Lewis Hamilton was able to lead a dominant Mercedes 1-2 at the Italian Grand Prix to lead the championship battle for the first time this season as he continued his good form after the summer break.
The Briton was able to take charge at the start and led an untroubled race that saw Mercedes lead all the 53 laps with Valtteri Bottas moving up to second in the early laps where he would remain until the checkered flag.
Sebastian Vettel ensured one Ferrari was able to stand on the podium in front of their passionate home fans but it was a difficult race for the Scuderia, as the German was well off the pace set by the Silver Arrows and had the charging Daniel Ricciardo closing in over the final laps.
The Red Bull was able to perform an astonishing drive to claim fourth having started 16th due to engine penalties. The Australian started on the Soft compound tyres and made his way through the field producing excellent pace to emerge fifth after switching to the Supersoft rubber car before passing a lacklustre Kimi Raikkonen to claim the well-deserved fourth place and was later voted driver of the day by the fans.
The Finn was fifth in the second Ferrari but struggled for pace before the pit-stop following Esteban Ocon, who ran second after Lap 1 and Lance Stroll, who started on the front row. Eventually, the 2007 world champion found a way past young guns, as the Force India and Williams had to settle for sixth and seventh respectively.
Stroll’s teammate, Felipe Massa followed him in eighth as Ocon’s teammate, Sergio Perez finished ninth. Max Verstappen had an amazing race start that saw him climb up to eighth position in the second Red Bull on the opening lap but a puncture following contact with Massa forced him to pit early and change strategy but would complete the top 10 to collect the final point.
Kevin Magnussen was unhappy with Verstappen’s driving as he was the last victim to the Dutchman's charge, forcing him out of the points in 11th followed by Daniil Kvyat who once again failed to score points keeping his points tally at four.
Nico Hulkenberg was not able to produce a result better than 12th as the Renault works team struggled compared to their leading customer, instead of fighting with their junior team as the German was followed by Carlos Sainz in 13th for Toro Rosso.
Romain Grosjean picked up some damage at the start and was not able to recover from that finishing 15th ahead of Pascal Wehrlein who came in 16th completing the list of drivers to finish the race.
It was another bad day for McLaren with a double retirement for the British team. Stoffel Vandoorne returned to the pits having lost power while sitting in the points while his teammate Fernando Alonso struggled and complained regularly throughout the race before eventually retiring.
Another disappointment for Jolyon Palmer as yet more reliability problems forced him to retire once again, after their battle at Spa, he would get involved in another spat with Alonso, picking up a five-second timed penalty for passing the Spaniard by cutting the second chicane, something the double world champion was also vocal about. Finally Marcus Ericsson pulled into the pits at the request of his Sauber team four laps before the end.
At the front, however, and does this 1-2 signify a shift in the balance of this year's championship? Hamilton now sits three points clear of Vettel, but now the next three circuits at Singapore, Sepang and Suzuka could all favour Ferrari once again, so only time will tell.
