The Overview I

Proving that at least some results are not pre-ordained by engineering boffins and computers, the same Nico Rosberg who seemed lost as to how teammate Lewis Hamilton had out qualified him by 0.5-second on Saturday, stood on the top step of the Monza podium Sunday as the victor. It was his first win at Monza, his seventh of the 2016 season. His victory took seven points out of championship leader Hamilton’s total, leaving them just two points apart with seven Grands Prix to go. With Mercedes’ traditional nemesis circuit Singapore up next on the schedule, the battle for the 2016 World Driver’s Championship will hinge on which Mercedes ace can accumulate the most points on circuits that are notoriously inhospitable to Mercedes.

Rosberg had a perfect launch to grab the lead as polesitter Hamilton once again bogged down at the start and dropped to sixth. Hamilton was instantly overwhelmed by his teammate, both Ferrari drivers, Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo during the heavy acceleration toward Turn 1.

Rosberg never looked back, nor did he need to as he was never challenged once during the 53-lap race and took the checkers 15 seconds ahead of the partial resurgent Hamilton for AMG-Mercedes’ fourth one-two of the season.

Sebastian Vettel gave the Tifosi something to cheer about by finishing third, 20.9s adrift, with Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen fourth.

Hamilton was able to reclaim a position from Ricciardo just after the beginning of lap two as he sliced past Ricciardo’s slower accelerating Red Bull through the Curva Grande corner.  It would take him take him until lap 11 to squeeze past Bottas for fourth. However, by that stage, Rosberg was long gone. He had easily stretched out a lead ahead of both Vettel and Raikkonen leaving Hamilton 11.6-seconds in arrears.