Poor getaways have become a frequent feature for Mercedes this year and the data from Hamilton’s W07 auto will be pored over by the Englishman and his team of engineers when they reconvene at the world champion’s Brackley headquarters on Tuesday.
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Hamilton began the race in terrible fashion, slipping from pole to sixth.
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. For the seventh time this year, it was a victory during which he did not make a single overtake other than off the line. “It’s great to win in Italy”.
There have been two big winners since Formula One returned from a mid-season break – Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Second place came about when Ferrari elected to keep to a two-stop strategy, enabling Hamilton to pass while both Vettel and Raikkonen were in the pits.
“If I thought about a 45 point lead going to 19, then I would lose sleep over that, so I don’t think about it and enjoy winning races”.
Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Toto Wolff said the team will investigate the reason behind the poor start. I knew my engineers would be anxious and nervous of how the start went.
Then Wolff spoke to the press and appeared to suggest it was Hamilton’s fault after all, the second phase of the getaway being consumed by wheelspin.
“After that it was just very difficult, because you have to push harder on the tyres to get past people and that compromises your strategy, but in the end our last stint was very positive”. I did sequence exactly the same, I think I just got lots of wheel spin.
“We can see is that it is a procedural thing so I don’t want to blame anybody”.
“After that I think we had good pace but it was sort of expected that they are obviously a bit quicker than us, in race pace as well”.
Gobbled up by Rosberg, both Ferrari drivers and then the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo on the long run down to the opening chicane, Hamilton was left facing an nearly impossible task of winning for a third year on the trot in Italy. Rosberg has had his share of problems as well, particularly at his home race in Hockenheim.
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However, this year’s championship battle also looks like it will be the closest of Hamilton’s three head-to-head contests with Rosberg. “In the past we were able to be told our clutch temperature and it would be easier to hit a target but now it is a lot less easy to know what your clutch is going to be delivering and what it is not”. After 10 laps, Rosberg led Vettel by 4.4 and Hamilton, who eventually surged past the Finn on the main straight, by 11 seconds.
