Three months from now, though, if he does not start converting more of them into victories, we may find ourselves pointing to that failure as one of the key factors in Rosberg’s first drivers’ championship.
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Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth for Red Bull ahead of Valtteri Bottas of Williams, Dutch teenager Max Verstappen who was seventh in the second Red Bull, Sergio Perez of Force India, retirement-bound Felipe Massa in the second Williams and German Nico Hulkenberg in the second Force India.
“If I thought about a 43-point lead going to 19 points behind, then I would lose sleep over that, so I don’t think about it and I just enjoy winning races”. But it still wasn’t enough to win the race.
“I don’t know what happened, l did everything as normal”.
Hamilton fell as low as sixth off the line and, on a one-stop strategy, had to exhaust precious tyre life fighting through to second behind eventual race victor Nico Rosberg. Although he eventually battled back to finish second, the poor start cost him what had looked like a good shot at victory.
Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff suggested in April, following poor starts for Hamilton in Australia and Bahrain, and for Nico Rosberg also in Melbourne, that parent company Daimler was looking to optimise the hardware on the clutches. The gap is a bit bigger than we would like, but equally the last two races things are coming down a little bit more and things are heading the right way also back in the factory.
The bad start hindered the 18-year-old’s race from there on in, as he had to push much harder, which increased his tyre degradation, but the Dutchman was pleased with how the vehicle performed during the final stint of the race.
While Hamilton had it all to do, fellow Brit Jolyon Palmer, who is fighting for his F1 future, suffered another miserable race as he retired for the fourth time this season.
Hamilton was passed by FIVE other cars, after he failed to capitalise on his brilliant pole position the previous day. “Live to fight another day”.
He added: “Of course, we never stop improving and learning. All my best friends are Italian, I speak Italian and have a lot of connections with Italy and a lot of support here also, so it’s awesome to see”, Rosberg added.
Ricciardo finished fifth and Bottas crossed sixth. It was a really enjoyable overtake (on Bottas).
Rosberg’s win means he closes the gap between him and Hamilton for the Driver’s Championship to just two points, with Hamilton now at 250 points to his Rosberg’s 248. Maybe I should have gone to the left, I wasn’t sure what Lewis was going to do.
“It was awesome. He came from so far back”.
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Putting his Red Bull sixth on the grid was all that could have been hoped for, with Mercedes way out in front and Ferrari and Williams both set up to make the most of the fastest track in Formula One.
