Hamilton wins Italian GP, Vettel 4th after early collision

F1 Grand Prix, GP Italy, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

Lewis Hamilton took the victory at Monza during the 69th Italian Grand Prix after he collided with his title rival Sebastian Vettel on the first lap. The Briton extended his lead in the championship to 32 points.

Hamilton took his fifth Italian Grand Prix victory to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of five triumphs at Monza. The Briton started from the third position behind the all Ferrari front row. Both pole-sitter Kimi Räikkönen and second-placed Sebastian Vettel took great starts, but arriving into the Roggia chicane, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel came together, with Vettel ending up in a spin, and facing the wrong way. Fortunately for the German, other cars managed to avoid him, enabling Vettel to continue the race the from back. The stewards later judged no penalty was deemed necessary for the action.

The safety car was deployed after the start which enabled Vettel to limp back to the pits. After his tyres and front wing were changed, he rejoined the race in 18th position. The safety car was deployed because Brendon Hartley had pulled over on the right-hand side of the circuit seconds following the start after he suffered a front-right breakage on his Toro Rosso. The restart saw a thrilling battle between Kimi Räikkönen and Lewis Hamilton. The Briton overtook the Finn into the first corner, but the latter took the first place back immediately going into the Roggia chicane.

Räikkönen pitted on lap 20 for soft tyres whereas Hamilton stayed out on the track and managed to raise his pace on used tyres. The Briton pitted eight laps later and when he rejoined the track, he was five seconds adrift of Räikkönen. That gap has, however, melted quickly as Mercedes asked Bottas to hold Räikkönen up. Running in the dirty air of his countryman, the poleman used up his rear tyres as blisters developed on the surface of his soft Pirellis.

Verstappen was hit with a five-second time penalty for defending aggressively from Bottas. In the end, Mercedes' Finn managed to overtake the Dutch driver even without the time penalty.

On lap 45, Hamilton overtook Räikkönen with DRS and quickly broke clear as his rival nursed a blister on his left-rear tyre. The Finn took it cautious and fell almost 9s behind Hamilton as the chequered flag fell.

In the meantime, Vettel completed a second pit stop on lap 29 to take on fresh supersofts. Carrying damages from his tangle with Lewis Hamilton, the German managed to come as far up the order as fifth to limit the damage.