With a dose of drama to the mix at the end of the race, Lewis Hamilton won the seventh victory of the 2015 Formula 1 season with the victory at the Italian Grand Prix. In Monza the Brit achieved his 40th win in grand prix. Nico Rosberg retired from the race a few laps before the end of the race.
Departing in pole position, Hamilton remained in the lead after the start, while Rosberg dropped to sixth place and Kimi Raikkonen, who started alongside the British driver, fell down the order to the back of the pack.
From then Lewis Hamilton dominated the race but was caught by surprise in the last stages of the race by a request without explanation from his team, asking him to force the pace but with caution. The reason, the stewards had identified a technical problem in the pressure of the tires of the in the starting grid, so the team would risk suffering a penalty. The Brit eventually finished the race 25 seconds ahead of
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.
Rosberg returned to lose ground in the World Championship standings with a retirement in the closing stages of the race. The engine broke when the German was still behind Vettel in third. With this result Hamilton now has 53 points of advantage to Rosberg in the championship.
Williams' Felipe Massa inherited Rosberg's third place, finishing ahead of his teammate Valteri Bottas, while Raikkonen made yet another great recovery to finish fifth.
The updated version of
Force India's car impressed yet again with Sergio Perez finishing in sixth place ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg. With this result the team recovered fifth place in the constructors' championship, benefiting from the retiremente of the two Lotus early in the race.
Daniel Ricciardo of
Red Bull battled back from 19th place up to eighth, while his team-mate closed the group of scoring drivers. Marcus Ericsson scored for
Sauber for the third consecutive race, finishing in ninth place.
Results Italian Grand Prix
Pos |
Driver |
Car |
Gap |
1 |
Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes |
1h18m00.688s |
2 |
Sebastian Vettel |
Ferrari |
25.042s |
3 |
Felipe Massa |
Williams/Mercedes |
47.635s |
4 |
Valtteri Bottas |
Williams/Mercedes |
47.996s |
5 |
Kimi Raikkonen |
Ferrari |
1m08.860s |
6 |
Sergio Perez |
Force India/Mercedes |
1m12.783s |
7 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
Force India/Mercedes |
1 Lap |
8 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
Red Bull/Renault |
1 Lap |
9 |
Marcus Ericsson |
Sauber/Ferrari |
1 Lap |
10 |
Daniil Kvyat |
Red Bull/Renault |
1 Lap |
11 |
Carlos Sainz |
Toro Rosso/Renault |
1 Lap |
12 |
Max Verstappen |
Toro Rosso/Renault |
1 Lap |
13 |
Felipe Nasr |
Sauber/Ferrari |
1 Lap |
14 |
Jenson Button |
McLaren/Honda |
1 Lap |
15 |
Will Stevens |
Marussia/Ferrari |
2 Laps |
16 |
Roberto Merhi |
Marussia/Ferrari |
2 Laps |
17 |
Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes |
Engine |
18 |
Fernando Alonso |
McLaren/Honda |
Electrical |
- |
Romain Grosjean |
Lotus/Mercedes |
Collision |
- |
Pastor Maldonado |
Lotus/Mercedes |
Collision |