Lewis Hamilton has described winning the Italian Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas is ‘something quite special’.
The Mercedes dominated proceedings around the Monza circuit, with Hamilton taking a comfortable victory ahead of Bottas, with Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari a distant third.
Hamilton says he is proud to have secured a one-two victory for Mercedes at a venue so closely connected to the team’s closest rivals.
“It’s been fantastic,” says Hamilton. “It was really something quite special, driving around after the chequered flag with Valtteri alongside me.”
“To be on Ferrari’s turf and to have got the one-two and then drive around together really showed solidarity which I’m really proud of.”
The win moves Hamilton to the top of the drivers’ championship standings for the first time in 2017. Hamilton says that despite taking their first back-to-back win in 2017, Mercedes have not made many major developments to the W08 in recent rounds.
“We just obviously had these two strong races and we’ve not done a massive amount of development to the car,” explains Hamilton. “We’ve definitely understood and been able to extract from the overall package that we had.
“We’ve got a lot of races still that are going to be massively challenging and we are continuing to push. All the bosses were here today, the team and the chairmen – they want it just as much as everyone in the team.”
2017 Italian Grand Prix reaction
- Check back shortly for more race reaction
anonymouscoward (@anonymouscoward)
3rd September 2017, 19:13
Is this a measured Hamilton, trying to make sure he gets his team mate on board for the remainder of the season?
Kgn11
3rd September 2017, 21:09
He just outqualified him by 2 seconds then beat him to the win by 3-4 seconds whilst cruising out front and you think he’s trying to use some ploy to get him onboard? Come on now.
Blazzz
3rd September 2017, 21:43
I suspect so. In fact I think it all began in Hungary. Hamilton knows Bottas will get the better of him every so often- so may as well gain some goodwill so Bottas lets him through in his hour of need.
Mach1 (@mach1)
3rd September 2017, 19:46
I quite liked how Lewis accepted the partisan boos of the crowd, appreciated their passion…..and then stuck the knife in by saying “Mercedes power beats Ferrari power” ….. well I chuckled a bit……
Jake (@jagged-jake)
3rd September 2017, 20:57
+1
altitude2k
4th September 2017, 8:27
It was all in good fun. I hope the crowd saw it that way with a sense of humour.
I have read in some places people saying how disrespectful that statement about Mercedes power was. Haha, bless.
David BR (@david-br)
4th September 2017, 16:51
Excellent pay-back for the Tifosi booing him. And Mercedes marketing must have loved it – precisely what they want for their brand. I couldn’t help detecting a bit of pay-back too, though, for Ferrari signing up Vettel for 3 more years and effectively closing down Hamilton’s options towards the end of his career. I’n an ideal world, I’m sure he’d have happily contemplated another two titles (this year and next say) with Mercedes before trying to win another title elsewhere, specifically Ferrari with all its tradition.
Jason Blankenship
3rd September 2017, 22:57
Great for him but God what a boring race. These Hamilton blow-out wins make for lousy races.
Jere (@jerejj)
4th September 2017, 7:20
@Jason Blankenship It might’ve been straightforward at the front, but a bit behind there were battles for a position more or less throughout the race, so I don’t really understand the ‘boring race’ comments.
Jason Blankenship
5th September 2017, 13:42
Agree to disagree. There were position battles when RIC and VER were involved but outside of that, not much happened. That’s why it was boring. Battles for 8th, 9th, 10th, that doesn’t make a great race.
David BR (@david-br)
4th September 2017, 16:55
A blow-out win set up with a mesmerizing and record-breaking performance in qualifying. Implying it was easy is a disservice to what was achieved on the Saturday. And like @jerejj said, there was plenty of action in the rest of the field.
Jason Blankenship
5th September 2017, 13:45
I’m sorry but watching another Hamilton pole and him break another legend’s record doesn’t excite me. Sunday WAS easy and once he hit the chicane ahead of Stroll it was over.
Sumedh
4th September 2017, 4:20
I somehow draw parallels of this race with the 2007 grand prix. Again, it was a dominant display by Ferrari’s main rivals on their home ground.