Lewis Hamilton won an absolutely enthralling Italian Grand Prix, after he overtook his team-mate and championship rival, Nico Rosberg, following a mistake by the German.
Hamilton, who started on pole, got off to the worst possible start thanks to an electrical problem. Not only did Rosberg stream ahead of him, but Williams’ Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Kevin Magnusson overtook him too.
This gave Rosberg the chance to establish a dominant lead of over five seconds, but as Hamilton fought his way to get past Massa and Magnusson his fellow Mercedes driver made a huge mistake that saw him go wide at the first corner and this reduced his lead to practically nothing.
Hamilton by now was up in second, and his pressure then forced Rosberg to make the exact same error, which the English racer profited from to take the lead. He then never looked like giving up his advantage and he ended up winning the race in relative comfort, as Rosberg settled for second. The German still has a 22 point advantage over his 29-year-old peer, but Hamilton will be confident that he can quickly haul back this total over the next few races.
Mercedes will also be relieved that their drivers didn’t collide like they did last week in Belgium. While trying to overtake Hamilton on the second lap, Rosberg purposefully hit the former McLaren driver, which meant that Hamilton had to go to the pits for a new rear-wheel and this ultimately lead to his retirement due to the car’s problems. Rosberg on the other hand finished second and extended his championship lead.
Rosberg admitted that Hamilton deserved his victory at Monza, even though his two mistakes had contributed heavily to his success. “Lewis drove a great race and he deserves it today,” he declared after the chequered flag. “It was just that Lewis was quick. Coming from behind, I needed to up my pace and as a result went into the mistake. That was very bad, and that lost me the lead.”
However, Rosberg still remained philosophical despite his error: “But second place is a good result and there are still a lot of races to go.”
Meanwhile Hamilton, despite the issues of his start, noted that the car “felt good,” before he conceded, “Time will tell [if it makes a difference on the title] but a race like this is always a positive especially when you have a problem like I did and you push on.”
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