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On a day that was poised to be one of celebration for Ferrari, it is Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes AMG that have spoiled the Scuderia’s party by winning the Italian Grand Prix and extending their lead in the championship.
Tensions flared on the first lap of the Monza classic, with Hamilton and title rival Sebastian Vettel clashing at Turn 4, leaving the Ferrari driver facing rearward and having had to seek front-wing repairs.
Undamaged, Hamilton then pursued polesitter Kimi Räikkönen, who was chasing his first Formula One win since the Australian Grand Prix in 2013. The Finn pitted for the soft tyre on Lap 23, giving the lead of the race over to the Mercedes AMG.
Extracting another eight laps on the supersofts over Räikkönen then gave Hamilton the benefit of having fresher tyres – with Valtteri Bottas utilised by Mercedes AMG to hold up his compatriot, who had retaken the lead of the race after the Hamilton pitstop.
Bottas traded in his worn set of supersofts on Lap 39, unleashing Räikkönen who, along with Hamilton, had already taken too much life out of their soft tyres. The Briton then waited till Lap 45 to make his move on Räikkönen, going into Turn 1 and denying the Iceman.
Despite not winning, Räikkönen still achieved second which happened to be his 100th podium in Formula One, in what could be his final ever Italian Grand Prix.
The podium was completed by Bottas, who regained third as a result of Max Verstappen being penalised five seconds for his botched defence on the Mercedes AMG towards the end of the race.
Having endured mostly a lonely race again, Verstappen found himself battling with Bottas for the final place on the podium. Relegated to fifth as a result of the time penalty, an unhappy Dutchman also happened to be sole finisher for Red Bull, as Daniel Ricciardo suffered another engine failure – making it four DNFs in the past six races.
Verstappen’s penalty also promoted the resurgent Vettel into fourth, though it did little to nullify the damage done in the championship standings, with Hamilton’s lead having been extended to 30 points.
The best of the rest honours went to Romain Grosjean, who in the Ferrari powered Haas car kept out of trouble to finish an impressive sixth and ahead of the two Racing Point Force Indias – who, after two races of scoring, are only two points off seventh in the standings.
Williams also recorded their best result since Azerbaijan and a career-best finish for rookie Sergey Sirotkin in 11th. Lance Stroll meanwhile claimed the final point in tenth.
Monza marks the conclusion of the European leg of the Formula One world championship, with the racing to resume in a fortnight’s time under the lights of Singapore.
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