23, Hamilton having closed the gap to 11s. Hamilton pitted a lap later, also for mediums, and dropped back to fourth behind the Ferraris. Having started on softs, both
Mercedes' could also last longer on the track, when compared to the
Ferraris which pitted earlier. Bottas however, was the first of the lead to pit for softs on Lap 14.
Ricciardo managed to hold on to the 5th place ahead of Bottas
The best duels, however, was for fifth place as both Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo put up a spectacular show. But, Ricciardo clenched on to the position with a fantastic outbraking move in the final laps. The strategy to move to supersofts in the closing stages paid off extremely well. Max Verstappen also made a poor start, dropping to 12th but managed to pass Pascal Wehrlein's Manor on the opening lap. The Belgian-Dutch driver climbed up steadily in the following laps past Fernando Alonso on lap 8 for ninth place and later passed Sergio Perez at Lap 49, eventually finishing 7th.
Massa, who announced his retirement earlier this week, started 11th on the grid, but moved quickly to 8th in a bold move on the first corner. However, the Williams Racing driver could not keep up with Verstappen as he passed the F1 legend and had to settle for ninth at the end of the race. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India finished 10th ahead of Romain Grosjean ahead of Jenson Button, while Alonso finished 14th behind Esteban Gutierrez. Alonso's delay was largely due to a green traffic light not working during a pitstop, whereas he even complained later of tyre blistering and pitted once again with just 3 laps to go.
Nasr and Palmer Collision
Making a comeback after the massive crash last weekend, Kevin Magnussen finished 17th, behind Caros Sainz Jr. and Marcus Ericsson. Talking about the retirements, both Felipe Nasr and Jolyon Palmer collided on turn 1 on Lap 2 and were forced to retire, which also lead to Nasr attracting a penalty of 10 seconds. Torro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat had to retire as well due to a technical issue, while Pascal Wehrlein was asked to stop the car at Lap 28 and switch off, ending his run.
Images Courtesy: Formula 1
