Hamilton closes the gap in the championship

Hamilton closes the gap in the championship with a Mercedes 1-2 finish at Monza

Lewis Hamilton has closed the gap to Nico Rosberg in the World Championship by leading home a Mercedes one-two in the Italian GP.

Despite Hamilton getting an awful start (which saw him plunge from pole position to fourth at the first corner), he responded by producing a storming drive to charge back to the front before pressurising Rosberg into the pivotal race-costing mistake that saw him previously lauded for his mental strength, miss the chicane and hand the lead of the race over to his title rival and team mate.

Hamilton was bogged down by a faulty Race Start system on his W05 but his getaway from his grid slot was equally tardy and was instantly overtaken by Rosberg, Massa and the McLaren of Kevin Magnussen. Suddenly, Hamilton’s equilibrium which was serene all weekend was broken as he launched an expletive-led outburst over his team radio. But what followed was a master class from Hamilton as he passed Magnussen and then in a beautifully-judged move through the inside of the Rettifilo chicane, Massa was then swiftly dispatched.

It was all too much for Rosberg, who appeared uncomfortable on and off the track all weekend, who promptly locked up and slithered up the escape road.

Hamilton never looked back, building up a comfortable three-second margin of victory to close within 22 points of the title summit.

But might there have been more to Rosberg’s mistake than met the eye? Social media was immediately awash with suggestions that the ‘error’ had been officially prescribed as part of the championship leader’s post-Spa punishment. But despite this, it is once again, it's game on in the World Championship between the Mercedes drivers.

Had either Mercedes driver cast a backward glance they would have seen Felipe Massa drive a lonely, incident-free race to finish in third place which is his first podium finish of the year and also on the day it was confirmed he would be staying on with the resurgent Williams outfit for 2015 alongside Valtteri Bottas. Bottas finished the race behind his team mate in fourth place, but Bottas’ race was an altogether more dramatic affair after falling as low as 11th on the opening lap.

Daniel Ricciardo once again had a strong race and finished ahead of his team mate Sebastian Vettel in fifth place and sixth places. Ricciardo during the race got past Button and Perez after a great battle before sweeping around his team-mate for fifth place with less than ten laps remaining.

Not that the race was short of controversy or wheel-to-wheel action with Magnussen who was harshly penalised by the stewards and was dropped to tenth place from seventh place after forcing Bottas off the track as Bottas surged through the field. Also, former McLaren team-mates Sergio Perez and Jenson Button repeatedly exploring the outer limits of the circuit as they squabbled over the dregs of the top ten. Perez finished ahead of Button in seventh place ahead of Button in eighth place and Kimi Raikkonen in ninth place.

Daniil Kvyat after experiencing a technical fault on his Toro Rosso which could have thrown him off the circuit finished the race in eleventh place ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in twelfth place and Jean-Eric Vergne who finished in thirteenth place. Pastor Maldonado finished the race in fourteenth place ahead of Adrian Sutil in fifteenth place, his team mate Romain Grosjean in sixteenth place and Kamui Kobayashi in seventeenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Jules Bianchi finished the race in eighteen place ahead of Esteban Guiterrez in nineteenth place who suffered a puncture in the latter stage of the race after Grosjean tried to pass him for position on track.

However, after the race, Guiterrez was handed a twenty second penalty for the incident with Grosjean.

Marcus Ericsson finished the race in twentieth ahead of Fernando Alonso who had to retire his Ferrari due to engine problems and for the first time in 86 races since the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix and also Max Chilton who after taking too much speed into Lesmo 1, breeched his car into the gravel trap and had to retire from the race.

The classification of the race at the Italian Grand Prix is as follows below

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1.19.10.236s
Nico Rosberg Mercedes 3.1s
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 25s
Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 40.7s
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 50.3s
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 59.9s
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 62.5s
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 65s
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 63.5s
Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 66.1s
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 71.1s
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 72.6s
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 73s
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1 lap
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1 lap
Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1 lap
Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1 lap
Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1 lap
Esteban Guiterrez Sauber-Ferrari 2 laps
Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 2 laps
Fernando Alonso Ferrari Engine failure
Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari Retired

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Next race Singapore 19th -20th September