How Hamilton forced Ferrari's implosion

This was a grand prix Lewis Hamilton had no business winning. On what everyone expected to be a famous Monza day for the tifosi, Ferrari squandered a potential one-two and Sebastian Vettel lost vital ground in the world championship.

To say Ferrari lost does a great race a disservice, for the Italian Grand Prix was won, emphatically, by Hamilton and Mercedes. It's a victory that ranks among the best of the four-time world champion's 68 Formula 1 wins.

At every turn, even in qualifying, Hamilton was right there on the shoulder of Ferrari's drivers, piling on the pressure. This was his victory, because he forced the errors and made the vital passes when he had to.

Things didn't look so encouraging at the start. Hamilton ran third out of the first chicane having watched Vettel's failed attempt to take the lead around the outside of Kimi Raikkonen. But when Vettel had another glance up the inside of his team-mate on the run to the second chicane, Hamilton seized his chance.

Hamilton took the outside line, outbraking Vettel and turning in to the left/right flick fractionally ahead of the Ferrari. Mid-corner, he and Vettel made contact, with the Ferrari spinning to the back and suffering front wing damage.

Vettel's world had fallen apart, and as he cruised back to the pits he had good reason to rue Ferrari's decision in qualifying to place Raikkonen behind him rather than give a tow - potentially costing pole position.

"At the first chicane, I tried to pass him [Raikkonen] on the outside," said Vettel. "As is his right, he opened the brakes in defence. Then I had a late braking point and was deep into Turn 1 and had to give him room. He came back, and then I got squeezed.

"Fortunately, Lewis wasn't in a position to react immediately so I could get back. I had a poor exit out of Turn 2 and would've liked to be closer.

"I gave him the right amount of space. I'm so proud of that manoeuvre" Lewis Hamilton

"I wanted to get down the inside into Turn 4 and had the space, but again Kimi opened the brakes, which is absolutely fine for him to do.

"I could have done the same, but the apex is coming very rapidly and it would've been a nasty one. I tried to get out and then Lewis saw his chance, but didn't give me any room and turned in."

Hamilton was, justifiably, delighted with a move that transformed the complexion of his race.

"He was on the limit, it's just by the time he got to the apex Kimi came across and he would probably have lost a bit of downforce," said Hamilton. "Obviously, he went in a bit deep, I gave him the right amount of space. I'm so proud of that manoeuvre."

The safety car was deployed to tidy up the debris, and the luckless Brendon Hartley's Toro Rosso that had been sandwiched at the start and suffered front wing damage and twin blowouts.

Calm briefly prevailed before the restart at the end of lap three. Hamilton got a run on Raikkonen out of Parabolica and breezed into the lead on the start/finish straight.

But Raikkonen wasn't willing to settle for second best, repassing Hamilton around the outside into the second chicane (above). The legend of the Monza slipstreamers of yore lives on.

Hamilton stuck with Raikkonen throughout the first stint and never dropped further back than 1.5 seconds, which was what separated the two on lap 15 out of 53. On laps 16 and 17 Hamilton took a combined total of half a second out of Raikkonen to ensure he was as close as possible as the pitstops approached. The question was, who would blink first?

Ferrari was rightly fearful of being undercut, and with an inviting gap for both of the leaders between Valtteri Bottas in fourth place and 'Class B' leader Romain Grosjean's Haas in fifth, both crews headed into the pitlane as the duo completed the 20th lap.

Hamilton was instructed to do the opposite to Raikkonen, so when the leader peeled into the pits he stayed out. Some interpreted this as a 'phantom stop', designed to hoodwink Ferrari. But given Hamilton would have attempted the undercut had Raikkonen continued and pitted, it was perfectly legitimate.

Raikkonen was turned around in a sharp 2.2s and sent back out on softs, emerging 23s behind and in clear air in fourth place. Raikkonen took 0.4s out of Hamilton in the second and third sectors on his out-lap, but only 0.043s on the following lap.

