Italian Grand Prix (2014) RESULT

Lewis Hamilton is on pole for the 2014 Italian Grand Prix, but can he keep Nico Rosberg behind to claw back some of the deficit in the drivers championship?

After the difficulties of Spa for lewis Hamilton two weeks ago, he’s managed to take pole position in the 2014 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, pushing team mate Nico Rosberg in to second place. But can he hold on to that advantage? The answer is: yes and no.

A poor start from Hamilton – with his car’s electrics not playing properly at the start or on the opening laps – saw Hamilton drop from first to fourth in the opening melee – behind Magnussen and Massa as Rosberg pulled away in front.

Once his electric had been reset, Hamilton started to makes moves, passing Magnussen after Massa did and five laps later pulling a beautiful overtake on massa to take second place and start chasing Rosberg down.

Hamilton got to within 1.3 seconds of Rosberg before the one and only stop the Mercedes pair made and came out b1.8 seconds behind the German. But continuing to put pressure on Rosber paid dividends after Rosberg went straight on at the chicane – a mistake he also made whilst in front of Massa and Hamilton earlier – and Hamilton took the lead whilst Rosberg got back on track.

Hamilton extended his lead slowly through the rest of the race – apart from a lock-up near the end cutting it a little – and the Mercedes paid came home 1-2 – but advantage Hamilton

Behind the Mercedes, Felipe Massa stuck to third spot getting a podium finish for his Williams, and Bottas managed to beat the best of the rest with a fourth position for his Williams.

Behind the Williams cars, Daniel Ricciardo showed his mettle by taking fifth spot in the closing laps, followed by team mate Vettel in sixth, Sergio Perez in the Force India in seventh, Jenson Button in eight, Kimi Raikkonen in ninth and Magnussen in tenth, although Magnussen actually finished in sixth he gets demoted to tenth with a 5 second penalty for forcing Bottas off the track.

But it was a poor day for Ferrari at their home Grand Prix with Raikkonen only grabbing two points (and without Magnussen’s penalty that would have been just a single point) and Alonso retiring.

So Hamilton has cut his deficit to Rosberg by 7 points thanks to his win, but he’ll have to do it 3 more times to be a poinbt behind (if Rosberg comes second).

And with just seven races left – although there are double points for the final race – it’s still a tall order.