9 Memorable Moments From The Italian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton dominated the Italian Grand Prix to win by 25 seconds, with Sebastian Vettel delighting the famous Tifosi to score his first Monza podium for Ferrari.

Felipe Massa completed the podium for Williams, but only after a late retirement for Nico Rosberg. It wasn’t a particularly thrilling race, but there were still quite a few funny, unusual and interesting moments.

Sitting on the grid as the rest of the pack fly past you isn’t the best situation to be in. Then again, we doubt it fazed Kimi Raikkonen. His start in Italy was nothing short of disastrous, with Hamilton storming into the lead from pole position and the Finn dropping right to the back.

And as you can see from this fan video, the Ferrari fans were not too happy about it…

The usual bunching up of the pack at the first chicane on the opening lap at Monza claimed not one but both Lotus cars. Romain Grosjean was hit by Felipe Nasr and tapped Jenson Button into the path of Pastor Maldonado, terminally damaging both Lotus E23s. Oops.

After the team’s Belgian GP tyre disaster – where Valtteri Bottas exited the pits with three of one tyre compound and one of another – the Williams mechanics opted to double check if the compounds all matched this time around. Wise decision!

Raikkonen was oddly slow and cautious into the pit lane. Roberto Merhi, who was directly behind him, was not. The Manor car locked up and almost ran into the back of the Ferrari. Fortunately, contact was – just – avoided.

Max Verstappen started at the back of the pack, but he put in a great drive, despite finishing 12th. Such great overtakes included this one on Nasr, around the outside at Turn 1. Very nice indeed.

Rosberg was chasing Vettel down for second when his engine – an old unit that had been used at five previous races – gave up. Smoke poured from the back of his car and there were even some flames too. All of this with just two laps to go, pretty painful.

8. Hamilton victorious

Hamilton proved to be on another level in Italy, taking his seventh win of the season and third at the historic track. Vettel was second, a popular result at Ferrari’s home race, while Massa was third. He just managed to hold off team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Raikkonen recovered to fifth.

But, there was controversy at Mercedes. Towards the end of the race some odd radio messages were broadcast, with the team telling Hamilton to push and increase the gap to those behind but “not ask questions”.

It transpired that the FIA had found Hamilton and Rosberg’s tyre pressures were below the minimum limit. The drivers and representatives were sent to the stewards to defend their case. Vettel’s reaction after he found out was pretty brilliant.

But in the end the FIA took no further action against Mercedes, meaning the result remained.