As he didn't have enough of a gap to stop and retain the lead, Hamilton stayed out. His pace was good, but he just couldn't quite eke out enough and Raikkonen started to close further. Mercedes had no choice but to leave Hamilton out in the hope of a safety car.

It came so close to happening. Daniel Ricciardo started 19th and had made his way up to 11th when the rear of his Red Bull emitted a puff of smoke after a clutch problem. He parked between the second chicane and the first Lesmo, and unfortunately for Mercedes his car was recovered under double waved yellows.

Raikkonen chipped away at Hamilton's lead, and when Hamilton came in after extending his stint to lap 28 - eight laps longer than the Ferrari driver - the gap was down to 18s.

Hamilton rejoined in third place, 5.7s behind Raikkonen. But Mercedes still had a card to play, for Bottas now led. Raikkonen was, at this point, just 1.5s behind.

Under instructions to keep Raikkonen behind, Bottas was also embroiled in a battle for third with Red Bull's Max Verstappen and running long in pursuit of a late-race tyre advantage. On a weekend where Red Bull was well off the pace of the leaders, but also comfortably ahead of the rest of the pack, Verstappen had passed Bottas around the outside into the first corner to hold third throughout the first stint.

Monza's heavy braking zones and hard accelerations ask a lot of the tyres, and Raikkonen was desperately trying to manage the situation

Verstappen made his pitstop on lap 26, while Bottas went all the way to the end of lap 36 before stopping, by which time Hamilton had long since latched back on to the back of Raikkonen.

But it was already clear that Raikkonen was in serious trouble. The rear-left was suffering from major blistering, thanks to a combination of Raikkonen needing to attack at the start of his stint when there was the most tread on the tyre and overheating is a more serious problem, and the fact the rear end of the Ferrari seemed a little loose.

In fact, hints of rear-end instability had been there all weekend - notably when Vettel spun into the Parabolica gravel during second practice, and while not a problem most of the time that handling element might have accentuated blistering.

Vettel had struggled a little on the set of softs he took after his first-lap incident, but not as much as Raikkonen - likely because he had to be even more cautious owing to the extra fuel weight and the amount of time he spent in traffic.

Monza places a big demand on the tyres longitudinally. The heavy braking zones and hard accelerations ask a lot of the tyres, and Raikkonen was desperately trying to manage the situation. The fact Friday morning was wet, second practice shortened by 20 minutes thanks to Marcus Ericsson's massive accident, and that Raikkonen spent time stuck behind Bottas and Ferrari had a grand total of one set of softs between its two drivers for use in practice - used by Raikkonen - created a perfect storm. In the first stint, things had been fine for Raikkonen on supersofts.

Behind, Hamilton had a minor problem with front blistering. Car balance can have a big impact on whether the front or rears have problems, but for Mercedes the trouble wasn't only at the other end of the car, it was also less severe.

"Lewis, this race will be won or lost with tyres, just look after them," Hamilton's race engineer, Pete Bonnington, told him on lap 35 - warning his charge not to do the same as Raikkonen. He was bang on the money.

Once Bottas was out of the way, Raikkonen's pace picked up but given his tyre situation he had no chance of pulling away from Hamilton.

Hamilton bided his time, but at the end of lap 44 he had his chance. With Raikkonen struggling for rear grip at the Parabolica and demanding over the radio that he needed all the power at his disposal, Hamilton got close enough to him to attack using the DRS.

Raikkonen took the inside line on the approach to the first chicane, so Hamilton moved to the left. On the brakes, he pulled alongside and ahead of Raikkonen.

Hamilton had his car in just the right place, with Raikkonen having to wait before he could take the left-hand part of the chicane and accepting his lead was lost.

If there was any doubt before this that Raikkonen was in big trouble, Hamilton underlined it by disappearing at the rate of a second per lap. He crossed the line after 53 laps 8.705s clear of Raikkonen, who had his hands full making sure his rear-left didn't give out completely.

