2017 ITALIAN GP: HAMILTON SECURES MONZA WIN FOR TITLE LEAD

Lewis Hamilton took the lead in the Fornila One Drivers’ title standings ahead of Sebastian Vettel after he headed a Mercedes one-two at the Italian Grand Prix. The Silver Arrows were utterly dominant at Monza with Hamilton beating third-placed Sebastian Vettel by more than 36 seconds. The Briton’s sixth win of the season puts him three points clear of Ferrari driver Vettel at the top of the Drivers’ standings after 15 races.

While Mercedes’ progress to the top two places in the race was largely processional after Bottas had risen to P2 in the opening laps, the race was enlivened by the performance of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who rose from 16th on the grid to claim fourth place at the flag.

Hamilton held his lead at the start, with Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon tucking in behind the polesitter. Their hold on the podium positions was shortlived, however, and after dropping back at the start, Bottas powered through and by lap three was up into second place behind his team-mate.

Further back Max Verstappen had made a superb start and by the end of lap one the Red Bull driver was up to eighth place from 13th on the grid. However, in attempting to get past Felipe Massa, there was contact and the Dutch driver sustained a front-right puncture and wing damage. He made his way to the pits for a new nosecone and fresh tyres and rejoined in last place.

Vettel too was pushing forward and after passing team-mate Kimi Räikkönen, the Ferrari driver managed to put himself into a podium spot by bypassing Ocon for P3 on lap eight.

Hamilton, though, was setting phenomenal pace and by lap 12 the Mercedes driver was 3.1s clear of team-mate Bottas and a full eight seconds ahead of championship leader Vettel.

The Red Bull driver was the last of the frontrunners to pit and after a swift 2.2s stop for soft tyres he emerged 2.6s behind Räikkönen. Armed with fresher tyres Ricciardo began to take chunks of time out of the Finn and on lap 41 he pounced, blasting past the Ferrari driver into the first chicane in a clinical overtaking move.

He then set off after Vettel, lapping a second quicker than the German was who 11s ahead with 11 laps remaining. Ricciardo’s pursuit of a podium place was the most diverting element of what, at the front, had become something of a procession.

On lap 45, Hamilton was a comfortable 3.7s ahead of Bottas, while the Finn was a whopping 28.6s ahead of Vettel who was now struggling with unspecified mechanical difficulties following a Turn 1 off.

With Mercedes secure in the top two positions, it was all about Ricciardo and Vettel in the closing stages and the Australian set a sequence of purple laps to closed to within five seconds of the German with four laps remaining.

With two laps remaining, though, Vettel responded and a personal best widened the gap to a comfortable 4.8s as he made sure that the threat from the Red Bull driver was nullified.

Ricciardo, though, had done enough to enliven a race utterly dominated by Mercedes and as Hamilton secured his 59th career win, 4.4s ahead of Bottas and some 36s ahead of Vettel, the Red Bull driver took a brave, battling and superbly executed fourth place. Behind him, Räikkönen finished in P5.

Ocon took sixth place ahead of Stroll, with neither youngster undoing the good work they had completed in qualifying and only the limitations of their machinery forcing them backwards. Felipe Massa was eighth in the second Williams, while Perez was ninth for Force India. After his initial woes, Verstappen recovered to the final point on offer with tenth place.

2017 Italian Grand Prix, Monza
53 laps, 306.720km., Weather: Sunny.
CLASSIFIED:
 P.    DRIVER           TEAM         TIME/GAP 
 1. Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes AMG 1h15:32.312
 2. Valtteri Bottas   Mercedes AMG  +    4.471
 3. Sebastian Vettel  Ferrari       +   36.317
 4. Daniel Ricciardo  Red Bull      +   40.335
 5. Kimi Räikkönen    Ferrari       + 1:00.082
 6. Esteban Ocon      Force India   + 1:11.528
 7. Lance Stroll      Williams      + 1:14.156
 8. Felipe Massa      Williams      + 1:14.834
 9. Sergio Pérez      Force India   + 1:15.276
10. Max Verstappen    Red Bull      +    1 lap
11. Kevin Magnussen   Haas          +    1 lap
12. Daniil Kvyat      Toro Rosso    +    1 lap
13. Nico Hülkenberg   Renault       +    1 lap
14. Carlos Sainz ЈР.  Toro Rosso    +    1 lap
15. Romain Grosjean   Haas          +    1 lap
16. Pascal Wehrlein   Sauber        +    1 lap
17. Fernando Alonso   McLaren       +    1 lap
18. Marcus Ericsson   Sauber        +   2 laps

Fastest Lap: Daniel Ricciardo - 1:23.361      

NOT CLASSIFIED:                               
Stoffel Vandoorne   McLaren
Jolyon Palmer       Renault

After 15 Races:                
Drivers:                    Constructors:   
 1. Lewis Hamilton   238   Mercedes AMG 435
 2. Sebastian Vettel 235   Ferrari      373
 3. Valtteri Bottas  197   Red Bull     212
 4. Daniel Ricciardo 144   Force India  113
 5. Kimi Räikkönen   138   Williams      55
 6. Max Verstappen    68   Toro Rosso    40
 7. Sergio Pérez      58   Haas          35
 8. Esteban Ocon      55   Renault       34
 9. Carlos Sainz ЈР.  36   McLaren       11
10. Nico Hülkenberg   34   Sauber         5
11. Felipe Massa      31
12. Romain Grosjean   24
13. Lance Stroll      24
14. Kevin Magnussen   11
15. Fernando Alonso   10
16. Pascal Wehrlein    5
17. Daniil Kvyat       4
18. Stoffel Vandoorne  1