2016 Italian GP: Rosberg wins after Hamilton's botched start

Nico Rosberg won the 2016 Italian GP at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari. The race was decided within the first few metres: Hamilton started from pole but made a poor getaway, and Rosberg took the lead, which he gave up only briefly during his own pit stop. According to formula1.com, Rosberg crossed the line 15.070 seconds ahead of Hamilton.

Hamilton started from grid position 1, Rosberg from 2nd place. At the start the wheels spun on the Briton's Silver Arrow, and by the first corner he had dropped to sixth. formula1.com called it a driver error. Rosberg pulled away, followed by Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen, Valtteri Bottas in the Williams and Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull.

Hamilton then had to fight his way back up. He quickly got past Ricciardo and, according to grandprix.com, picked off Bottas in the slipstream on lap 11 to move up to 4th place. For the time being he could go no further: the two Ferraris were ahead of him, and Rosberg was long out of reach at the front.

Max Verstappen also got away badly and was no longer in the top ten after the opening lap.

The teams took different approaches on tyres. According to grandprix.com, both Mercedes started on the soft compound, while Ferrari and the rest of the top ten set off on supersofts. Mercedes managed with just one stop: Rosberg took on mediums on lap 24, Hamilton a lap later. That lap 25 was the only one Hamilton led; afterwards Rosberg was back in front.

Ferrari stopped twice. Räikkönen pitted on laps 15 and 34, Vettel on laps 16 and 33. At Vettel's first stop the wheel gun jammed, according to fia.com. The extra stops moved Hamilton up to 2nd place. Vettel closed in towards the end but could no longer get on terms with Hamilton (formula1.com). So the tifosi had only a third and a fourth place to celebrate at their home race. For Mercedes, the one-stop strategy paid off in full.

The best overtake of the day came from Ricciardo. He had not made his second stop until lap 37 and, according to fia.com, switched to supersofts. That allowed him to reel in Bottas, pass him with DRS at the first chicane on lap 47 and secure 5th place. Bottas finished sixth, Verstappen seventh after his poor start. In the closing stages he also overtook Sergio Pérez in the Force India (fia.com, grandprix.com). The remaining points went to Felipe Massa in ninth (from grid position 11) and Nico Hülkenberg in tenth.

The biggest gainer was Romain Grosjean of the Haas F1 Team. Because of a gearbox change penalty, he started only 17th, according to grandprix.com. With a single stop on lap 28 he moved up to 11th, six places higher than where he started. Kevin Magnussen in the Renault and Esteban Ocon in the Manor Marussia each gained four places. Grosjean's team-mate Esteban Gutiérrez, by contrast, slipped from 10th to 13th after a weak start.

At McLaren, Jenson Button finished twelfth. Fernando Alonso pitted for a third time on lap 49, took fresh supersofts according to formula1.com, and on them set the fastest lap of the race on his way to 14th.

Four drivers failed to finish:

• Felipe Nasr, Sauber: He collided with Jolyon Palmer early in the race. According to formula1.com, it happened on the second lap. Nasr retired after 6 laps with the consequences of the incident. As he had caused the collision, he was given a 10-second penalty. Because he had retired, it was never applied (Wikipedia).
• Jolyon Palmer, Renault: After the clash with Nasr he pitted on lap 2 and parked the car after 7 laps due to the accident damage.
• Pascal Wehrlein, Manor Marussia: He retired after 26 laps with an oil leak. According to formula1.com, the team told him to switch off the engine. Compared with his grid position of 13 he lost seven places, more than anyone else.
• Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso: He retired after 36 laps with a battery failure. According to Wikipedia, he also received a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. His team-mate Carlos Sainz finished fifteenth, a lap down.

With his win, Rosberg closed right up on Hamilton. In the 2016 standings, Hamilton led after the 14th race of the season with just 250 points to Rosberg's 248. According to Wikipedia, Hamilton had held a nine-point advantage before Monza. For Rosberg it was his seventh win of the season, according to formula1.com. Ricciardo stayed third in the standings with 161 points, ahead of Vettel (143) and Räikkönen (136).

In the constructors' standings, Mercedes extended their lead and now had 498 points. Behind them were Red Bull on 290 and Ferrari on 279 points. Williams, on 111 points, took 4th place back from Force India (108).

Monza showed how close the title race between the two Mercedes drivers had become. A single bad start had cost Hamilton his advantage. There were still seven races to go until the end of the season.