A few years ago the sight of two Red Bulls, two McLarens and a Ferrari at the rear of the pack would have been incredible. But most of them had qualified there, and Kimi Raikkonen had only fallen to the back after a poor start.
Stats
More Ayrton Senna records may be matched…
A win for Hamilton in the next race at Singapore would move him up to 41 victories from 161 starts – equalling Senna’s career record. Sebastian Vettel is already on 41 wins, though he has started nine fewer races than Hamilton.
Hamilton can also equal the record for most consecutive pole positions at the next race. He took his seventh in a row at Monza – Senna set the record of eight between 1988 and 1989. Senna also set seven poles in a row in 1990-91, as did Alain Prost in 1993 and Michael Schumacher in 2000-01.
Hamilton is on course to match Senna by taking a third world championship too. The British driver also increased his streak of front row starts to 20 in a row, needing 4 more to equal Senna’s all-time record held.
A rare engine failure
Despite his late engine failure Nico Rosberg was still classified as he had covered more than 90% of the race distance. However, it means Hamilton is now the only driver left who has completed every racing lap so far this year.
Former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was a surprise late addition to the podium after Nico Rosberg’s power unit failed late in the race.
Toro Rosso marked their tenth anniversary by lining up an example of each of their previous cars along with a current example at their home race.