LEWIS LEADSAMERC ROUT
BRIT ON TOP OF THE WORLD AT MONZA
This was a bitter blow for Ferrari. At their home race in the Scuderia’s 70th anniversary year, they were well and truly thrashed at Monza last Sunday. And to cap it all, in this tight world championship contest, Lewis Hamilton wrestled away the points lead from Sebastian Vettel, for the first time this season.
Right from the first lap, Hamilton drove into the distance and was quickly joined by his team-mate Valtteri Bottas to secure an emphatic one-two for Mercedes.
Standing on the podium overlooking the sea of Ferrari fans and flags, Hamilton was all too aware of what he’d achieved in his rival’s backyard – and was booed by the partisan crowd.
“You expect that in Italy if a Ferrari is not on top,” said Hamilton afterwards. “Some days I’m happy to play the villain. But I admire their passion. It’s all for the love of the red cars.”
Vettel recovered from his sixth place starting position to finish on the podium, to at least give the local fans some joy. There are seven more rounds of this thrilling world title fight but Hamilton has made significant inroads in the past two races.
After Hungary he was 14 points behind, but with a combined 50 points from Spa and Monza, he now leads Vettel by three points. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said after the race on Sunday evening that Hamilton had used the break to focus on the fight.
“I think Budapest was difficult for us and there was lots to think about,” said Wolff. “I think that it made him [Hamilton] more determined after the summer break and Spa and Monza has demonstrated that.”
Hamilton concurred with the Mercedes boss, adding that he used the break to “recharge the batteries” and they were now “fully charged.”
Qualifying
When Hamilton crossed the finish line to set a new all-time record for 69 pole positions, he thumped the air with delight. He was clearly thrilled after a brilliant qualifying lap, set right at the end of the session, in unseasonably wet conditions. What was so exceptional was that he was a full 1.148s from his nearest competitor, Max Verstappen and 2.279s ahead of his team-mate Bottas.
There had been a stoppage of two and a half hours during Saturday afternoon as heavy rain soaked the royal park situated on the outskirts of Milan. It had been wet all morning – just 10 minutes of FP3 was run – and despite qualifying getting under way as normal at 1400hrs local time, just five minutes into the session it was red-flagged when Romain Grosjean’s Haas crashed on the start-finish straight.
Moments before he had been complaining on the radio to his engineer about the atrocious conditions: “I can’t see where I’m going, it’s too dangerous,” he exclaimed.
The worst part of the lap for standing water was on the repaved start-finish straight and that’s where the Frenchman aquaplaned into the barriers. Sitting in his battered car he fumed: “I told you it was too dangerous. It was stupid to let us qualify. It was stupid.”
With 13 minutes and 31 seconds of Q1 to go, the session was red-flagged. Then the long wait began. More rain fell, then there seemed hope when it eased – only for it to fall heavier again. The organisers had no choice but to delay proceedings until the weather cleared.
Bored drivers started playing games or filming with FOM’S TV cameras. Felipe Massa played kickabout with his son in the pitlane, while both Merc drivers fired-up a Playstation.
Finally, when the action resumed at 1640hrs – to the audible delight of the patient tifosi – everyone started on the full wet tyre. But quite quickly, drivers were pitting for intermediates as the track dried.
Despite the chaotic conditions, there were few surprises at the end of Q1 with the Haas duo, both Saubers and Jolyon Palmer’s Renault failing to make it to Q2.
The beginning of the second session brought a mixture of tyre strategies with most starting on the full wet, but the Mercedes and Ferraris chose the inters. They were the teams setting the pace, along with the Red Bulls.
Failing to progress to the top 10 shootout were both Toro Rossos, Fernando Alonso, Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and the Force India of Sergio Perez. The Mexican lost out to his team-mate Esteban Ocon by the tiniest of margins. Just 0.002 seconds separated the two pink machines.
As the drivers lined up in the pitlane to commence the final session of qualifying, most chose the extreme wet tyre. But both Mercedes cars and Vettel chose the inter. That was a mistake as once again the rain intensified and they were forced to abort their first runs to pit for wets.
The timing screens were being lit up by the fearless youngsters, first Verstappen, then Ocon began setting the pace and they were joined in the mix by Williams’ Lance Stroll.
