Nico Rosberg moved to within two points of Lewis Hamilton in the title race after taking advantage of the world champion’s bad start to win the Italian Grand Prix.
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The Ferrari duo were on a two-stop strategy and their first exit to the pits left Hamilton, who, like Rosberg, was on a single-stop strategy, in second place, 15 seconds behind Rosberg with over two-thirds of the race remaining.
Hamilton was a class above his Mercedes team-mate on Saturday, qualifying nearly half a second quicker than the German, but a sluggish launch opened the door for Rosberg to dominate at Monza – taking his first win at the “Temple of Speed”.
Hamilton passed Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, leaving just the two Ferraris between him and Rosberg.
Hamilton dropped down to fifth from pole position but easily made his way through into second place during the pitstops thanks to a tyre advantage. “Second was the best l could do after the start l got”. Max Verstappen managed to finish seventh, while Force India’s Sergio Perez finished eighth, ahead of his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in 10th.
Said Hamilton: “Obviously the start wasn’t great”. However, after a awful start, the defending world champion quickly found himself languishing in sixth place and was forced to deliver another eye-catching drive to achieve a second-placed finish, behind his Mercedes teammate. I knew my engineers would be anxious and nervous of how the start went.
Nico Rosberg claimed a comfortable second victory in as many weeks after leading Lewis Hamilton across the line at the Italian Grand Prix.
“I don’t know really what happened at the start. I just got lots of wheelspin, a bit like Nico’s start in Hockenheim”.
Ahead the home-track Ferraris were too quick as they chased a much needed podium for the Scuderia.
Raikkonen finished fourth, Ricciardo fifth and Bottas sixth.
“I don’t agree that it is more down to the driver I think it is the same as it was before we just have a relatively inconsistent clutch and it is hard”.
Hamilton sits first with 250 world championship points, with Rosberg 248, Ricciardo a clear third on 161 followed by Vettel and Raikkonen on 143 and 136.
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Hamilton told his Mercedes team the poor start was his own fault. “The race is on with Lewis of course, it’s always going to be a great battle and I look forward to what’s to come”. Palmer retired, while Nasr came back out briefly to serve a 10-second penalty for causing the accident.
