The 2017 Italian Grand Prix has been run and won, and it was full time F1 pilot and part time poet Lewis Hamilton who took the spoils.
It may not have been the most popular win with the Monza fans, but few could argue with the dominance of the win. With Bottas second and Vettel a distant third, he retook the Championship lead and has the momentum with two wins from two since the Summer Break.
There were great drives from Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll. And a few ordinary ones further back.
As ever we have the Good, Bad and Ugly from the 2017 Italian Grand Prix – originally published by Fox Sports Media Academy and good on them for doing so – and we have continued to compile the points below that.
THE GOOD
LEWIS HAMILTON
Another big weekend for the Briton as he took the record for the most of amount of pole positions, proving he is the man for all occasions and all conditions. Hard to beat the best driver in the best car.
The race started out as good as it could get, with a good start seeing him remain in first. Then with the unexpected Ocon and Stroll slowing the progress of his rivals early, and Bottas finding his way to second quickly, he had the perfect set up for a great 2017 Italian F1 Grand Prix. By the time Vettel got past Ocon, Hamilton was eight seconds up the road with Bottas in between.
In a sign he had a reasonably easy weekend, he was barely spotted on camera during the race and cruised to victory ahead of his teammate Bottas. He took the lead of the Championship, too, with victory, making it as good a result he could have hoped for.
It’s been a busy weekend for Hamilton who published his poem to Princess Diana on his social media platform, proving a man of many talents, and there will be many waiting his first musical effort too.
LANCE STROLL
The young Canadian has had many detractors in 2017 and, while some of them were silenced after his break through podium in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he still may feel he needs to prove himself to remain in F1 on reputation, not sponsors dollars.
So his qualifying result of the season with fourth fastest was a timely reminder of his ability not his wallet. The added bonus came when the Red Bull’s penalties were applied, as Stroll got to start the 2017 Italian Grand Prix on the front row of the grid alongside Lewis Hamilton; the youngest front row starter in F1 history.
He didn’t embarrass himself from the start, losing just the one position to Ocon, and more importantly staying out of trouble. He slipped back during the first half of the race, but was chasing Ocon hard once all the big players had resumed normal transition. The eventual finishing position of seventh would be counted as a great result.
ESTEBAN OCON
After being shoved into a wall at close to 300km/h heading into the one of the most dangerous corners on the F1 calendar in Spa by his teammate no less, the young Frenchman showed no ill effects as he qualified fifth and extended two fingers towards his beloved team mate Sergio Perez.
The Frenchman got a great start and held second for a few laps before the heavy hitters in Bottas and Vettel steamed past. He held on well during the race running sixth after all of the pitstops had been completed. He held off Stroll and Massa at the end to finish 6th, and importantly ahead of his team mate who was further back in 9th.
VALTTERI BOTTAS
The Mercedes driver is in danger of being officially nominated as a number two driver for the rest of the season, but his performance in the Italian Grand Prix would have please his bosses no end. He was ‘racey’ early – including a great duel with Kimi, and quickly disposed of Stroll. The Finn found his way to second quick smart, doing the team thing behind Lewis Hamilton, and only remaining around a few seconds off his teammate throughout the race.
DANIEL RICCIARDO
It could have been a much worse rating for Ricciardo, as Max Verstappen out-qualified the Australian yet again, and on too may occasions the Red Bulls started towards the back of the grid after penalties were applied.
But as we’ve seen in as many races in this 2017 F1 season, Ricciardo was mighty in the race, moving up from his lowly starting position lowly to begin with, and was clipped at the first chicane himself.
Once he got going it was great again, as he nailed a great move on Perez on Lap 17 for yet another great pass to add to the scrapbook for 2017. He ran as high as fourth during the race before his late pit stop, a move which saw him very competitive in the late stages of the race.
On Lap 41 he got past Kimi Raikkonen in a fantastic move that proves he is among the best racers in the current F1 field, if not the very best.
MERCEDES
Monza has been a Mercedes track since the new engine rules kicked in and they did it again on Sunday afternoon with a dominant 1-2.
Singapore shouldn’t be as good for them, but who could rule them out.
MATT CAMPBELL
In case you missed it, the Australian Carrera Cup Champion of 2016 is driving in the Porsche Supercup in Europe this year, and he added a second victory at Monza, leading all the way from Pole Position and winning by plenty.
The young man from Warwick in country Queensland has done extremely well for himself in his first season of racing in Europe, and with Porsche sniffing around a potential F1 entry in the future, he could be in the right place at the right time.
Australia will get another taste of his talents when he comes back for the V8 Enduros with Shane van Gisbergen’s Red Bull Holden later in the year. Don’t rule out that duo taking out the big races.
THE BAD
GRID PENALTIES
Proving as popular as a Honda in the Alonso household, no fewer than nine drivers were hit with demotions on the grid for the Italian Grand Prix.
