Hello F1 fans! Welcome to my post about the Italian Grand Prix. This track has never failed to deliver a great race filled with excitement.

Coming into the race, Nico Rosberg had problems with his new engine. He had to use the old one that had already done five races. (About 1500 kilometers) This would come back to haunt him later in the race. Ferrari looked strong, coming in with upgraded engines for the track with the highest average speed on the calendar.

Lewis Hamilton during practice

Qualifying was exciting with the two Ferraris beating Rosberg to take second and third on the grid. (with Hamilton on pole) Surprisingly, it was Kimi Raikkonen who was on the front row with Hamilton! Not Vettel. As you know, if a Ferrari does well at Monza the crowd goes wild!  For this race it was an all Williams third row with Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa on fifth and sixth.  It built up to a great race.

Fan waving Ferrari flag during qualifying     Forza Ferrari!

Finally, the race was here. As the race started, Kimi Raikkonen (starting on the front row) did not even move! He dropped down to last place. Nico Rosberg was the big loser of the start. After Raikkonen had stalled he lost speed and dropped to sixth. There was loads of chaos into the first chicane, with many cars having to cut it to avoid contact.

At Monza it is always tight into the first corner

Vettel was aggressive on the start, trying to pass Hamilton at the first corner. However, after the first lap Vettel could not stay with Hamilton and allowed him to pull away. Meanwhile, Raikkonen had made 8 places by the third lap and was back in twelfth. Rosberg was the first of the front runners to pit, attempting to undercut the two Williams that passed him at the start. Shortly after, Massa pitted on lap 22 followed by Hamilton and Vettel on lap 26. By this time of the race, Hamilton had a 10 second lead over Vettel!  However, 10 laps later Vettel had to worry about what was going on behind him. Rosberg was within five seconds of him.

Mercedes would now regret using the older engine for Rosberg’s car. With 3 laps to go, his engine blew up. That meant Vettel would comfortably finish in second. More than 20 seconds up the road, Lewis Hamilton had a sudden scare. The team was telling him to go flat out for the last 3 laps! They did not tell him what the problem was. They just told him to execute it. After the end of the race, it was revealed that Hamilton’s tyre pressures were 0.3 psi lower than the lowest level allowed. The reason they wanted him to push hard is because if he got a 25 second penalty, he would have a lead over 25 seconds and would still get the win.

In the end Hamilton won, followed by Vettel and then Massa just holding off Bottas for third place. I hope you enjoyed my post and my next post will be on Monday.

Fact of the day: Monza is the most used track in F1