Unlike in Monza two years ago when Rosberg gift-wrapped victory to Hamilton after two unforced errors, a strong performance from the German enabled him to claim his seventh win of the season.
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The German driver capitalised on his teammate’s poor start and raced to his first Italian Grand Prix title at Monza on Sunday.
Hamilton was able to pass Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas during the first stint, and a one-stop strategy took care of the two Ferrari cars meaning that Hamilton was able to finish second albeit 15 seconds behind his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg.
Gobbled up by Rosberg, both Ferrari drivers and then the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo on the long run down to the opening chicane, Hamilton was left facing an nearly impossible task of winning for a third year on the trot in Italy.
Dutch teenager Max Verstappen, who had been on the front row last weekend in Belgium, qualified seventh for Red Bull with Mexican Sergio Perez eighth for Mercedes-powered Force India.
“It was all down to the start”.
He continued: “I don’t know what happened”.
The victory also prevented Hamilton completing a hat-trick of Italian wins, a feat achieved only by Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s.
He knows he has a fight on his hands for the remaining seven races.
Hamilton began closing the gap to Rosberg before both Mercedes pitted for the first and only time, taking the mediums. “We raced side by side through turn one and then he ran me off the road in turn two”.
‘We have had so many things go against us on our side of the garage, so to come back and be where we are, there are still lots of great things that can happen going forward’.
The Mercedes head of motorsport, Toto Wolff, said: “Today, machine and driver got it wrong”.
“Well, obviously yeah it was lost at the start”, Hamilton conceded. I did the sequence exactly the same, I think I just got lots of wheel-spin – a bit like Nico’s start in Hockenheim.
Asked if he detected a difference in Rosberg this year and following the European summer break, Hamilton said: “No, not really”.
“Thank you very much guys”, said Rosberg.
“Unbelievable!” said a beaming Vettel.
“We had been dominant all weekend and it was less than a tenth which lost us the weekend – that’s tough for everyone”, said Hamilton. I’m sure Ferrari will come back and keep fighting.
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The British driver’s bad start was very surprising considering the brilliant display all through the practice sessions which saw him claim pole and led to Rosberg admitting there wasn’t nothing he could have done to beat his rival on Friday and Saturday. “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 unbelievable to see”, Rosberg added.