There should be some system for making cars reliable; it shouldn’t be at the expense of the show.
One idea would be taking away Constructor Points up to a certain amount of changes, with grid penalties to kick in after a reasonable amount of allowed changes. With a reduction in engines for next year, an answer needs to be sorted soon.
Although knowing F1, several teams may find a sneaky way around it.
SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Probably more of an underwhelming weekend than a bad one, but the end result of Hamilton winning, and losing his Championship lead at his team’s home race is not a great one.
Given this was the track and weather conditions that saw the German win from pole in the unfancied Toro Rosso early in his career, his qualifying performance wasn’t what he would have hoped, and he was lucky that the two Red Bulls were demoted by grid penalties, or his Sunday afternoon would have required even more work.
After eventually seeing off the unexpected cars up the front of the grid, he made little impact on Hamilton of his second placed team mate Bottas in the first half of the race. The lack of pace in the Ferrari at their home race would be very disheartening for Vettel.
FERNANDO ALONSO
Not a great weekend for the Spanish double world champion. Expectations were reasonably low heading into the weekend, but with another ridiculous amount of penalties seeing him at the back of the grid he could be forgiven to ask himself why he bothers.
A further penalty of five seconds applied in the race, announced while running 12th made him even less happy during the race.
With the McLaren engine decision imminent, and reports suggesting it is a situation of it’s me or them with Alonso and Honda, it will be a very interesting week off track.
Stoffel Vandoorne’s failure and retirement may not help either.
JOLYON PALMER
More bad luck for Jolyon Palmer in the race, and he was also the first retirement in the Italian Grand Prix.
FERRARI
Not a great race in front of their adoring fans. Whilst there was not much they could do with the 1-2 in front of them, they will be concerned about the distance to the silver cars.
THE UGLY
MAX VERSTAPPEN
Red Bull weren’t to know about the wet weather conditions, but they may have regretted the grid penalties for the Italian Grand Prix as the wet conditions in qualifying allowed the Red Bull drivers to show their skills once again, qualifying second and third behind Lewis Hamilton.
As in the majority of cases in 2017, Max Verstappen out-qualified Daniel Ricciardo in be second on track, and he too started from further back than his qualifying position after a penalty.
Max Verstappen went from 13th to 8th in a couple of corners. But once again was unlucky in the race tangling with Massa on Lap 3. Could be unlucky, although you could argue that he could have helped himself by avoiding an accident The stewards agreed saying no further action from the incident.
He clashed again with Felipe Massa later on in the race, by which time his team mate Ricciardo was well up the front on his way to a lot of championship points.
KIMI RAIKKONEN
Kimi has had most of the bad luck at Ferrari in 2017, but he is fast becoming a bit of a moaner, and he is certainly setting himself up to be a number two for Ferrari which some reasonably lacklustre race in 2017. A shame as Kimi is very likeable, and admired by many around the world.
He has recently signed one year extension with Ferrari.
MARTINI-CHAVES MEDAL FOR GURGLER BEST/WORST OF THE YEAR
Here is where we tally up all the good, bad and ugly for the season.
- 1 Point for Good
- 1 Point for Bad
-0.5 for Ugly
There are bonus points as below. Drivers/Teams listed below have received a good and/or bad-ugly. Those with an overall score of 0 have had good and bad. Those not listed have been mediocre and been neither good or bad all season.
ULTIMATE WINNERS AND LOSERS
Here’s where an extra bonus point is added and subtracted for the very best and very worst.
WINNER – Lewis Hamilton. Couldn’t be anyone else.
LOSER – 1/2 point each for FIA for the Engine Penalties and Ferrari.
2017 MARTINI-CHAVES MEDAL FOR GURGLER BEST/WORST OF THE YEAR
DRIVERS
7.5 Points – Lewis Hamilton
6.5 Points – Valtteri Bottas
5.5 Points – Sebastian Vettel
4.5 Points – Fernando Alonso
3.5 Points – Dan Ricciardo
3 Points – Felipe Massa
2.5 Point – Lance Stroll
2 Points – Sergio Perez
2 Point – Nico Hulkenberg
1.5 Points – Kevin Magnusson
1.5 Point – Carlos Sainz
1 Point – Esteban Ocon
1 Point – Pascal Wehrlein
1 Point – Jenson Button
0 Points Romain Grosjean
-1 Point – Max Verstappen
-1 Point – Marcus Ericsson
-1 Point – Antonio Giovanazzi
-3 Points – Kimi Raikkonen
-3 Points – Dani Kvyat
-6.5 Points – Jolyon Palmer
TEAMS
3 Point – Mercedes
2 Points – Force India
1 Point – Ferrari
0 Points – Haas
-1 Point – Toro Rosso
-1.5 Points – FIA
-2 Points – Red Bull
-2 Points – Renault
-3.5 Points – Sauber
-4 Points – Williams
-6 Points – McLaren
