Hamilton triumphs on Ferrari grounds at Monza

He himself did not dare hope for such a turnaround; Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) just thought to overtake one of the two Ferraris at the start of the Italian Grand Prix. Ultimately, the British overthrew the hegemony displayed by the Team on home soil and won the event on Sunday at Monza!

Lewis Hamilton benefited from an eagerness to Sebastian Vettel at the beginning. The two men approached the second chicane of the circuit side-by-side, but the German, placed on the inside, slipped and hit the Mercedes. Gone in a spin, Sebastian Vettel whipped from 18th place to lose as little ground as possible on the Englishman. He finished at the foot of the podium, and is now 30 points behind the Mercedes driver.

The four-time world champion then took advantage of a clever strategy from his team. Valtteri Bottas deliberately slowed down Kimi Räikkönen for many laps, as the latter had pitted and was returning to the Mercedes. It had not made the slightest stop, and therefore had a slower pace than the Ferrari. The maneuver worked perfectly, because Kimi Räikkönen lost his six seconds lead over Lewis Hamilton.

In the wake of “Iceman”, Lewis Hamilton then benefited from DRS at each lap to put the pressure on, and finally deal the blow with around ten loops to go. With badly damaged tires, Kimi Räikkönen then slowed down.

The fight for the last step of the podium benefited Valtteri Bottas, thanks to a five-second penalty applied to Max Verstappen (Red Bull) for moving during braking and hitting the side of the Finn's Mercedes. The Dutchman is satisfied with fifth place.

Author of a calm race, Romain Grosjean (Haas) finished sixth. The internal fight within the Racing Point Force India team turned to the advantage ofEsteban Ocon, seventh, ahead of Sergio Pérez (eighth). At the house of Renault, only Carlos Sainz Jr scores two points, in ninth place. Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso) continued to lose ground and finished 15th.

Among the rare abandonments of the day, let us quote Fernando Alonso (McLaren) and Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) on mechanical problems.

Find the analysis of the Italian GP by our special correspondent in issue 2181 of AUTOhebdo, on sale Monday evening in digital version and Wednesday on newsstands.

2018 Italian Grand Prix ranking: