However, that pole position was lost in a matter of seconds when Hamilton got off to a disastrous start, with the Mercedes driver finding himself back in sixth position.
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However, Hamilton started to climb back up the racing order when he passed Ricciardo on lap two while on lap 11 he overtook Bottas on Turn One.
After the poor start, Hamilton said he could feel the race slipping away.
He told Sky Sports: “It was a pretty simple weekend compared to the last one”.
“We’ll try to get as much information, and learn as much as we can, to try and make sure in the remaining seven races we’re not struggling getting off the line from pole positions”.
“It just sucks having to follow here. It’s a great day for Mercedes and I’m glad to be a part of it”, he shared.
“They’ll be working very hard – it’s not a quick fix so it’s not something we can change for the next race”.
There are seven races left of the season, beginning with the Singapore Grand Prix on September 18, and given the Mercedes auto continues to have a raw pace edge on the rest of the field, the fight for victory in each race should remain between them at each track.
“The start was a big battle and l won that, which was cool”, said Rosberg.
Asked if he detected a difference in Rosberg this year and following the European summer break, Hamilton said: “No, not really”.
“I’m told it wasn’t driver error but it wasn’t anyone’s error”, said Hamilton.
The huge pace advantage of Mercedes and the two-stop strategies of the Ferrari pair meant Hamilton eventually had a fairly routine drive back to second, but it will be a disappointing result for the world champion after an utterly dominant weekend up until Sunday afternoon.
Hamilton was slow off the line and he was leapfrogged by Rosberg, Vettel and Raikkonen. “The fans deserve nothing else than the top spot and I think we can give it to them in the next couple of years”.
“Of course you want to do well, it’s family in the end. and I think everyone knows when I’m saying you want to do well in front of your family”. Esteban Gutierrez, another to make a bad start, was 13th in the second Haas as a late stop for supersofts took Alonso to 14th and the fastest lap of the race.
He closed that to 12.2secs on lap 23 before Rosberg made his single stop the next time around, Hamilton following him in a lap later. You’ve seen it with Nico and you’ve seen it with me, quite a few times, so we will continue to work on it.
“The only thing I heard was in the race he (Hamilton) said “Don’t worry guys I got it wrong in the start”, said the Austrian.
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The Force India of Sergio Perez ended up in eighth position while Felipe Massa, driving his last Italian GP after announcing he is quitting Formula One at the end of the current campaign, finished ninth, with the second Force India of Nico Hulkenberg.
