Lewis Hamilton wins in Italy and takes the lead in the championship

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) concludes a Monza weekend in style this Sunday by winning the Italian Grand Prix, dominating his teammate Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari de Sebastian Vettel.

The Briton was not worried throughout the event, after getting off to the best start against Lance stroll (Williams) and Esteban Ocon (Force India). The Frenchman, however, took advantage of a better response than the Canadian to take second place on the first braking.

Further back in the peloton, Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) quickly found himself battling with the Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen, the 2007 world champion initially taking the advantage over the star brand driver.

The latter, however, regains his position at the exit of the Parabolica, and continues his recovery immediately by passing Lance Stroll on the third lap, then Esteban Ocon a lap later, to take second place.

Starting from the third row, Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) also made his effort in the first ten laps, first overtaking his teammate Kimi Räikkönen at the exit of the second chicane, then Stroll and Ocon to position himself in third row, but too far away for the Scuderia to hope to come back on the untouchable Mercedes given the pace of the Silver Arrows.

The first pit stops, initiated in the leading group by Räikkönen on lap 15, saw Stroll concede a position to the Finn. The Ferrari driver remained in the wake of Esteban Ocon's Force India, but without being able to overtake before the 27th lap.

The leading trio waits until the halfway point to observe their only stop and Hamilton logically regains his leading position ahead of Bottas. Daniel Ricciardo, author of a convincing climb to third place from 16th on the grid, and with his offbeat strategy (start on soft tires) pushed his relay until the 38th lap.

The Australian emerges in fifth position, between Kimi Räikkönen and Esteban Ocon, but pulls off a daring maneuver during the first braking to pass Räikkönen and return to fourth place with just over ten laps to go.

In the lead, and despite a slight loss of power observed with nine laps to go, Lewis Hamilton controlled and won his 59th career victory ahead of Bottas and Vettel, the latter clocking more than thirty-six seconds at the finish. Hamilton took the opportunity to take control of the championship for the first time in 2017, three points ahead of Vettel.

Ricciardo finished 4th and ahead of Räikkönen and Ocon, while the two Williams of Stroll and Felipe Massa, Sergio Pérez (Force India) followed in the standings.

Despite an excellent start, which saw him in eighth place after the start, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) saw his momentum cut after a puncture in the first moments of the race following contact at the exit of the first chicane against Felipe Massa.

Returning to the pits prematurely to change his tire and his front wing, the son of Jos Verstappen finally finished in 10th place under the checkered flag, not without having fought closely Kevin Magnussen (Haas) at the end of the Grand Prix.

Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) finished 12th in front Nico Hulkenberg (Renault), Carlos Sainz (Red Bull), Romain Grosjean (Haas) and Pascal Wehrlein (Sauber). Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) was forced to retire after a loss of power on his Power Unit Honda and joined Marcus Ericsson (Sauber), Jolyon Palmer (Renault) and Fernando Alonso (McLaren) on the retirement list.

Race ranking

Discover the full report and analysis of the Italian Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents in Monza, in issue 2130 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.