Rosberg dominates as Hamilton stuttersposted in F104 | 09 | 2016

    NICO ROSBERG DOMINATED the Italian Grand Prix after his Mercedes team-mate and world championship leader, Lewis Hamilton, struggled with a bad start from pole position.

    Hamilton, who now heads to Singapore in a fortnight with his lead in the title race slashed to just two points with seven races remaining, bogged down at the start and emerged from the first chicane in sixth place.

    Thereafter the three-times world champ never threatened and crossed the line 15 seconds behind Rosberg at the end of the 53 laps for Mercedes’ fourth one-two of the season.

    Hamilton initially took the blame for his poor start on his own shoulders, radioing Mercedes to admit his error, but after the race he suggested that might not have been the case.

    Mercedes-Monza-2.jpg

    "I knew my engineers would be worried and nervous of how the start went so that is why I tried to put their mind at ease by accepting the blame," he said.

    "I don't know really what happened at the start. I'll try to understand it later. I did everything normally.

    "I remember a bunch of cars going by. I did the sequence, everything exactly the same. I just got lots of wheelspin, a bit like Nico's start in Hockenheim."

    And Hamilton admitted he knew within the first few laps that the best he was going to recover from the race was second place.

    "In the moment, you're just thinking about getting back to where you started," he explained. "My goal was to get back to where I was but I could see Nico pulling away.

    Mercedes-Monza-4.jpg

    "I know from experience here, while everything can happen, the chances of the win decrease lap by lap, second by second.

    "I knew at an early stage that winning would not be possible but I could try. I went after second and that was the most I could do."

    For Rosberg, meanwhile, it was the German’s first win at Monza and the 21st grand prix victory of his career. But despite wining back-to-back races, having also dominated at Spa, the German denied the 'tide' of the title battle was currently going his way.

    "I don't see waves, I just see race by race," Rosberg, whose win was his seventh of the season, said. "The next race is Singapore and I'll try to win there."

    Mercedes-Monza-5.jpg

    Behind the two Mercedes, Sebastian Vettel ensured the Tifosi had something to cheer about when he finished third, 20.9s behind Rosberg. Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen crossed the line fourth.

    With the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo fifth, two places ahead of his team-mate Max Verstappen, Williams’ Valtteri Bottas took sixth. Team-mate Feilpe Mass was ninth, sandwiched between the two Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Huldenberg who finished eighth and 10th respectively.

    The result edged Williams back into a three-point lead ahead of Force India in the race for fourth place in the constructors' championship. Red Bull hold on to second place, 11 points ahead of Ferrari, but 208 points behind the all-dominant Mercedes.

    F1 — Italian Grand Prix, at Monza (Result):

    1. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 53 laps 1h 17m 28.089s

    2. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes +15.0s

    3. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari +20.9s

    4. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari +27.5s

    5. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-TAG Heuer +45.2s

    6. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes +51.0s

    7. Max Verstappen NED Red Bull-TAG Heuer +54.2s

    8. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes +64.9s

    9. Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes +65.6s

    10. Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes +78.6s

    11. Romain Grosjean FRA Haas-Ferrari +1 lap

    12. Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda +1 lap

    13. Esteban Gutierrez MEX Haas-Ferrari +1 lap

    14. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda +1 lap

    15. Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap

    16. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap

    17. Kevin Magnussen DEN Renault-Renault +1 lap

    18. Esteban Ocon FRA MRT-Mercedes +2 laps

    Retired:

    Daniil Kvyat RUS Toro Rosso-Ferrari +17 laps

    Pascal Wehrlein GER MRT-Mercedes +27 laps

    Jolyon Palmer GBR Renault-Renault +46 laps

    Felipe Nasr BRZ Sauber-Ferrari +47 laps

    Fastest lap:

    Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 25.340s

    Related: Porsche fends off Audi for Mexico WEC win

    Keep up-to-date with all the latest news by following us on twitter.com/Scotcars

    Jim McGill

    Photographs copyright of Mercedes-Benz AMG F1

User Comments

Login or register to post comments.