Rosberg has had the thrill of not only beating his teammate and rival Lewis Hamilton in the Belgian and Italian grands prix, but now finds himself only two points behind in the race for the world drivers’ championship.
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Rosberg has now won two races in a row since F1 returned from its summer break but Hamilton said he was still confident for the rest of the season.
For Rosberg the win marks his 21st career victory, his 1st at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza and 7th of the 2016 season.
Hamilton knew immediately it would be an uphill struggle, falling to sixth from pole position with huge black tyre marks left on the famous Monza tarmac.
Unlike here two years ago when Rosberg made two separate mistakes at the first chicane to gift-wrap victory to Hamilton, an error-free performance from the German saw him secure his second lights-to-flag win in as many weekends, and his seventh of the season. He clawed his way up to second and though he made up some ground on Rosberg it was never going to be enough to close the gap.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finished 5th, Valtteri Bottas of Williams 6th, Red Bull “s Max Verstappen 7th”.
The issue stretches back over a year now to when Formula One’s ever-outspoken commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone cast doubt on the future of the Italian race and its viability in staying at its longtime home. “So I just don’t think about it and enjoy winning the races”.
The teamwork of the Ferraris at the start was impeccable, catching Hamilton in a pincer, with the quicker Sebastian Vettel cutting through to take second place.
The Ferrari drivers were in a race of their own for third and fourth, which was settled when Vettel emerged from his second stop marginally ahead of the Finn.
“We can see is that it is a procedural thing so I don’t want to blame anybody”.
“This is the best crowd we get all year”, said Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes need to improve what he believes is a weakness in their starts after he lost a potential win in the Italian GP.
“I don’t know what happened, l did everything as normal”.
“It soon became not a race with Nico, but making sure I stayed ahead of the guys behind and not lose any further points”, Hamilton added. 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.
Vettel also accidentally wore the first-place hat for a brief period post the race only to hand it over to Rosberg after he realised the goof-up.
“So it’s about finding the best compromise, and that’s why it’s a case of let’s see what happens in Singapore”.
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Ricciardo finished fifth and Bottas crossed sixth.
