Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton washed away the bad memories of the Spa as he emerged victorious in the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.
Despite a bad start to the race, due to a problem with his ERS system, the 29-year-old made an impressive comeback and claimed the 25 points with a time of 1:19:10.236. Hamilton's teammate Nico Rosberg came in second place with a difference of +3.1 secs, while Williams-Mercedes driver Felipe Massa claimed the last spot in the podium with a difference of +25.0 secs.
The race started with Hamilton surrendering his pole position to Rosberg and dropping to the fourth place behind McLaren-Mercedes driver Kevin Magnussen and Massa, who raced to the second and third place respectively.
However, Hamilton, who was forced to retire after Rosberg collided with him in the Belgian Grand Prix, slowly started getting his grip on the race. After overtaking Magnussen and Massa in 5th and tenth lap respectively, Hamilton started piling the pressure on teammate Rosberg.
Bit by bit Hamilton started closing the deficit between him and Rosberg, before finally overtaking his teammate in the 29th lap (despite his race engineer advising him to sit two-and-a-half seconds behind the German). Rosberg seemed to have cracked under pressure as he drove straight on at turn one towards the obstacles, allowing Hamilton to complete his first chicane and take the lead.
Finally Hamilton easily claimed the race as he beat Rosberg with a cushion of +3.1 secs.
After the race, the 29-year-old Briton explained why he did not heed the advice of his race engineer.
"I wanted to apply pressure. I knew that if I got to the end l wouldn't be able to so I just wanted to apply the pressure when the tyres were good. I wasn't ignoring my team, I have a great engineer and I wanted him to give me advice, but I knew I had the pace and wanted to utilise it," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
Rosberg, on the other hand, admitted that he cracked under pressure and made an error.
"Lewis was quick, coming from behind," Rosberg told the Formula One's official website. "I needed to up my pace and then as a result just went into the mistake. That was very bad and lost me the lead in the end."
"Monza is one of the most difficult tracks for braking because of the low downforce and the highest speeds of the year. That isn't an excuse, that's just the way it is. Unfortunately I got it wrong."
Meanwhile, it was a disappointing race for Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in his team home circuit as he was forced to retire due to a hybrid system failure in the 30th lap.
The Spaniard, who had twice emerged victorious in Ferrari's home circuit in the last four years, expressed his disappointment at having had to retire in front of the home fans.
"After a long run of trouble-free races, it's a real shame I had to retire just here in Monza, in front of all our fans. I would have liked to have put on a very different race for them," Alonso told the Formula One's official website.
However, the 33-year-old driver insists that his "will to win" has not changed despite their poor result in the Italian Grand prix.
"What happened doesn't change my will to win and in order to try and have that happen soon, we will continue to work as hard as we can, always giving our all."
Hamilton's triumph in this race means that he is now only 22 points behind teammate Rosberg, who is currently leading the Drivers' standings with 288 points. Red Bull-Renault's Daniel Ricciardo remains in third place with 166 points, while Valtteri Bottas has overtaken Alonso (121) to claim the fourth place with 122 points.
In the Constructors' standings, Mercedes continue to remain way ahead of their closest opponents with 454 points. Red Bull-Renault and Williams-Mercedes are in second and third place, with 272 and 177 points respectively.
