Categories: FeatureFeatures

Italian Grand Prix review

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Following another Lewis Hamilton dominant victory overshadowed by tyre controversy, F1i looks back at how the Italian Grand Prix unfolded and is for once proud of just how accurate its podium prediction was…

The race in 100 words

Lewis Hamilton dominated the whole weekend, topping every session, leading every lap and setting the fastest lap. Sebastian Vettel was a lonely second but looked set to come under pressure from Nico Rosberg before the Mercedes' engine blew in the closing laps, promoting Felipe Massa to third as he held off Valtteri Bottas. Kimi Raikkonen had a terrible start to go from P2 to last place but recovered to fifth, ahead of two Force India's who enjoyed a strong weekend, while McLaren grew frustrated at Honda. But late drama stole the show as Mercedes escaped sanction for low tyre pressures.

Driver of the weekend

Despite the controversy after the race, you just can't look beyond Hamilton as the standout performer. Hamilton was fastest in all three practice sessions, as well as Q1, Q2 and Q3. Having taken pole position he disappeared in to the distance and opened up a huge lead, setting the fastest lap on his way to a dominant victory by just over 25 seconds. The Mercedes tyre pressures almost cost him the win, but 0.3 PSI was certainly not to blame for his imperious performance; that was all down to Hamilton's talent.

Move of the race

Max Verstappen is making this section of our review his own this season. Having to recover from last on the grid, the Toro Rosso driver produced some measured moves but there was one which stood out at Turn 1. Attacking Felipe Nasr, Verstappen was forced to the outside approaching the braking zone but was much later on the left pedal and got a full car length ahead as he stopped from almost 350kph, giving him the high ground for the second part of the chicane and ensuring the move was clean. Outstanding feel on the brakes.

Prediction accuracy

Podium: 1. Lewis Hamilton, 2. Sebastian Vettel, 3. Felipe Massa

F1i’s pre-race prediction: 1. Lewis Hamilton, 2. Felipe Massa, 3. Sebastian Vettel

Weekend recap

Friday

0.021s between Hamilton and Rosberg in FP2

Gallery

Saturday

Hamilton holds off Ferraris for 11th pole

Gallery

Sunday

Hamilton cruises to dominant Monza victory

Gallery

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.