Hamilton makes mistake, Rosberg wins first at Monza

The reigning F1 champion lost his pole position from the very first seconds, indirectly helping his teammate comfortably win the Italian GP, ​​and continue to shorten the gap on the individual scoreboard.

After a stellar qualifying performance on Saturday afternoon at Monza, Lewis Hamilton made a surprising mistake at the start and dropped to sixth place on lap one. Despite his best efforts in the remaining laps, the Mercedes number one driver was unable to make a successful comeback. Hamilton finished second, while teammate Rosberg won his second consecutive race.

The crucial win at Monza helped Rosberg continue to close the gap on Hamilton in the individual standings. After the Italian Grand Prix, the German star is just two points behind his teammate and number one rival. Two consecutive wins after the summer break give Rosberg both points and morale ahead of the season's seven decisive races.

Hamilton did not hide his regret and disappointment at losing his advantage, leading to having to finish second behind Rosberg in Monza. Photo: Reuters.

Hamilton's 0.478 second lead over Rosberg in qualifying had many pundits predicting his third consecutive win at Monza. However, the race was completely turned upside down from the start, with Hamilton's poor start leaving him in a chase for the rest of the race.

The slowness of the British star's W07 left Hamilton helpless as his teammate Rosberg overtook him. Then, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) took the lead before the race through turn 1.

By the time Hamilton had regained his usual pace, the W07 had dropped to sixth. He immediately responded and closed in on the cars ahead. Ricciardo’s RB12 was passed by Hamilton early on lap two. The W07 then followed Bottas’ FW38, but couldn’t get past it soon enough.

After many laps of chasing, it was not until lap 11 that Hamilton was able to defeat the difficult Finnish driver at Turn 1. At this point, the British star's immediate goal was to deal with the Ferrari duo running above before thinking about defeating Rosberg. On lap 15, Raikkonen and Vettel returned to the technical area to continue using the super soft tires.

Ferrari's choice of tyres meant Mercedes knew their rivals would be following a two-stop strategy. Hamilton and Rosberg, meanwhile, were both expected to follow a one-stop strategy, given their soft-tire start advantage. It wasn't until lap 24 that the Mercedes drivers returned to the pits to switch to the medium tyres.

Although it was clear early on that the possibility of overtaking the Ferrari duo was within reach, Hamilton realised that Rosberg's goal of taking the top spot was almost impossible. By lap 17, when Hamilton temporarily took second place, the gap between the two Mercedes drivers was 15 seconds. Despite his best efforts to close the gap, just before both men made their first tire changes, Hamilton was still more than 12 seconds behind his teammate.

The false start saw Hamilton spend too much effort trying to pass rivals like Bottas, and he was unable to compete with Rosberg for first place from the start. Photo: MS.

Hamilton then continued to reduce the gap to 9 seconds on lap 31. However, the constant acceleration while still having to ensure tire protection against the attack of the Ferrari duo (who had the advantage of fresher tires) forced the British star to limit his speed to ensure safety. On the other hand, after a period of loosening his grip, Rosberg also gradually accelerated to ensure safety against the risk from Hamilton.

Although he could not catch Rosberg, overtaking the Ferrari duo to take second place was a satisfactory result for Hamilton. He minimized the loss in points due to his poor start at Monza.

The pace of yesterday's race, when they used a one-stop strategy, showed that the two Mercedes W07s were far ahead of their rivals at Monza, despite the majority of teams using a two-stop strategy, which they calculated was not the optimal strategy for this year's Italian Grand Prix. Despite the advantage of fresher tyres, the speed gap between the two SF16-Hs (which were considered the strongest of the remaining group at Monza) and the W07s was not too narrow.

On home turf, the two Ferraris watched helplessly as Mercedes' Rosberg took the lead for most of the race and then easily won. Photo: MS.

Completing 53 laps at Monza with a time of 1 hour 17 minutes 28.089 seconds, Rosberg won the race for the first time at Monza. The unexpected and unexpected achievement at the “Temple of Speed” made the German star extremely excited, despite the fact that he continuously received boos from the audience when standing on the podium.

"I had a great start, that was the key to my victory today. The race for the world championship is still going on, it will always be a battle to watch. I can't wait to see what happens in the upcoming races," said Rosberg.

Hamilton did not hide his sadness: "The victory was lost after the start. I know how worried and nervous my mechanics were when they saw the start go like that. I don't really understand what happened. I will have to review it carefully. I have to overcome this failure to prepare for the next battles."

According to VNE