Rosberg beats Hamilton to easy Monza win

His record from pole is not quite as bad as that of his Mercedes team-mate, Nico Rosberg, two years ago, but like Rosberg, his inability to turn Saturday speed into Sunday wins could end up costing him the drivers’ championship. Tomorrow is a different day and if we can make a very strong start we can build our race.

The three-time world champion’s gaffe means Rosberg is now only two-points behind in the drivers’ championship after he clinched his maiden Italian Grand Prix win. You’ve seen it with Nico in Hockenheim.

Hamilton headed to Monza hunting a hat-trick of Italian Grand Prix wins, a feat that would have put him on a par with legendary five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio.

We were never under a massive threat from Ferrari. Nobody. Because if you start to blame people this is when it starts going downhill because people will try to protect their a*** and make sure they have a conservative system in place rather that putting the best developments on the vehicle. “If you drive someone off the track when we’re side by side, I think there’s better racing in GP2 or GP3”.

“We do practice starts all weekend and they are varying a little bit and then, every now and then, we get a random variation on the grid”.

“I can assure you we’ll be talking about it on Tuesday [at the factory]”.

He is now just two points adrift as Formula One leaves Europe for the final time in 2016, heading off into a mad dash across Asia, North America, South America and the Middle East for the last eight races. Rosberg had to take an early lead after losing the pole position to his teammate in the qualifying race and he did exactly that on Sunday.

The Austrian said: “Our system has improved a lot but obviously today, machine and driver got it wrong. I was told the procedure was just as I was supposed to do it but unfortunately we had an over-delivery of torque and the wheels were just spinning from the get-go”.

The fault appeared to be his, as he hinted over the team radio, even if he said afterwards that he had done everything as normal and the clutch was to blame.

“When you start to blame this is when it goes downhill because people will try to protect their arse and make sure they have a conservative system in place rather than putting the best development on the vehicle”.

“Nobody is to blame, and in this particular case it’s a combination of many things”. We changed the rules a year ago (going from a double to a single clutch start) and this is why I don t want to go there. “Once we have seen all the data we will address internally what needs to be done”.

“So it s not a game of blaming”.

The Mercedes man also looked on course for the 50th grand prix victory of his career after taking pole from team-mate Nico Rosberg by nearly half a second.

This news story is related to Print/147857-Rosberg-wins-in-Italy-to-cut-Hamiltons-lead/ – breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne. “So it was all there”. “It s always going to be a great battle and I look forward to what s to come”.