Hamilton wins at Monzaposted in F107 | 09 | 2014
LEWIS HAMILTON CLOSED the gap on team-mate and world championship leader Nico Rosberg by winning the Italian Grand Prix, despite making a poor start.
Hamilton, who started the 53-lap race at Monza from pole position, struggled to get off the line as his Mercedes suffered a software glitch.
The former world champ dropped to fourth behind the McLaren of Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Massa's Williams. And at the head of the field he could see title rival Rosberg sprinting away into the distance.
But as his car settled back to its full pace, Hamilton slowly set about overhauling Massa and Magnussen before pressurising Rosberg.
With Hamilton looming ever-closer in his mirrors, but with a 4-second lead, Rosberg mad the first of his errors by being forced to straight-line the chicane at the end of the start-finish straight: the gap was down to 1.8s.
Both leaders then made their first and only pitstops and Hamilton was clearly much quicker than the German. As he pushed the leader again on lap 29, Rosberg locked up his brakes for a s second time and was once more forced to straightline the chicane.
This time, Hamilton was able to capitalise to the maximum and took the lead, eventually cruising to a comfortable win and closing the 29-point gap to just 22.
Related: Mercedes duo clash at Spa as Ricciardo wins
Strangely, Rosberg's double mistake at the chicane brought post-race claims of a conspiracy aimed at ensuring Hamilton won the race after the team's problems at Spa last time out.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was quick to rubbish the claims.
"Only a paranoid mind could come up with such an idea," he smiled. "If it had been our idea, it would have been bloody well done!
"There was lots of pressure on Nico because Lewis was so quick yesterday and you could see that today as well.
"We tried to protect Nico's rear brakes, so we went forward with the brake balance. He hit the brake hard and missed the braking point.
"It was bizarre. But there isn't any mechanical reason behind it."
Massa, meanwhile, spent a lonely day behind the leaders, eventually finishing an unchallenged third, one place ahead of his team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
And while defending world champ Sebastian Vettel was denied fifth, when he was overtaken in the closing stages by his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, there was controversy surrounding Magnussen.
The McLaren driver finished seventh on the road, but was penalised for having been adjudged to have forced Bottas off the road at the first chicane. The penalty dropped him to 10th.
But even Bottas questioned whether the penalty should have been handed out.
"It's difficult to say if it was worth a penalty," he said. "For me there was nowhere else to go; I had to cut the chicane.
"I didn't have the chance to overtake even though we were already side by side.
"It's a tough one. In the end it didn't change anything for me, even though he got a penalty, because I still had to overtake him, so for me it didn't really matter."
And there was disappointment for the Tifosi, who saw Fernando Alonso retire his Ferrari — his first non-finish with a technical problem for 88 grands prix — and Kimi Raikkonen finish ninth.
DRIVERS QUOTES:
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes:
“Firstly it was amazing to see the straight completely filled with fans from the podium today. You make this race and thank you so much for your support! Big congratulations to the team for our performance this weekend. We said we wanted a one-two and we got it today; this result is important for everyone.
"It was a difficult race for me though. The launch sequence didn't engage properly for the formation lap and then again for the start. I tried to pull away as fast as possible, basically I just floored it and hoped for the best! Fortunately I didn't lose too many places and was able to get past Kevin, then have a good battle with Felipe.
"When I closed up to Nico, I didn't want to hold back as the car felt good and I knew from experience that the only chance would be at the start of the stint when the tyres were fresh so I went for it. I'm really pleased with the win, it's feels like I have some momentum back as we go into the final races.”
Nico Rosberg, Mercedes:
“Lewis was quicker this weekend, so he deserved the win. That for sure is very disappointing for me. I had a lock up in Turn One and I decided to go straight to avoid a flat spotted tyre. That cost me the lead. But he was very quick behind me, so I had to push all the time. But I need to see the positive things from today. Second place is still good and I lost only seven points to Lewis, so this could have been much worse. It's also a great result for the team, the first 1-2 since Austria.
" So I'm happy for everybody in our team and I have to thank everyone again for this great Silver Arrow. We were the strongest team at this unique circuit. The Tifosi created a great atmosphere for us on the podium; it was all red all the way down the straight. That was great to see. Now I look forward to Singapore, I like the track and I have great memories from last year.”
Felipe Massa, Williams:
“It was a fantastic race for me so I am really happy. I had a good start and passed Magnussen at just the right time. I had to work hard to establish that position, sadly the Mercedes were still a bit quick, so we did the best we could. Monza is a special podium, and to hear the fans sing my name was amazing.”
Valtteri Bottas, Williams:
“I had a few issues at the start which really effected how my race went. Once the tyres were up to temperature I had a lot of work to do. It was good fun to overtake so many people and we had some good pace as well. As a team we had a really good day and it was good to overtake Ferrari. I’m pleased to see Felipe get his first podium of the season, hopefully we can be up there together soon.”
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull:
“I think that was the most we could do today. On the primes we weren’t able to look after the tyres as well as we wanted to. The target is to get back to the front, at the moment the gap is quite big but we will have to work hard to close it again. We have had some difficulties this year, but they can only make us stronger if we learn from them. In terms of strategy, we wanted to get the McLarens so we went aggressive with the early stop, but the tyres started going off at the end and all in all that was what we could do today.”
Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull:
“The strategy helped today, it kept the tyres fresh enough to go those extra few laps at the end. I saw the cars in front of me pit and the pace was still good enough, so seeing that we didn’t have great pace when we were out of position then we thought we would try something different and that’s why we went long, which helped towards the end of the race.
"I was more comfortable with the prime tyre and was able to do some good moves, which kept me smiling. The start wasn’t ideal, it’s one of the longest runs up to Turn One here from the start line and it’s not a place where you want to have a bad one, but I dropped the clutch and didn’t get the traction, so we will have to look at that, but we kept a cool head and picked our way back through the field. I think fifth, even with a good start, was the best we could do.”
Jenson Button, McLaren:
“This wasn’t the result I was after – but the was good fun nonetheless. It’s just a pity that we didn’t quite have the race pace we’d hoped for: when you start fifth and sixth, you’re not just looking for a points finish, you want a bit more than that. If we’d had a clear run, I think we could have done a bit better – but, in the traffic, it was easier for the cars around us to pick us off than it was for us to pick them off.
"I had an amazing battle with Checo – we took the first Lesmo side by side, which doesn’t happen very often. It’s a pity I couldn’t get past him – I tried so many times – but he was so strong under braking that to match him into the turns I was locking up the fronts and the rears, which left me struggling for position on the exits. But I was really on the limit. It was superb wheel-to-wheel action – I hope it was great entertainment for the spectators and fantastic TV for the fans at home.”
Kevin Magnussen, McLaren:
“I made a great start – I got up to second into the first corner – but I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep that position, and inevitably I fell back. Obviously, it was nice to be up at the front for a while, and disappointing that we couldn’t stay up there, but as I say I knew it wouldn’t last for ever.
"It’s unfortunate to come away from the weekend having only scored a single point. Okay, we’re not battling for the world championship, but we’re still fighting for crucial positions in the constructors’ championship, and the points we lost today would have been very useful from that point of view. It’s frustrating to get another penalty, of course it is, but we’ll analyse them and see what we can learn. Let’s see if we can do something different next time.”
Fernando Alonso, Ferrari:
“After a long run of trouble-free races, it’s a real shame I had to retire here in Monza, in front of all our fans. I would have liked to have put on a very different race for them. In the first stint we were competitive, but when you find yourself in a group of cars where everyone is using DRS, overtaking becomes nearly impossible. After the pit stop, I found myself at the back of a train of cars and at that point we changed the strategy, deciding to drop back from the group to conserve the tyres and try and attack at the end of the race.
"But then came the problem with the ERS system. It’s never nice for the team to have a reliability problem, because the guys work night and day to give us the best car possible. What happened doesn’t change my will to win and in order to try and have that happen soon, we will continue to work as hard as we can, always giving our all.”
Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari:
“We knew this would be a difficult weekend and today in the race, we saw the proof of that. Overall, I was happy with the handling of the car and the balance was good, but we lacked speed down the straight and I didn’t have much grip. As soon as I got close to the cars ahead of me, I lost aerodynamic downforce and the car was sliding all over the place.
"I think I did the most I could today, even if unfortunately I was unable to get the result I would have wanted for our home race, for the team and all our fans. Now we must think of the upcoming races and continue to work nonstop, because we are coming up to tracks that should better suit the characteristics of our car.”
F1 — Italian Grand Prix, Monza (Result):
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1h19m10.236s
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 3.175s
3 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 25.026s
4 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes 40.786s
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 50.309s
6 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull/Renault 59.965s
7 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m02.518s
8 Jenson Button McLaren/Mercedes 1m03.063s
9 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m03.535s
10 Kevin Magnussen McLaren/Mercedes 1m06.171s
11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Renault 1m11.184s
12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India/Mercedes 1m12.606s
13 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso/Renault 1m13.093s
14 Pastor Maldonado Lotus/Renault 1 Lap
15 Adrian Sutil Sauber/Ferrari 1 Lap
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus/Renault 1 Lap
17 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham/Renault 1 Lap
18 Jules Bianchi Marussia/Ferrari 1 Lap
19 Marcus Ericsson Caterham/Renault 2 Laps
20 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber/Ferrari 2 Laps
Retired:
Fernando Alonso Ferrari
Max Chilton Marussia
Championship Standings:
Drivers':
1 Nico Rosberg 238
2 Lewis Hamilton 216
3 Daniel Ricciardo 166
4 Valtteri Bottas 122
5 Fernando Alonso 121
6 Sebastian Vettel 106
7 Jenson Button 72
8 Nico Hulkenberg 70
9 Felipe Massa 55
10 Kimi Raikkonen 41
11 Sergio Perez 39
12 Kevin Magnussen 38
13 Jean-Eric Vergne 11
14 Romain Grosjean 8
15 Daniil Kvyat 8
16 Jules Bianchi 2
17 Adrian Sutil 0
18 Marcus Ericsson 0
19 Pastor Maldonado 0
20 Esteban Gutierrez 0
21 Max Chilton 0
22 Kamui Kobayashi 0
Constructors':
1 Mercedes 454
2 Red Bull/Renault 272
3 Williams/Mercedes 177
4 Ferrari 162
5 McLaren/Mercedes 110
6 Force India/Mercedes 109
7 Toro Rosso/Renault 19
8 Lotus/Renault 8
9 Marussia/Ferrari 2
10 Sauber/Ferrari 0
11 Caterham/Renault 0
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Jim McGill