Hamilton still holds the title lead but no longer with a firm grasp, Ron Dennis plays a blinder, and booing the booers...
Monday 5 September 2016 15:06, UK
The title fight
The Italian GP was all about the start and the end result was all about Nico Rosberg starting to close in on Lewis Hamilton.
From a 43-point lead for Rosberg in the spring to a 19-point advantage for Hamilton during the summer break, autumn has commenced with the gap reduced to two points. Winter is coming and it's all to fight for in the game of thrones at Mercedes.
Nico Rosberg
Spa was a freebie and Monza was a gift but for the second weekend in succession Rosberg didn't put a foot wrong on race day to fully capitalise on his team-mate's misfortune.
Rosberg can be accused of collecting easy victories in a formula, the pinnacle of motorsport, where all wins should be hard work. But don't knock Rosberg for winning, not even on a weekend when his pace deficit to his team-mate in practice and qualifying verged on the humiliating. He doesn't have Hamilton's pace but he has resolve, defiance and a capacity for clear thinking which is standing him in good stead against the occasional torpedo from his team-mate.
'Hanging in there' isn't a motif legends are written around but it's an approach which is working for Nico, a driver whose greatest strength is his acceptance of his weaknesses.
Mercedes
'Only' their fourth one-two of the season, largely because they were the only team in the top ten capable of one-stopping and the only team in the points not to require supersoft tyres to be quick.
This was a walk in the Monza Park for the world champions.
Red Bull
It took the overtake of the year to make Red Bull's strategy work but fifth was as high as their underpowered car could have finished at Monza. "This weekend was damage limitation, we thought this would be our toughest race of the season," accepted Red Bull boss Christian Horner. Despite being outscored by the Ferraris, the team will leave for the flyaways with an 11-point lead over the Scuderia. And as Horner bullishly noted: "We know there are circuits coming up which should suit the characteristics of our car."
Ferrari
Credit where it's due in the midst of a horrible year for the Scuderia. Internally and externally, the expectations on Ferrari can be suffocating, particularly at their home race, but they did everything right at Monza. Boosted by an upgraded engine which delivered a useful improvement in performance, third and fourth on race day was as much as they could have achieved behind the runaway Mercedes. "We knew it would be tough against Mercedes but nevertheless we did a great race," argued Sebastian Vettel whose podium finish was their first in five races. That return to the top three, made in front of the demanding Tifosi, couldn't have been better timed.
Monza also serves up another purpose on annual basis: a reminder of how powerful the Ferrari brand continues to be and an expression of national loyalty which is the envy of the paddock. All teams have fans but no other team has an entire country on their side - and no other team has a home race the way Ferrari do.
Williams
Back in fourth in the Constructors' Championship after outscoring Force India 10-5. But for the second week in a row, Felipe Massa's struggle to match the pace of Valtteri Bottas was glaring and in such a close fight with Force India, and with so much prizemoney at stake, Williams urgently require the Brazilian to raise his game. Otherwise, Felipe's farewell tour may not make it to the last gig.
McLaren
The architects of a very elegant solution to their 'three into two' quandary. Critics of the arrangement are not lonely but have been decidedly shy in revealing how they would have answered the problem of trying to keep Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne happy and committed in 2017 while simultaneously adhering to the expectations of McLaren's generous sponsors.
McLaren's new driver arrangement explained
McLaren also performed a rare feat in managing to keep Button's negotiations with Dennis, which were only expected to start at Monza, a secret in a paddock where everyone knows everyone else's business. So what's the secret to keeping a secret in F1? Strictly restrict knowledge of the secret on a need-to-know basis. Fewer than six people inside McLaren knew of Button's new deal prior to Saturday when it was made public at 5pm.
Ron Dennis
Button's new two-year deal will not have come cheap but it may be a small price to pay in a year's time if Alonso wants to stay on for 2018. The option McLaren have taken on Button for the season after next gives Dennis significant leverage over the Spaniard if - and it's still a big if - McLaren return to the front.
Big Ron has played a big blinder.
Losers
Lewis Hamilton
The Mercedes driver still holds the lead of the world championship but it's no longer a firm grip. Boasting a massive pace superiority on Friday and Saturday, victory on Sunday was already in Hamilton's grasp at the start of the race but, in his own words, it was lost in the opening 10 seconds.
At that exact moment, Hamilton had cause to rue the extent of Mercedes' own pace advantage in Italy - even though he had thrashed Rosberg by half a second in qualifying, the German was still sitting alongside him at the start of the race and ideally situated to take advantage of his team-mate's latest slow getaway. Hamilton and his dominant Mercedes W07 combined to still have sufficient pace to make his comeback drive to second relatively comfortable but by then, and committed to an inflexible one-stop strategy, the race was lost.
A pole-sitting Mercedes
Hamilton's plummet from first to sixth by the first corner was the sixth occasion when a pole-sitting Mercedes has lost the lead off the line this year.
Max Verstappen
Currently no match for Daniel Ricciardo: the Australian has qualified ahead of Verstappen in three of the last four races and finished in front in all four races since Silverstone.
Haas
So often near and yet so far - Sunday was the fifth occasion this year when a Haas car has finished 11th, one all-important position away from finishing in the points.
The Monza podium
It's still the best spectacle of the year but this weekend's soundtrack - a cacophony of booing for Rosberg when the race victor appeared - was ugly, unedifying and absolutely unnecessary. The legacy of Multi-21 is a habit that does the sport no credit.
Kevin Magnussen
Beaten by his team-mate in three of the last four qualifying sessions and struggling to hold on to his seat for next season. Renault would have signed Stoffel Vandoorne for 2017 if McLaren didn't and although the Belgian is now unavailable, Renault's established interest underlines the precariousness of both Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer. One will probably stay but both could still go.
Fernando Alonso
Whether or not he appreciated McLaren's surprise announcement on Saturday is a moot point. But the Spaniard certainly won't have enjoyed his Sunday afternoon, hunted down and then passed by Button after the Englishman eeked out critical extra laps on soft tyres so he could finish on the supersofts.
Perhaps because he overextended his tyres in the process of reaching the top ten in the opening laps, Alonso had been unable to conserve his rubber as well as Button and was on another set of softs when the Englishman breezed past. Still, there's no doubt Fernando's quick. After all, he set the race's fastest lap after, in what could be interpreted as an act of frustration, he bolted on the supersofts for the final couple of tours and then left the Monza circuit within half an hour of the chequered flag. The latter achievement was more impressive than the former.
The 2016 Italian GP
Not a classic and not even much of a spectacle. That, though, does tend to be the Monza way - more eventful off the track than on it. Fortunately, if last year is any barometer, the narrative will be written in reverse in two weeks at Singapore.
Don't miss the F1 Report for the analysis of the Italian GP. The Telegraph's Daniel Johnson and former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley join Natalie Pinkham in the studio at 8.30pm on Wednesday.
