ITALIAN GP - RACE - RE-CAP & RESULTS
Hamilton and Vettel collided at the chicane on the opening lap of the Italian Grand Prix as they battled for second behind pole sitter Kimi Raikkonen. Vettel was forced wide and sent into a spin, dropping back to eighteenth with damage to his front wing.
Vettel was able to come into the pits during a brief safety car period, brought out to recover Brendon Hartley’s damaged Toro Rosso. He spent the remainder of the race climbing up through the field, eventually crossing the line fifth.
At the front of the field, Raikkonen was ahead of Hamilton after both cars had pitted, but the Ferrari was being held up by the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, who was yet to pit. The slower Bottas allowed Hamilton to catch Raikkonen, whose tyres were a handful of laps older than those of the Mercedes.
By the time Bottas finally came into the pits, Hamilton was on Raikkonen’s tail, but making the move past the Ferrari didn’t come easy. He eventually passed Raikkonen around the outside just eight laps before the chequered flag, snatching the race lead in front of Ferrari’s home crowds.
Once in the clear air, Hamilton quickly pulled away from Raikkonen, who was now nursing blistered tyres. He finished more than eight second ahead of Raikkonen to take his sixth victory of the season.
Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas was pushing to find a way past Max Verstappen in the battle for the final podium position. Verstappen put up a strong defence, at one bouncing over the kerbs in order to keep the position. In the closing stages of the race, the pair came together and Bottas was forced up the escape road at the chicane. He managed to continue and continued to push, but his fight for third was aided when Verstappen was handed a five second penalty for the incident.
Even though he’d already lost the position, Verstappen continued to defend P3 on track. He told the team he was aware he was losing time to Vettel, who was now charging after the pair, but that he didn’t care and continued to battle Bottas.
The Red Bull eventually crossed the line third, but the five second penalty dropped him behind Vettel on the corrected timings, classifying him fifth.
Verstappen’s team-mate Daniel Riccardo endured an even worse race. After taking a new engine for the Italian GP – and the grid-penalty that came with it – Ricciardo had been working his way up through the order when he came to a stop at the side of the track, smoke pouring from the rear of his Red Bull.
Many initially suspected an engine problem, but Renault later claimed the issue was clutch related.
Ricciardo was the third man to retire from the race, with Fernando Alonso also retiring due to a mechanical issue.
Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez also ran into trouble when the pair came together early in the race while battling for 12th and 13th. Both suffered bodywork damage, but it was enough to force Magnussen into the pits. He managed to return to the race, but could only run around at the back of the field, eventually finishing 17th.
Perez didn’t appear to suffer too much damage and continued to climb through the order. He joined team-mate Esteban Ocon and Haas’ Romain Grosjean in a battle for the best of the rest position. Grosjean finished top of the group to take sixth, ahead of Ocon and Perez.
Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll completed the top 10 while Sergey Sirotkin finished just outside the points with his best result of the season.
Charles Leclerc, Stoffel Vandoorne, and Nico Hulkenberg took 12th, 13th, and 14th, with Pierre Gasly and Marcus Ericsson completing the order.
Following the race, Romain Grosjean was later disqualified from the official race results after Renault launched an investigation concerning Grosjean's car. The FIA found that Haas had run an illegal floor and therefore decided that Grosjean would be excluded from the results, losing his points and promoting everyone else up a spot.
RESULTS:
1. Lewis Hamilton / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain / + 25 Points
2. Kimi Raikkonen / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland / + 18 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas / Mercedes-Mercedes / Finland / + 15 Points
4. Sebastian Vettel / Ferrari-Ferrari / Germany / + 12 Points
5. Max Verstappen / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Netherlands / + 10 Points
6. Esteban Ocon / Racing Point Force India-Mercedes / France / + 8 Points
7. Sergio Perez / Racing Point Force India-Mercedes / Mexico / + 6 Points
8. Carlos Sainz / Renault-Renault / Spain / + 4 Points
9. Lance Stroll / Williams-Mercedes / Canada / + 2 Points
10. Sergey Sirotkin / Williams-Mercedes / Russia / + 1 Point
11. Charles Leclerc / Sauber-Ferrari / Monaco
12. Stoffel Vandoorne / McLaren-Renault / Belgium
13. Nico Hulkenberg / Renault-Renault / Germany
14. Pierre Gasly / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / France
15. Marcus Ericsson / Sauber-Ferrari / Sweden
16. Kevin Magnussen / Haas-Ferrari / Denmark
RETIRED - Daniel Ricciardo / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / Australia / Clutch
RETIRED - Fernando Alonso / McLaren-Renault / Spain / Electrical
RETIRED - Brendon Hartley / Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / New Zealand / Collision Damage
DISQUALIFIED - Romain Grosjean / Haas-Ferrari / France*
* - Notes Grosjean was disqualified after the stewards found Haas had run an illegal floor on his car
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Article Written By: Bethonie Waring
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