A poor getaway scuppered Lewis Hamilton’s chances of winning Sunday’s Formula 1 Gran Premio Heineken d'Italia 2016 and left the way clear for an untouchable Nico Rosberg to take victory - and with it cut his title deficit to his Mercedes team mate to just two points. Sebastian Vettel consoled the tifosi with third place for Ferrari at their home race.
Hamilton fell to sixth by Turn 1, but clawed his way back up the order to finish 15 seconds adrift of Rosberg. Kimi Raikkonen, meanwhile, followed Ferrari team mate Vettel home in fourth, ahead of the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.
Valtteri Bottas was Williams’ lead runner in sixth, split from team mate Felipe Massa by the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and the Force India of Sergio Perez, whose team mate Nico Hulkenberg completed the top ten.
Rosberg, second on the grid, was in control from the moment that polesitter Hamilton got so much wheelspin off the line - a driver error - that he had lost five places by the first corner.
Thereafter Rosberg drove with the same precision he demonstrated last week in Belgium and was able to ease away on his soft Pirelli tyres as the supersoft-shod Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen led Bottas and Ricciardo at the end of the lap. As Rosberg punched in quick laps, making as much hay as he could while the Italian sun shone on him, Hamilton took only a lap to dispose of Ricciardo, but another 10 before Bottas finally succumbed as his Williams’ supersofts began to lose their edge.
Mercedes’ strategy of single-stopping both cars - starting them on softs and finishing on mediums - eventually paid out handsomely. Ferrari went for two-stoppers, running supersoft-supersoft-soft, and though Vettel was catching up bit by bit at the end, it was never going to be enough to dislodge Hamilton as the Englishman trailed home second, 15s down on his team mate.
Rosberg’s seventh win of the year was perhaps his easiest since Baku, and brings him within two points of Hamilton, 250 to 248.
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Rosberg beats slow-starting Hamilton to Monza win