Lewis Hamilton has taken another win at Monza with no rival and he is now the championship leader. Bottas completes a one-two for the silver arrows and Vettel has finished third in a very difficult home race for Ferrari.
Race started and Lewis Hamilton did a good start to keep leading. Esteban Ocon overtook Lance Stroll for second place, and so did Kimi Raikkönen to Valtteri Bottas for fourth position. Behind, Max Verstappen ran a superb first lap and improved to eighth place.
Bottas recovered fourth place and, on lap 3, he passed Stroll for third position. Behind, Verstappen and Felipe Massa collided while fighting for seventh place and the Dutch driver had a puncture. On the same lap, Sebastian Vettel passed Raikkönen for 5th place. Bottas didnt’t take a lot of time to overtook Ocon and move up to second position. Verstappen pitted to repair the damage.
On lap 5, Vettel overtook Stroll for fourth place and, three laps later, he also passed Ocon for the last podium spot. Menawhile, Hamilton had already opened a big gap and was comfortably leading.
After a few laps with no change, Raikkönen was the first of the leaders to pit, as he did it on lap 15. Ocon followed his steps on the next lap and returned to track ahead of the Finnish driver, who had a bad pit stop. Stroll pitted on the next lap, but he returned to track behind Raikkönen. Jolyon Palmer was given a 5-second penalty for cutting the chicane while fighting with Fernando Alonso.
On lap 21, drivers who were going to do only one stop started to pit, being Massa the first of them. On lap 26, Raikkönen finally managed to overtake Ocon and move up to fifth (with Daniel Ricciardo fourth and yet to pit).
After some laps in which nothing happened, and with the top 4 drivers yet to pit, Palmer retired. On lap 31, Vettel did his first and only stop, and so did Hamilton on the next lap. On lap 34, Stoffel Vandoorne reported power problems and retired. Ricciardo pitted on lap 37 and returned to track fifth between Raikkönen and Ocon.
Soft tyre life was way longer than expected, and those who had pitted earlier didn’t have to do it again, so everyone (except Verstapen) pitted only once. On lap 41, Ricciardo caught Raikkönen and, braking at turn 1, he passed him on one of the best overtakes of the season. Behind, Verstappen was quickly gaining places and he overtook Carlos Sainz, Nico Hülkenberg, Daniil Kvyat and Kevin Magnussen to reach tenth place.
Alonso and Marcus Ericsson retired on lap 52. Ricciardo was getting close to Vettel but didn’t manage to actually catch him.
Nothing else changed and Hamilton takes his sixth win of the year, and the first back to back this season. The British driver is now the championship leader. Bottas has finished second and completes a one-two for Mercedes in Ferrari’s home. Vettel completes the podium in a difficult weekend and loses the lead of the standings. Ricciardo, Raikkönen, Ocon, Stroll, Massa, Sergio Pérez and Verstappen are the points scorers.
With these result, there’s an important change on the stnadings as Hamilton is now the championship leader with 238 points, followed closely by Vettel with 235. Bottas is third with 197. Next round will be held in two weeks in Singapore, a track that is, theorically, better for the Ferraris rather than the Mercedes.
