Lewis Hamilton won the Italian Grand Prix in dominant style from team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in third.
The lights to flag win for the Mercedes driver sees him take a three points lead in the drivers championship from Vettel for the first time this season. A demonstration drive by the Mercedes pair saw Vettel’s Ferrari over half a minute off the lead, even with the engines turned down at the end of the race.
Hamilton defended from a fast starting Stroll at the start, the Williams coming out of the throttle early into the first corner enabled Esteban Ocon to take second at the first chicane. Their team-mates, Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa touched at the first chicane, with the Force India loosing bodywork in the touch.
Valtteri Bottas was overtaken by Kimi Raikkonen at the second chicane, only for the Mercedes to run around the outside of the Parabolica to retake the position. With DRS available, an advancing Bottas passed Stroll into the first chicane for third. Behind, Massa tangled with Max Verstappen, which gave the Dutchman a front right puncture on the Red Bull, forcing him to pit and dropping to the back of the field.
Raikkonen wasn’t able to pass Bottas, which saw the two Ferrari drivers swapping places, the championship leader in fifth. Just a lap later, Bottas made the same overtake on Ocon.
Vettel was making progress in the Ferrari, overtaking Stroll for fourth which brought him immediately on the back of the back of third placed Ocon. e overtook Ocon on Lap 8, but was already ten seconds down on Hamilton. It would transpire he wasn’t able to match the pace of the leaders, which would see him in a safe third.
Stroll had closed the gap to Ocon in the fight for fourth, with Raikkonen staying close behind the pair. Further back down the field, Alonso was disgruntled with Renault’s Jolyon Palmer who remained ahead of the McLaren, despite cutting the second chicane. He would later get a five second penalty.
Raikkonen pitted from sixth on Lap 16, taking a set of the soft compound tyres. He came out just ahead of the Palmer who had pulled away from Alonso just a lap later, with the McLaren driver complaining with a problem with the car over the radio.
Ocon pitted a lap later responding to Raikkonen’s stop, he retained his position ahead of the Ferrari by two seconds. Stroll also pitted, but it was a slow 4.4 second stop from the Williams team, which brought him out behind Raikkonen.
Leader Hamilton ran wide at the second chicane on Lap 19, a snap of oversteer forced him wide on the exit into the gravel, a rare error from the British driver.
Yet to stop, Vandoorne was passed by both Ocon and Raikkonen, which meant Stroll lost time behind the McLaren. However, the time lost wasn’t enough for his team-mate to get ahead at his stop.
On the soft tyre, Ricciardo had also yet to stop in fourth and in clear air was told to push to try and jump Ocon. Using the DRS, Raikkonen overtook Ocon into the first chicane on Lap 26, which allowed Stroll to close in on the Force India.
Vettel in a distant third told the team he was struggling with the rear of the car on Lap 28, the front five cars yet to stop for new tyres. Palmer retired shortly after his pitstop on Lap 31. Alonso described Palmer’s retirement as ‘Karma’ when asking where he was over the radio.
Vettel pitted from third on Lap 32. He came out just ahead of a yet to stop Perez. Hamilton was the first of the Mercedes drivers to pit a lap later, responding to the Ferrari stop. He remained ahead of Ricciardo and a lapped Alonso.
Perez stopped for tyres on Lap 33, which brought him back out behind Massa, along with Bottas who retained his nett second position behind Hamilton.
Vandoorne slowed on Lap 34, a lack of power from the Honda engine in the McLaren forced him to retire.
Ricciardo’s late stop came on Lap 38. A quick 2.2 second stop from the Red Bull team brought him out ahead of Ocon’s Force India for fifth. With newer tyres, Ricciardo was the fastest driver on the circuit, quickly catching Raikkonen. The Red Bull driver overtook Raikkonen into the first corner, coming from a long way back catching out the Ferrari.
Hamilton reported a drop in power on Lap 44 of 53, the Mercedes driver still 3.5 seconds ahead of his team-mate, while half a minute ahead of Vettel’s Ferrari. Vettel was losing a second a lap to a fast Ricciardo on the supersoft tyre. The Australian quickly lost the prestigious pace of the supersoft tyre though, and the gap didn’t reduce enough for the Red Bull driver to get on the back of the Ferrari by the end of the race.
With a lap of the race remaining, Alonso was told to retire the car from 15th in another double retirement for McLaren. Perez had also closed in on the back of Massa in the battle for sixth. It was a mighty battle at the end of the race between Stroll in seventh, Massa in eighth and Perez in ninth, but despite two chances by Massa and Perez the order remained the same at the line.
