If Hamilton had won here, it would have completed his hat-trick, having won here the last two times.
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But a poor opening to the race, after similar cost the world champion probable victories at the opening two rounds in Australia and Bahrain, was to prove damaging yesterday.
Sebastian Vettel came home third, 5.9 seconds further adrift, ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen to the delight of the home fans.
On that occasion, Rosberg and team-mate Lewis Hamilton crashed on the first lap but they have since delivered this season.
“Obviously it was lost at the start”, Hamilton told reporters. I had an awesome start and that made the win. “I did everything as normal”.
However, after the race, the World Championship leader – who is a 1/4 favourite for the Drivers’ Championship title – said that his initial communication with the team had not been accurate.
We all give McLaren a lot of (deserved) stick because of the unreliability of their auto in recent years, but credit where it’s due – Fernando Alonso logged the quickest lap time of the race. It proved to be a common feature during the race as the top four positions were all decided by strategy, but Ricciardo ensured that fifth position was decided on the track with one of the moves of the season on Bottas. I kept pushing as hard as I could and came within 15 seconds of Nico when we crossed the line.
My goal was trying to get back up to where I was but of course I could see Nico pulling away and in my experiences of being here in F1 while anything can happen the chances of a win were decreasing lap by lap, second by second.
“All he had to do was match some of my times and he was sorted”.
The 2016 Italian Grand Prix at Monza saw a terrific drive from Mercedes AMG F1’s Nico Rosberg.
As arguments raged over who was responsible for this latest failure to convert a dominant pole into a secure victory, Hamilton and team chief Toto Wolff both side-stepped “the blame game” and took a broader view. This win is incredibly special for me and standing up there and singing with thousands of people gave me goosebumps.
“I could have kept on going at the pace l was going and l could have brought the gap down to six [seconds] – maybe”.
Jenson Button also made the announcement that he won’t be racing in 2017, but insisted he’s “not retiring” from Formula One.
But he could yet return to the grid in 2018 after revealing McLaren has an option to put him back in the vehicle.
“I feel a part of me is Italian because I have a lot of friends and grew up with the culture, so it’s special for me”, he explained before moving into it with “Doh, doh, doh…doh” which, to universal amazement, the crowd joined in.
“Next year I will be an ambassador for this team”.
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Behind, the McLarens lack of power with their Honda engine showed.