But the chance of having a shock pole position holder was dashed by Hamilton. In a performance that Mercedes technical director James Allison described as “imperious”, he destroyed the opposition with his final run. It was a lap worthy of breaking Michael Schumacher’s all-time pole record.
And thanks to F1’s crazy grid penalty rules for engine changes, he was the only driver to start the grand prix in the position he qualified in…
Race
On Sunday morning, Perez was the latest recipient of a grid penalty for a replacement gearbox. He qualified 11th, was due to start eighth because of drivers getting penalties ahead of him (most notably the two Red Bulls) but when his own forfeit was applied he eventually started 10th. One place ahead of his qualifying position...
All the arguments over the starting grid were forgotten when the red lights went out and the pack charged down to the Rettifilo. At the front Hamilton swiftly edged ahead of Stroll’s Williams and comfortably rounded the first corner in the lead. Behind him Ocon was also past the Williams. Running wheel-to-wheel – and actually making contact – were Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen. There’s no love lost between these two and the crowd roared when Raikkonen overtook his compatriot around the
outside of Curva Grande for fourth. But the Ferrari faithful were silenced when Bottas sliced his way back past into the Parabolica later that lap.
It didn’t take long for the second Mercedes to catch up with his leading team-mate, as he disposed of Stroll and then Ocon on the next consecutive laps. But Bottas wasn’t the only driver on the move.
The Red Bulls had looked mighty in the wet on Saturday, but were thwarted by their lowly starting positions. Verstappen (who originally qualified second) started 13th, while Daniel Ricciardo (third on Saturday) was 16th.
On the third lap, Verstappen had already made five positions and was challenging Williams’ Massa for seventh place. As the pair rounded the Rettifilo together, they made contact – the right front of Max’s RBR hitting the Williams. The result was a puncture and Verstappen sank to the tail of the field as he pitted.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner rued the Dutchman’s bad luck and suggested that if he’d not had the problem, would have secured a podium finish. In the final classification he was 10th.
“It’s a racer’s instinct to make as much progress as possible,” said Horner. “And he was unlucky as the puncture effectively destroyed his race. Still it’s race 13, he was 13th on the grid, sitting in the RB13. So if you believe in superstition… I’m just happy he didn’t finish 13th.”
In this one-stop race, both Red Bulls had opted for the alternative strategy, starting on the soft, while the majority started on the supersoft (everyone was given a free choice because of the wet qualifying session).
Undoubtedly the star of the race was the second RBR of Ricciardo. He made slight contact with Grosjean’s front wing at the first chicane on the opening lap, but from there ran a clean, trouble-free race. He started picking off a car each lap to rise from 16th on the grid to ninth by lap seven. Then he progressed another four places between laps 16 and 21 as the supersoft runners ahead of him pitted.
When it came to making his own stop – the fastest of the race at 2.2s – Ricciardo was in a net fifth place.
“At the start I had a little bit of contact in the first chicane,” said the Australian. “But once we cleared the cars at the back we had the pace and that helped to leap Ocon and the cars around him.”
After impressive overtakes on both Kevin Magnussen and Perez into the Variante della Roggia, Riccardo’s best overtaking move of the race came on lap 40. His engineer Simon Rennie came onto the team radio to say: “Raikkonen is alone. He’s vulnerable.”
And from a long way back, he braked very late and deep into the Turn 1 chicane to pinch fourth place, much to the dismay of the on-looking crowd. It was almost a carbon copy of the move he pulled on Bottas at the same corner last year.
Next in the Australian’s sights was the second Ferrari and as he was on the softer tyre, he began lapping a second quicker than Vettel ahead of him. With five laps to go he was just 5.8s behind.
“We were closing on the podium today,” said Ricciardo afterwards. “We were closing on Sebastian at a second a lap but he turned it up a bit at the end. It was fun today and we had some good overtakes.
“Two of my favourite races this year have been starting from the back. Silverstone and this one. I had real pace at the end and finished with the fastest lap, so we couldn’t have done much more from where we started.”
Team boss Christian Horner believed Red Bull were the second quickest cars in the race, but conceded the Mercedes were “in a class of their own.”
The two silver cars even had the luxury of turning their engines down in the latter stages, such was the advantage over the rest of the field.
It had looked easy, but Singapore is next, a track that traditionally the Mercedes has struggled at.
This title battle will continue to ebb and flow. Make no mistake, Ferrari will come back fighting…