Mercedes headed into Monza with a comfortable lead over Ferrari in both drivers’ and constructors’ championships. The main battle seemed to now solely be between the two Silver Arrows drivers. Rosberg had earlier in the week announced that his wife, Vivian, gave birth to their first child. The big news concerning Hamilton was his new blonde hairstyle. The team had used their remaining seven engine tokens, and were the first constructor to use them all.
2015 Italian Grand Prix Mercedes Review
In all three practise sessions, Hamilton came out on top. Rosberg was half a second behind in FP1. There was over a second gap to next fastest man, Vettel, and it looked already that this would be another Mercedes dominated weekend. In FP2, Rosberg was again second-fastest, but only three hundredths off Hamilton’s time. Vettel was closer to the pair this time out, with less than eight tenths off Hamilton. In the final practise session, Vettel split up the Silver Arrows pair, with a time only 0.260 seconds off Hamilton.
Before the start of qualifying, the team were forced to change the engine on Rosberg’s car. He would be using the old one, which had done six full races by this point. This left the German at a major disadvantage, as he wouldn’t have the new modifications his team-mate would have, and be down on power at the fastest track of the season. In Q1, both Mercedes made it easily through, using just the prime tyres. Hamilton was 0.258 seconds faster than Rosberg, who had the Ferraris breathing down his neck. In Q2, Hamilton again posted the quickest time, but Rosberg found himself behind the two Ferraris, and nearly half a second off his team-mate. In the final stint, Hamilton set a time of 1:23.397, to take his 49th career pole position, and his fourth at Monza. Rosberg was over three tenths off the pace, but even worse for the German, he only qualified in fourth-place, behind Raikkonen and Vettel.
At the start, Hamilton got away well, and fended off Vettel into Rettifilo. Rosberg, hampered by a static Raikkonen, fell down to sixth-place, behind both Williams and Perez. He quickly dispensed off Perez in Rettifilo on the second lap. On lap 9, Rosberg was suffering overheating brakes, and instructed to manage the issue. Hamilton started to build a lead over Vettel, and found himself six seconds ahead of the German after 11 laps. On lap 14, Rosberg attacked Bottas, for fourth-place, at Curva Grande, but the Finn was able to hold him off, and kept the German behind until the first round of pit-stops. Rosberg pitted for medium tyres, on lap 18, and came back out in eighth-place. He pumped in some good lap times, and leapfrogged both Williams, when they pitted four laps later. Hamilton, who had a 15 second gap to Vettel, before the German pitted, came in on lap 27, and kept the lead of the race. Rosberg, on fresher tyres, overtook Raikkonen on the start/finish straight, for third-place. Vettel was next on the German’s radar, and he started to gradually close the gap. On lap 44, Rosberg closed the gap to three seconds. On lap 48, Mercedes told Hamilton to turn up his engine mode, and put in some fast times, without explaining the reason. On lap 51, Rosberg had smoke coming from his engine, and had to pull off at Roggia and retire from the race. Hamilton extended his gap to Vettel by 25 seconds, and came home to take his third Italian win. Rosberg was still classified in 17th place, even though he had retired three laps from the end.
After the race, the team were summoned to the stewards’ office to explain an issue with the tyre pressure on the left front for both drivers. The tyres, which were measured before the start of the race, well below the minimum level of pressure. Three hours after the race was over, it was deemed that Mercedes were not in breach of any infringement, and the result stood.
A miserable weekend for Rosberg, which sees him fall 53 points behind his championship rival, who completed his second Grand Chelem of his career. It was also the 40th race victory of his career, and leaves him one off his hero Aytron Senna’s win tally. With only seven races to go, and a healthy lead to his nearest rival, Lewis is on course to emulate Senna in greater terms, by claiming a third world title.
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