The 2016 edition of the Italian Grand Prix was one dominated from start to finish by Nico Rosberg. His pole-sitting team-mate, Lewis Hamilton threw his opportunity for victory away at the start by making a poor start – however, he still finished second. Rosberg was unthreatened throughout the race and finished 15 seconds ahead of Hamilton, reducing his Championship lead to 2 points with seven races remaining.
The two Ferrari drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, finished third and fourth.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo came fifth, ahead of the Williams of Valtteri Bottas. The other Red Bull of Max Verstappen came seventh with Sergio Perez eighth in his Force India.
Felipe Massa and Nico Hulkenberg completed the points finishers for Williams and Force India, respectively – points for Williams placing them ahead of Force India for fourth in the constructors’ championship.
Fernando Alonso provided a little piece of interest in a lacklustre race by slapping on a fresh set of tyres and setting the fastest lap of the race towards the end – highlighting the huge progress that McLaren and Honda have made in the last twelve months. The other notable incident being a collision between Jolyon Palmer’s Renault and Felipe Nasr’s Sauber – both retired with damage, although Nasr was given a 10-second penalty which he took in a convoluted way by returning to the track 10 laps down, serving his penalty then retiring again from the race.
The off-track news then has been far more interesting than the on-track action this weekend. We have heard about the retirement of Felipe Massa from the end of this year, the sabbatical of Jenson Button for next year with the option to return in 2018 (his new two-year contract with the McLaren team being an intriguing development after qualifying yesterday) and the possibility of a new owner of the sport also coming to light this evening.
