ITALIAN GRAND PRIX 4/9/16 Race Summary

Rosberg leads from the front, but the biggest cheer is for Vettel finishing in third place.

Nico Rosberg may have won, but the fans were cheering for Vettel of Ferrari who came in a respectable third. Rosberg tried to win the crowd over by speaking Italian and singing to the them, but his efforts onlyreceived a mixed response at best! That is 2 races in a row that the German has been booed at when he stood up to receive the winning trophy.

Monza GP Rich in History

The Italian Grand Prix what a venue, what an event, rich in history and loved by the local fans. Lewis Hamilton was looking to make it a hat-trick in wins in the same amount of years and after his fantastic qualifying round which saw him into Pole Position who would blame him. If he can win today it would be his 50th Grand Prix win and extend his lead by a minimum of 9 important points.

Tifosi the world famous supporters of Ferrari are out in force, visible and noisy with anticipation of the start. The engines start to rev and they are off, but what`s this, Lewis Hamilton has a terrible start and falls back to 6th. Rosberg, Vettel and Räikkönen head into the first 3 positions respectively. It seems that Lewis is still having starting problems at the grid and this could see him lose the championship, practice is needed.

On lap 4 the yellow flags are brought out after a collision between Jolyon Palmer and Felipe Nasr, the blame seems to lie with Nasr as Palmer`s front wing is lost and he heads to the pits. Felipe Nasr in the Sauber was given a 10 second penalty, but that would be the end of his race, they have a bit of history way back in their GP2 days. Later Nasr would be was very diplomatic about the crash and who was to be at fault.

The Tyres and the Pit Stops Could be Key for Victory!

The Italian fans are loving the start by the drivers in the Ferraris and hoping better things to follow. Though Hamilton is moving up the field and after the eleventh lap he is in fourth and Rosberg is dominating the race. The Ferraris go into the pits early and it looks like they are going for a 2 stop strategy and hope to catch up later on the better tyres, while both of the Mercedes are looking to go with the one stop option.

Nearly half way through Hamilton is catching up on Rosberg while Bottas and Ricciardo battle it out for 5th. Lewis`s fight back is helped by when he does pit it is the fastest pit stop; 2.2sec stop and overall time of 23.633 seconds in the pits. The German Pascal Wehrlein of Team Manor is out on lap 28 with engine trouble and to follow him would be Daniil Kvyat who drove his Toro Rosso into the pits on lap 36 and be the five and final non-fisisher of the Monza GP of 2016.

Lap 47 saw Ricciardo of Red Bull take Bottas on the first chicane putting him into 5th place, Bottas saw it too late. This was a great manoeuvre and well worth a replay. Didn't something like this happen 2 years ago and it was Vettel who lost out to the Aussie!

Time runs out and Rosberg wins comfortably in Italy, the first time he has won here and a big improvement on last year where he failed to finish with engine trouble. That takes his GP tally to 21 in his career and I expect many more to come with his clinical style of winning.

Before the podiums are ready we see the top 3 finishers in the after race chilling room and what`s this Vettel initially wears the winners cap by mistake or was it deliberate, maybe he thinks he should be the winner or a omen for next year`s race.

Exciting Times, Singapore is NEXT!!!

NEXT: What could be a 3 way battle of the teams in Singapore – Watch this space as we expect Ferrari and Red Bull to be strong in the Far East.