At the start, Hamilton saw not only Rosberg but also the Ferrari team of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen sweep past him, followed by Valtteri Bottas.
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Daniel Ricciardo is a regular victor in this category, and his pass on Valtteri Bottas to take fifth place was simply brilliant – perhaps the best piece of overtaking so far this season from anyone.
That he eventually finished second behind the triumphant Rosberg was of little consolation as his lead in the championship was trimmed to nine points to two, with seven races remaining.
“It was all down to the start”. I had an awesome start and that made the win.
It was also the 50th podium finish of Rosberg’s career and prevented Hamilton completing a cherished hat-trick of Italian wins, to equal a feat achieved only once before by Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950’s, and register his 50th career victory. His record from pole is not quite as bad as that of his Mercedes team-mate, Nico Rosberg, two years ago, but like Rosberg, his inability to turn Saturday speed into Sunday wins could end up costing him the drivers’ championship. His hand gesture afterwards summed it up.
Rosberg has won back-to-back races following Hamilton’s grid penalty and third place at Spa, but the German denied the tide of the title battle was now going his way.
“I knew my engineers would be anxious and nervous of how the start went, so that’s why I tried to put their minds at ease”, Hamilton said. “I felt good on qualifying pace as well, just that Lewis had his best day of the year, and when he has his best day of the year, it is hard to beat him”.
The Mercedes head of motorsport, Toto Wolff, said: “Today, machine and driver got it wrong”.
“Lewis came on the radio and said it was his mistake”, he said. “Second was the best I could do after the start I got”.
Obeying orders, Hamilton preserved his new tyres, while itching to pass the Ferraris and chase Rosberg, who led him by 10 seconds, as Manor’s hopes of a points finish ended when German Pascal Wehrlein pulled up and retired.
“The start was the big opportunity and that worked out fantastically”, Rosberg said.
“Our mission doesn’t stop here”, Vettel said. “This is the best podium in the world”.
“We’re still caught out by random variation from one race to another”, Hamilton said.
Hamilton passed Ricciardo with a sleek move on lap two, but he struggled to make his way past Bottas.
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“Lewis did one stop less, so obviously it was clear after our second stop he would be ahead of us – and I think the problem was that he was too far ahead of us”, Vettel noted. This win is incredibly special for me and standing up there and singing with thousands of people gave me goosebumps. It was good fun! 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.
