From the moment the lights went out at the Monza circuit in Italy on Sunday afternoon (local time) Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was in a league of his own, taking to the lead and not looking back for the entre 53 lap event. He only lost the lead to his teammate, Valtteri Bottas at one stage due to the two men from Brackley taking their compulsory pitstops.

Win number 59 and the lead of the drivers' championship for the first time this year was a solid reward for the seemingly easy race for the triple world champion.

While Hamilton had keeping the lead as his only focus, Bottas, who started fourth on the grid, was focussed on getting into second place to give Mercedes their third one two finish of the season, and he did so with ease, firstly passing the Williams of Lance Stroll, who lost P2 to Esteban Ocon at the start, then taking the Frenchman as well.

From there he followed Hamilton all the way to the checkered flag, all be it just that little bit slower.

“I'm absolutely delighted with a one-two finish here in Monza, at such an important and historic race,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff after the race. “The main thing is we took 43 points for the constructors' championship and 25 points for the drivers' today - Lewis is now in the lead, but ultimately it's the positions in Abu Dhabi that count. But every bit of momentum matters, and we've had a good seven days in that respect. Lewis delivered a perfect weekend - from the impressive pole position to a faultless race drive

The big surprise of the afternoon however, was not the speed and domination of the two Mercedes men, who actually turned down their engines for the majority of the race, it was the inability of the Ferrari to keep up with them.

Both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, thought their cars would fare better in the dry conditions after qualifying in seventh and eighth places on the grid in the wet conditions late Saturday afternoon, however, despite getting himself into third place early on, Vettel continued to lose time to Hamilton lap after lap.

This was Ferrari's home race and certainly one that they hoped to not only get pole at, but to take a home win, something they haven't managed to do since Fernando Alonso was driving for the team. However, they knew in the back of their minds that their car wasn't suited to the demands of the fast Monza track.

 

“It's been a difficult weekend at a track that definitely didn't suit the technical characteristics of the SF70H,” said Ferrari's Maurizio Arrivabene. “The great crowd of our fans here at Monza supported us all the way and the entire team thanks them for that. After a far from ideal qualifying in the wet, Sebastian managed to get the better of the drivers directly ahead of him on the grid and thus make it to the podium.”

While fans didn't get to see the fight between Vettel and Hamilton as they did in Spa seven days earlier, they did see a charge from Aussie racer Daniel Ricciardo, who only needed a few more laps at the end to catch and pass the Ferrari. Starting 16th on the most mixed up topsy turvy grid even seen in the sport, the Red Bull driver drove his heart out to finish fourth, only missing out on the podium by a few seconds.

"A fantastic drive by Daniel,” said team boss Christian Horner. “After an imperfect start he fought all the way through the race and had good pace, good strategy and made some fantastic overtaking moves to finish within four seconds of Sebastian, just out of a podium place and fully deserved Driver of the Day.”

The second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen struggled for the majority of the race, the Finn complaining of damage to the rear of his car, so salvaging a fifth placed finish was the most he could do…

“As for Kimi, he had a more difficult time due to the balance on his car being inconsistent,” explained Arrivabene. “Despite the fact that everyone in the team did their utmost, we cannot be satisfied with this result. We will tackle the next race in Singapore with our feet on the ground and with our usual determination.”

Esteban Ocon, who started third, finished sixth after fighting for most of the second half of the race with Lance Stoll, who started on the front row. The Williams driver finished seventh, after a very late fight with his own teammate Felipe Massa, who claimed P8.

As Hamilton and Bottas were driving the warm down lap in formation, Stroll and Massa were involved in a heated battle, a battle that Stroll won.

“From the start, it was a very different day than yesterday. The sun was shining and there was a big Italian crowd, so you could feel we were building up to a good race,” said paddy Lowe. “ It was quite a special feeling to be on the front row looking down the long straight into the first corner. Both drivers got good starts, but unfortunately Lance lost a position to Ocon, and the race settled down from there.”

“I think we had slightly stronger pace than Force India today. We could have potentially got back ahead of Ocon but uncharacteristically, we had a small problem with Lance's pitstop. Lance pushed hard but wasn't able to get ahead, so in the end he finished seventh with Felipe right behind him on track in eighth. “

“It's a valuable 10 points that we really need at this stage in the championship, so congratulations to the team who have done a great job back at the factory and at the circuit this weekend, and well done to the drivers who drove very consistent races to bring home the points for us.”

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen rounded out the top ten, both men having a race to forget with contact, punctures and on track battles.

“Max was unlucky to get involved in a racing incident with Felipe (Massa) and as a result suffered a puncture. His pace was right there with Daniel's today and it's a shame that his race was compromised with that puncture on the third lap. Nonetheless he kept fighting and brought the car in the final points-scoring place," explained Horner.

Four drivers failed to finish, including both McLaren's with Alonso coming in to retire with only two laps remaining.