Hamilton Leads In Mercedes One-Two Win In Italian GP

A bad start doesn’t mean a bad end. At the first corner at the Autodromo di Monza, Lewis Hamilton had dropped from pole position to fourth, but later shot to the front, tailing his teammate, Nico Rosberg. With the pressure on, and following the Mercedes duo’s pit stops, the usually cool-headed German made a crucial error and out-braked at the chicane, handing the lead back to the Briton.

Undoubtedly, Hamilton’s superb racing instinct played a major part in his victory. After the first pit stop, his race engineer had asked him to slow to two seconds behind Rosberg, but Hamilton closed in to within half a second instead, setting his fastest lap of the race and taking advantage of the fresh tyres to apply pressure on the only other car in his way to victory.

"I wanted to apply pressure," he later told Sky Sports F1. “I wasn’t ignoring my team, I have a great engineer and I wanted him to give me advice, but I knew I had the pace and wanted to utilise it."

It worked. In post-race interviews, Rosberg admitted that seeing Lewis coming up from behind had caused his misjudgment: “I needed to up my pace and then as a result just went into the mistake. That was very bad and lost me the lead in the end.”

Williams' Felipe Massa finished third, clinching his first podium finish of the season.

Rosberg was once again greeted by jeers from the crowd, the second time in a row, as he took to the Monza podium. The 'tifosi' apparently has not forgiven him for the accident in Spa that forced Hamilton to retire from the race. Rosberg’s unapologetic manner since has probably fueled the continuing ire.

See his vlog post about the incident, which has more dislikes than likes:

If the video doesn't load, go to www.youtube.com/embed/bDY7Sm2osEw

With his sixth victory this season, Hamilton closes the gap with his teammate to 22 points, while Rosberg continues to lead with 238 points.

image: straitstimes.com