F1 2015 Monza Italian Grand Prix result: Hamilton wins in Italy

The 30-year-old Mercedes driver from Hertfordshire dominated Round 12 of the 2015 Formula One FIA World Championship at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.

He led the race from start to finish to take the chequered flag for his 40th F1 career victory – and third in Italy after also winning at Monza in 2012 and last year.

Sebastian Vettel crossed the line second for Ferrari 25.042 seconds behind Hamilton, with Williams driver Felipe Massa third for the final place on the podium ahead of his team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Kimi Raikkonen took fifth place.

Today’s race victory extended Hamilton’s lead over Nico Rosberg to 53 points with seven races left, after the German driver’s podium hopes went up in flames in the closing laps after his engine failed.

However, the provisional Italian Grand Prix result was thrown into doubt for a couple of hours due to an issue with illegal left-hand side rear tyre pressures on Hamilton’s Silver Arrows and Rosberg’s car, with Mercedes officials called to see the race stewards.

Hamilton could have been disqualified or faced a time penalty.In the end, the FIA took no further action and the result stands.

Before the announcement was made, Hamilton said: “I don’t feel concerned [about tyre investigation], it’s not my job. I’ve had an amazing weekend so far.”

The measured minimum tyre starting pressure of the left-hand side rear tyre of Hamilton’s car was 0.3 PSI below the specified starting tyre pressure, while Rosberg’s car was 1.1 PSI below the minimum.

Paddy Lowe, Mercedes’ executive director (technical), confirmed it was an FIA delegate with the supervision of Pirelli who measured the tyre pressures on the grid.

After a stewards’ meeting, the FIA announced that no further action would be taken against Mercedes, and Hamilton’s victory stands.

Stewards determined that the tyres had the correct pressures when they were fitted to the car, but the tyre temperatures were “significantly different” from other cars measured on the grid.

As the tyres had cooled, they had lost pressure when tested on the grid.

The Mercedes AMG F1 Twitter account @MercedesAMGF1 tweeted: “Stewards determined that pressures in the tyres concerned were at the minimum start pressure recommended by Pirelli when fitted to the car.”

Despite the post-race controversy, Hamilton described the weekend as “fantastic”.

Two-time world champion Hamilton said: “This weekend has been just fantastic. A perfect weekend for me – I can’t remember one like it.

“This race is so special for every driver. When you stand up on that podium it’s so emotional.

“It’s a really proud moment to be up there in front of that sea of fans and to walk in the footsteps of so many great drivers who have won here.

“The start was pretty close, holding off Sebastian. But from there I felt in control.

“The balance wasn’t perfect for qualifying but it was one of the best I’ve had in the race.

“I can’t thank the team enough for all their hard work. Everyone at Brackley and Brixworth is doing such an incredible job. I’ve never seen anything like it, so thank you everyone.”

Pole-sitter Hamilton made a clean getaway, but fellow front-row starter Kimi Raikkonen stalled on the grid, with the Ferrari man dropping to the back of the field.

Hamilton’s Silver Arrows colleague Nico Rosberg lost some serious ground into Turn One after dodging the stranded Raikkonen and the German Mercedes man found himself down in sixth place on the opening lap.

Rosberg claimed one place back when he overtook Force India driver Sergio Perez at Turn One on lap two, slotting in behind Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari and the Williams pair of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton, meanwhile, pulled some four seconds clear of Vettel at the front.

He slammed in a new fastest lap of 1m 27.804s on lap six and then went even faster on lap seven with a 1m 27.780s to stretch his advantage over Vettel.

After 12 laps the gap between the leading pair was 6.5 seconds, as Hamilton controlled the race from the front.

The Stevenage-born F1 star extended his advantage to more than eight seconds by lap 15 with some sublime driving.

Of the front two, Vettel was the first to pit from second place on lap 25.

Starting on the softer Options, race leader Hamilton made his first stop a lap later for the medium Prime tyres.

After 30 of the race’s 53 laps, Hamilton’s lead over Vettel was an emphatic 18.6 seconds, with Rosberg a further five seconds back in P3, having overtaken the two Williams cars.

Hamilton’s blistering pace continued on lap 31, as the race leader set a new fastest lap of 1m 27.544s.

And the Mercedes man improved on that with a 1m 27.349s on lap 34, leaving Vettel more than 20 seconds adrift.

Another personal best followed for Hamilton on lap 36 as the two-time world champion from Hertfordshire stamped his authority over the field.

He recorded a stunning 1m 26.890s – over a second quicker than the 2014 benchmark.

With five laps to go, Hamilton set another quickest lap after being told to put the hammer down following big lockup into the first corner.

“Those last few laps weren’t cool man,” said Hamilton over the team radio.

His engineer replied: “I’ll explain everything when I see you.”

Behind him, Rosberg cut the gap to Vettel down to 2.9 seconds, setting up a grandstand finale.

However, Rosberg’s ‘old’ engine caught fire just three laps from the flag, ending his race in dramatic fashion.

He stopped out on track with flames shooting from the back of the car.

The Power Unit in question was being run for a sixth race weekend. The root cause of the failure will be diagnosed at Brixworth.

Hamilton now leads the Drivers’ Championship by 53 points from Nico, with Mercedes 181 points ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ standings.

Rosberg said: “This weekend was very tough for me. There were just too many problems with my car which made it impossible to fight for the win.

“It hurts a lot when you have to retire with just two or three laps to go. A few corners earlier, I felt already that I had lost some power but was still hoping I could make it.

“Today was a massive step in the wrong direction for me in the Championship – but to complain doesn’t help in these situations.

“I just need to keep pushing and come back even stronger.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Rosberg added: “Giving up is not an option for me.

“I will push hard to turn things in the right direction – starting in Singapore, which is one of my favourite races. I’m looking forward to it already.”

Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, called it was a “bittersweeet” race for the Silver Arrows team.

He said: “A bittersweet day for us all with a fantastic win for Lewis but a DNF for Nico after he had climbed back through the field.

“The pattern was set at the start, when Lewis retained the lead but Nico suffered a bad start.

“Lewis was able to build a good gap to Vettel, drove a flawless race and thoroughly deserved his victory.

“The result leaves him in a very strong championship position with seven races to go.”

Wolff added: “Of course, we had to manage the situation with the stewards after the race, although we were confident that we had acted correctly throughout and followed the guidance from Pirelli.

“As Mercedes-Benz, our number one priority is to operate our car within the prescribed safety limits and this is not something we would ever take a chance on.

“Indeed, we worked very closely with Pirelli since Spa to help define these limits for the race weekend in Monza, and we saw today that there were no problems in a very high-speed, hard-fought race; my compliments go to Pirelli for the job they have done here in Monza.”

Executive director Paddy Lowe added: “Congratulations first and foremost to Lewis on a fantastic win. It was a superbly controlled drive.

“But, at the same time, our apologies must go to Nico. The weekend first started to unravel for him on Saturday with the failure of a component which contaminated his engine, forcing him to run a Power Unit which had already competed in five race weekends.

“The power loss from the age of the engine likely cost him a front row grid slot in qualifying and had then clearly been pushed too far in undertaking a sixth race on Sunday.

“He produced a fantastic recovery drive after a tough start and deserved a result, so our apologies once again to him. We will learn a lot of lessons from this weekend to take into the coming races.”

Rosberg’s DNF puts Hamilton in pole position to claim his third world drivers’ title.