Lewis Hamilton produced a perfect performance to overcome Kimi Raikkonen and dash Ferrari’s hopes of a home win at the Italian GP.
The Briton survived contact with Sebastian Vettel on the opening lap before using a tyre advantage in the final 10 laps to pass the 2007 world champion in a race-long duel between the pair.
At the start, it was Raikkonen who led into the first chicane, holding off a challenge from Vettel and Hamilton.
The Mercedes driver then looked to attack his championship rival in the second chicane around the outside but, refusing to back down, the German would make contact causing him to spin and damaging his Ferrari.
A safety car would be called following contact between Brendon Hartley, Stoffel Vandoorne and Marcus Ericsson on the run to the first corner, leaving the Toro Rosso out of the race and debris along the main straight.
Vettel pitted for a new front wing and Soft compound tyres, as he attempted to go to the end of the race on a single set of tyres after falling to the back
At the restart, Raikkonen misjudged where to pick up the pace and allowed Hamilton to get a great slipstream and make a move for the lead into the first chicane.
The Finn would hit right back though, sweeping past the Mercedes into the Roggia chicane.
Further back, Romain Grosjean ran across the second chicane giving Sergio Perez a look into the Lesmo bends with the pair touching and sending the Haas wide.
That, along with the opening lap collision between Hamilton & Vettel, was deemed a racing incident by the stewards.
As the race settled, Vettel began the long climb back through the field, shadowing Daniel Ricciardo, who had started 19th, before nailing the Red Bull into the first chicane.
A number of other moves on the midfield drivers followed and saw him back inside the points before tyre wear would become a major problem as he suffered from blisters on his left-rear.
The pit-stop phase began with both Mercedes and Ferrari crews entering the pit-lane with Raikkonen pitting from the lead, but, doing the opposite, Hamilton would stay out as he hoped to have better pace on his used tyres.
Ricciardo’s race would end in a smokey retirement, later blamed on a clutch problem, and briefly raising the prospect of a second safety car or VSC which could have turned the race in the world champion’s favour but the marshals were able to clear safely.
Mercedes had another ace up their sleeve though as a fast-lapping Raikkonen caught Valtteri Bottas, who was battling Max Verstappen, with the Finn told to hold up the Ferrari on his fresher tyres.
Hamilton would pit eight laps later than Kimi, falling a few seconds behind in the process, but quickly closed right up on the Ferrari which was still stuck behind the sister car.
At the same time, Vettel was forced to pit for a second time for Supersoft tyres, dropping him down the order once again.
After Bottas pitted, Raikkonen continued to stay ahead as he had just enough ground exiting Parabolica to keep Hamilton at bay into the first chicane but he too would suffer severe blistering on the Soft tyres like his teammate.
Finally, the race-defining moment came as Hamilton stayed close enough out of Parabolica to use DRS and pass Raikkonen around the outside into the first chicane for the lead, quickly pulling away from the Ferrari.
After losing time playing the team game, Bottas set about re-catching Verstappen for the final podium place.
In the wake of several near-misses to make a pass into the first chicane, the pair would make contact with the Dutchman picking up a five-second penalty for moving across the track and causing the collision.
That was because Raikkonen’s tyres had become critical with vibrations as the 2007 world champion rapidly lost pace.
Irate over his penalty, Verstappen continued to fight Bottas and would stay ahead to finish third on the road but would drop back to fifth.
That’s because Vettel used his Supersoft tyres to move back into fifth and close to within five seconds to move up to fourth, limiting the damage.
In the midfield, Romain Grosjean held off the two Force Indias to claim sixth as Esteban Ocon led teammate Perez with all three covered by 2.3 seconds.
A post-race protest by Renault would see the Haas excluded, however, for breaching the regulations around the design of the floor, promoting Ocon and Perez to the ‘best of the rest’ places.
Carlos Sainz would move upto eighth for the French manufacturer with the two Williams’ of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin completing the top 10.
The Russian’s first point of the season also means for the first time in F1 history every driver has now scored at least score a single point.
A look at the final results can be seen below with Fernando Alonso the third of three retirements with a mechanical problem.
At the front though, Lewis Hamilton was ecstatic to claim a record-equalling fifth win at Monza and extended his championship lead to 30 points over Sebastian Vettel heading to the night race in Singapore on September 16th.
