Stop us if you have heard this before – Mercedes has won a 2016 Formula One Grand Prix. It could really be Fill-In-The-Blank Grand Prix, it just so happens that this time it is the 2016 Italian Grand Prix and the winner was Nico Rosberg while the runner-up was his teammate, Lewis Hamilton. The only drama was that the order was not switched due to Hamilton starting in the pole position and that the cars in the 3-4-5-6 slots were not all Ferrari and Red Bull [only three of them were…rim shot] as Sebastian Vettel took the third and final podium position.
The only real drama of the race occurred in the first 22 seconds as Hamilton got off to one of the poorest race starts known to mankind and dropped all the way back to sixth place where he then had to spend the majority of the 53 laps passing the Ferraris and Red Bulls that had forged ahead of him on the first turn. Meanwhile, his teammate, Rosberg, sped off into the sunset with another easy victory – his first at the venerable Monza circuit.
With the win, Rosberg closed the season driver standings points gap between the pair to a mere two points with Hamilton leading with 250 points to Rosberg’s 248, while Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull sits in third with 161 points and Vettel creeps up slightly to 143 points behind him in fourth.
2016 Italian Grand Prix – Autodromo di Monza – 53 laps
1 Nico Rosberg – Mercedes 25 1:17:28.089
2 Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes 18 +15.070 Sec
3 Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari 15 +20.990
4 Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari 12 +27.561
5 Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull 10 +45.295
6 Valtteri Bottas – Williams 8 +51.015
7 Max Verstappen – Red Bull 6 +54.236
8 Sergio Perez – Force India 4 +1:04.954
9 Felipe Massa – Williams 2 +1:05.617
10 Nico Hulkenberg – Force India 1 +1:18.656
11 Romain Grosjean – Haas
12 Jenson Button – McLaren
13 Esteban Gutierrez – Haas
14 Fernando Alonso – McLaren
15 Carlos Sainz Jr. – Toro Rosso
16 Marcus Ericsson – Sauber
17 Kevin Magnussen – Renault
18 Esteban Ocon – Manor
19 Daniil Kvyat – Toro Rosso
20 Pascal Wehrlein – Manor
21 Jolyon Palmer – Renault
22 Felipe Nasr – Sauber