2018 Italian F1 Grand Prix: Hamilton's key win at Ferrari's home

First lap of the 2018 Italian F1 Grand Prix, second chicane. Räikkönen has held on to the lead ahead of Vettel, who has to defend against Hamilton. The Briton spots the gap, dives in, and takes a late stab at the German, who in the melee loses his front wing. Race direction investigates the incident but, controversy aside, deems it just a racing incident, and Vettel watches the championship slip further away.

Faced with this situation, Ferrari had only two options: first, for Vettel to recover as much ground as possible, and second, to stop Hamilton from taking the win. The truth is Kimi Räikkönen gave everything but ultimately succumbed to the two-against-one set up by Mercedes: Hamilton couldn’t undercut the Finn in the pits, but he did take advantage of Valtteri Bottas slowing him down and, on fresher tyres, went for the kill and snatched the lead in another heart-stopping overtake.

Thanks to these two Hamilton moves, Bottas’s good teamwork and sound strategy, the British driver claims his fifth win at Monza, matching Michael Schumacher at the top of the all-time Italian Grand Prix winners list. It is a race that, for the fifth year running, goes to a driver from Mercedes. The home team, Ferrari, will have to keep waiting to give the tifosi, who had painted the grandstands red, something to cheer about.

The battle for the podium was also lively. Verstappen, defending third place, did not let Bottas through, but ultimately lost the position due to a five-second penalty for an illegal change of direction that sent the Finn of Mercedes off track. As a result, Verstappen not only lost third but dropped to fifth, and Sebastian Vettel moved up to fourth. Ricciardo fared worse, retiring with an engine failure despite it being brand new.

As for the Spanish contingent, mixed results. Fernando Alonso faced a difficult race and did not even finish: just when he was running tenth, he had to pit and retire. Carlos Sainz fared better, holding a high position until Vettel’s pressure and the Force Indias pushed him down to ninth, marking the first time in his career he has scored points at the Italian circuit.

That concludes the 2018 Italian F1 Grand Prix, with the classification now reflecting the penalty applied to Verstappen:

After this race, Lewis Hamilton’s lead over Sebastian Vettel stands at 30 points, so it is no surprise the Briton was so elated celebrating this win, which could prove key in the world championship. The next event will be the Singapore Grand Prix, on 16 September. Until then.