2014 Formula 1 : Lewis Hamilton recovered from a poor start to win the Italian Grand Prix

2014 Formula 1 - Italian GP Winner : Lewis Hamilton, #44 Mercedes

• Pole-sitter Hamilton fourth after first lap
• Rosberg yields lead by running wide at Turn 1
• Massa gets first podium for Williams as Alonso retires

Lewis Hamilton recovered from a poor start to win the Italian Grand Prix as Nico Rosberg made a mistake while leading.

Nico Rosberg, #6 Mercedes

Having dropped to fourth off the line with Rosberg taking the lead, but after recovering to second place Hamilton closed in rapidly after his one and only pit stop, with Rosberg running straight on at Turn 1 to hand Hamilton a lead he would never relinquish.

Rosberg consolidated second position and eventually finished 3.1s behind Hamilton as his championship advantage was reduced to 22 points. Felipe Massa took his first podium finish for Williams in third place, with team-mate Valtteri Bottas another driver to recover from a bad start to take fourth place and move Williams ahead of Ferrari as Fernando Alonso retired.

Daniel Ricciardo managed a form of damage limitation, also climbing back through the field to finish fifth, 10 seconds ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel after an impressive pass in the closing laps. Sergio Perez was seventh after an impressive race ahead of Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen and Kevin Magnussen – who was harshly penalised and had five seconds added to his race time having crossed the line in P7.

Bad starts for a number of drivers set the race up on the opening lap, with Hamilton dropping from pole to fourth place by Turn 1 as Rosberg took full advantage and Magnussen made a flying start up to second from fifth. Bottas was the big loser at the start, getting wheelspin in the second phase of his launch and dropping back to 11th from third.

Once Hamilton settled down after reporting power issues on the radio, he followed Massa past Magnussen on lap 5 and then some good driving from both allowed Hamilton to pass the Williams through the first chicane and set off after Rosberg, slowly whittling away the gap.

After pitting, Hamilton was 1.8s behind his team-mate but - having been told to look after his tyres - he slashed the gap and saw Rosberg miss the first chicane to hand him the lead.

From that point on, Hamilton quickly established a gap of more than two seconds and looked comfortable as he went on to take his sixth win of the season.

On the same lap as Rosberg's error, Alonso pulled off at the first corner as he appeared to lose drive under braking, with Williams going on to take full advantage.

Behind the leading two, Massa was enjoying a lonely race in third while team-mate Bottas fought back through from 11th. A longer first stint saw him make up positions only to drop back to seventh exiting the pits, but a number of moves in to Turn 1 saw him pass Perez, Magnussen and Vettel to take fourth.

It was when under attack from Bottas that Magnussen was harshly penalised by the stewards, with the Williams trying to go around the outside of Turn 1 but Magnussen braked just as late and held the inside line, leaving Bottas to cut the chicane.

Soon after Magnussen's penalty was announced, Button overtook Perez at the first chicane and defended the inside line in to the second as Perez fought back, with the Force India going wide. Perez rejoined alongside Button and overtook in to the first Lesmo, with the incident strangely not being investigated.

Ricciardo was displaying more superb racecraft in fighting through from outside the points after his pit stop. Raikkonen and Button were dispatched at the first chicane while Perez was passed with a strong move under braking in to the second.

Now in seventh place, Ricciardo then showed how supremely confident he was on the brakes by diving down the inside of Magnussen at Turn 1 before chasing down Vettel and jinking to the left in to the second chicane to take fifth after a short fight.

Perez and Button continued to scrap, with a similar scenario playing out as Button passed only to lose the position two corners later, and Perez impressively held on despite reliability issues.

2014 Formula 1 - Italian Grand Prix Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	53	1:19:10.236	1	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	53	+3.1 secs	2	18
3	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	53	+25.0 secs	4	15
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	53	+40.7 secs	3	12
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	53	+50.3 secs	9	10
6	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	53	+59.9 secs	8	8
7	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	53	+62.5 secs	10	6
8	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+63.0 secs	6	4
9	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	53	+63.5 secs	11	2
10	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+66.1 secs	5	1
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	53	+71.1 secs	21
12	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	53	+72.6 secs	13
13	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	53	+73.0 secs	12
14	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	52	+1 Lap	16
15	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	14
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	52	+1 Lap	17
17	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	52	+1 Lap	18
18	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	19
19	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	51	+2 Laps	22
20	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	51	+2 Laps	15
Ret	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	28	+25 Laps	7
Ret	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	5	Accident	20

2014 Formula 1 - Drivers' Championship Standing

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	238
2	Lewis Hamilton	British	Mercedes	216
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	Red Bull Racing-Renault	166
4	Valtteri Bottas	Finnish	Williams-Mercedes	122
5	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	121
6	Sebastian Vettel	German	Red Bull Racing-Renault	106
7	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	72
8	Nico Hulkenberg	German	Force India-Mercedes	70
9	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Williams-Mercedes	55
10	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Ferrari	41
11	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Force India-Mercedes	39
12	Kevin Magnussen	Danish	McLaren-Mercedes	38
13	Jean-Eric Vergne	French	STR-Renault	11
14	Romain Grosjean	French	Lotus-Renault	8
15	Daniil Kvyat	Russian	STR-Renault	8
16	Jules Bianchi	French	Marussia-Ferrari	2
17	Adrian Sutil	German	Sauber-Ferrari	0
18	Marcus Ericsson	Swedish	Caterham-Renault	0
19	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Lotus-Renault	0
20	Esteban Gutierrez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	0
21	Max Chilton	British	Marussia-Ferrari	0
22	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	Caterham-Renault	0
23	Andre Lotterer	German	Caterham-Renault	0

2014 Formula 1 - Teams' Championship Standing

Pos	Team	Points
1	Mercedes	454
2	Red Bull Racing-Renault	272
3	Williams-Mercedes	177
4	Ferrari	162
5	McLaren-Mercedes	110
6	Force India-Mercedes	109
7	STR-Renault	19
8	Lotus-Renault	8
9	Marussia-Ferrari	2
10	Sauber-Ferrari	0
11	Caterham-Renault	0

 [Source : F1, DAIMLER, CRASH.NET by Chris Medland]