Lewis Hamilton WINS the Italian Grand Prix – Raikkonen second

Lewis Hamilton wins the Italian Grand Prix despite a Ferrari front row and a firts lap clash with Sebastian Vettel. Raikkonen second for Ferrari.

It looked like Ferrari had the better of Mercedes for the 2018 Italian Grand Prix, locking out the front row at their home Grand Prix in qualifying. But things didn’t go to plan.

From the start the Ferraris and Hamilton held position, but an attempt by Hamilton to pass Vettel on the firts lap ended with the two touching, Vettel spinning off and dropping to 18th place.

A safety car after Hartley suffered damage gave Vettel the chance to pit for a new front wing and tyres, whilst up front, as the race resumed, Hamilton got past Raikkonen, only for the Ferrari driver to return the favour.

The two front runners continued ahead with Hamilton sticking close to Raikkonen. with the Ferrari pitting first and Hamilton staying out, but Raikkonen was quick when he came back out, and when Hamilton pitted seven laps later he came out well behind the Ferrari.

When Vettel pitted again shortly after Bottas stayed out, delaying Raikkonen and allowing Hamilton to catch up and, when he pitted, Hamilton set about Raikkonen, and by lap 45 he succeeded in taking the lead and keep it to the end.

Raikkonen finished second and Bottas third, with Sebastian Vettel making it to fourth place despite his ‘interesting’ race.

Behind the Mercedes and Ferrari pairs it was Verstappen in fifth, Grosjean in sixth, Ocon in seventh, Perez in eight, Sainz in ninth and the final points went to Stroll for Williams. Which must have been a relief.

Vandoorne manged to finish off the bottom for McLaren in 13th, although Alonso retired, and Hartley and Ricciardo both failed to finish.