Hamilton benefits from Rosberg's mishap to win Italian GP

Monza, Italy (SportsNetwork.com) - Lewis Hamilton bounced back from a poor start and then capitalized from a mistake made by his Mercedes teammate and championship rival Nico Rosberg to win Sunday's Italian Grand Prix.

Hamilton started on the pole but had a sluggish start when he experienced a glitch with his power unit. It dropped him to fourth. But Hamilton moved up to second by lap 10.

"It was a difficult race," Hamilton said. "At the start, there's a button that you press which engages the launch sequence, and for the formation lap, it didn't work. I thought, 'No problem, I'll just put it on for the race.' And then when I got to the grid, I put it on, and again, it didn't work.

"It's very, very strange. I've never really had that happen before. There was a different sequence of lights that were on that weren't on ever before. Anyway, I tried to pull away as fast as possible. The RPM was all over the place, and fortunately I managed to not lose too many places."

Rosberg took the lead at the start but gave up the top position to Hamilton on lap 29 when he out-braked in the first corner and had to use the escape road to recover. That allowed Hamilton to move ahead of him. Rosberg also had a braking issue at the first chicane on lap 9.

"Lewis was quick coming from behind, and I needed to up my pace, and then as a result, just went into the mistake," Rosberg said of mishap on lap 29. "That was very bad, and that lost me the lead in the end. Definitely very disappointing from that point of view."

Hamilton went on to beat Rosberg at the finish line by 3.1 seconds for his sixth victory of the season and the 28th of his career, allowing him to surpass Jackie Stewart for seventh on Formula One's all-time race winners list.

It's the second time Hamilton has won the Italian GP at the Monza circuit. He started on the pole and won here two years ago in his last season with McLaren.

Hamilton also trimmed Rosberg's lead in the world championship standings from 29 points to 22. Six races remain. F1 will be in Singapore in two weeks.

When F1 had its last grand prix in Belgium on Aug. 24, Hamilton and Rosberg made contact while battling for the lead on the opening lap. Hamilton suffered a punctured tire during the contact and then dealt with an ill-handling car from there, as he ended up retiring late in the race. Rosberg, who went on to finish second, later admitted that he intentionally wrecked his teammate. Mercedes took disciplinary action against Rosberg for the incident.

"I came here [to Monza] with a positive attitude, hoping just for no issues," Hamilton said. "I guess the cool thing about today is that I had another serious one, and I managed to pull through it.

"Again, all those experiences I've had kind of have prepared me for it today, and I'm still looking for one of those weekends where we don't have any troubles. Clearly today, I had the pace on everyone and on Nico, and I felt that way all weekend. So I'm going to make sure that's the case moving forwards."

Felipe Massa from Williams made his first podium appearance of the season with a third-place run, while his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, finished fourth.

"It's a great day for us," Massa said. "Not enough to fight with Mercedes but I think we had a very good pace and a very good car. The team did a perfect job. I'm really, really happy to be on the podium today."

Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel, the four-time F1 world champion, placed fifth and sixth, respectively. Ricciardo had won the previous two grand prix in Hungary and Belgium. Vettel claimed victory in last year's Italian GP.

Ferrari struggled in its home race, with Kimi Raikkonen finishing ninth and Fernando Alonso retiring just past the halfway point due to mechanical failure. Alonso had been the only driver who scored points in each of the first 12 grand prix this season.