Behind, Bottas did finish third. Having made his stop, he rejoined 3.2s behind Verstappen with soft Pirellis 10 laps fresher and quickly began to close. Having not had a serious shot at passing Verstappen in the first stint, save perhaps for a vague look that resulted in Verstappen cutting the first chicane, Bottas had to make something happen.

On lap 43, he made his move to the outside. Verstappen defended, but as the chicane approached he moved to the left and made wheel-to-wheel contact with Bottas. Bottas cut the chicane and Verstappen stayed ahead, but stewards then hit the Red Bull driver with a 5s penalty. This was entirely proper given the rule stating a driver defending can move back towards the outside of the track provided they leave enough space for their rival.

"The car was quite horrible to drive. With all the traffic, it was quite messy but our pace was actually quite decent" Sebastian Vettel

While Bottas slipped over four seconds behind, this moment secured him third place. He closed back up on Verstappen and did attempt to pass him on the road, with Verstappen coming close to repeating his error in defence but not overstepping the line this time, but Bottas was content to finish behind him and head to the podium thanks to the penalty.

Considering Bottas had endured a tough weekend on which he didn't quite have Hamilton's pace (although the lack of a tow in qualifying exaggerated the deficit significantly), he landed a podium finish and contributed to Hamilton's victory.

But Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was keen to underline that, while it was convenient Bottas parked in front of Raikkonen mid-race and Mercedes used that tactic to perfection, it also played a part in securing third.

"It not only worked for Lewis, keeping Kimi behind, but it also worked for Valtteri," said Wolff.

"We knew that we had to keep him out long because we lost a position to Verstappen and we needed to create the largest possible tyre offset at the end of the race. That was his best shot at a podium."

Verstappen's penalty also dropped him behind Vettel, who recovered to fifth on the road before being promoted to fourth.

After taking the restart on fresh softs in 18th he cleared the midfield to climb to fifth by the end of lap 24. Of the 13 places he gained, all but three were with on-track passes thanks to the combination of the Ferrari's strength on the straights and the lack of interest in fighting from the midfielders. But his car wasn't in good shape.

"I was surprised when I got out," said Vettel. "The whole sidepod was missing, well the forward edge of the floor to the outside structure of the floor was gone.

"The car was quite horrible to drive and I had a lot of snaps and moments that surprised me. Then I got sort of used to it and drove around it bit. With all the traffic, it was quite messy but our pace was actually quite decent given the damage."

His recovery was complicated by a second stop, to take fresh supersofts, on lap 29 and he rejoined 10th. In the closing stages, he passed the two Williams drivers - Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll, as well as Renault's Carlos Sainz Jr and, with both Force Indias having to pit, he got back up to fifth. Fourth, once Verstappen was penalised, was a good salvage job.

But the damage was done, even if it had been limited. Hamilton extended his world championship lead to 30 points, the first time any driver has had an advantage worth more than the 25 available for victory this season.

Ferrari unquestionably had the quicker car in qualifying, and while Mercedes proved to have the edge in the race this very likely might have been down to circumstances. After all, we never saw how quick an undamaged Vettel really was.

But for Mercedes, it was just reward for some serious analysis after its Spa defeat that helped it to mitigate what Wolff described a week earlier as "many deficits". It was certainly stronger relative to Ferrari on Sunday than on Saturday this time.

Mercedes did an impeccable job at Monza, but the brilliance of Hamilton was the key ingredient that made all the difference. Whenever he was needed, he was there hassling, asking Ferrari tough questions it couldn't answer. And crucially for the world championship, for the fourth time this season Vettel made a misjudgement that cost him dearly.

Perhaps even the tifosi that gathered beneath the podium, many of them booing the man who had vanquished their beloved Ferraris, will have grudgingly accepted that Hamilton had the measure of everyone.