Sergio surges to 2nd!

Lewis Hamilton has won the Italian GP ahead of Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso. After Romain Grosjean’s race ban for his part in the Belgian GP start crash, drivers seemed to give each other a lot more room at the first chicane, with the turn one passing without incidents. There was wheel-to-wheel racing up and down the field, with Bruno Senna finding himself running out of track on more than one occasion, however it was Sebastian Vettel who was given a drive through penalty for his move on Alonso. Both Vettel and Mark Webber retired from the race, along with Jenson Button, Nico Hulkenberg and Jean-Eric Vergne.

My race highlight was Perez’s drive through the field. He was one of a few drivers to start on the hard tyres, while the vast majority started on the medium compound, and made his strategy work to really carve through the pack towards the latter stages of the race. He made little work of passing Felipe Massa and Alonso, and set about chasing Hamilton, however, ran out of laps to catch him. After a disappointing race at Spa, Perez put that behind him and took his third podium of the year. He also had a battle with Kimi Räikkönen, switching positions with the Lotus driver. Also, Hamilton’s victory – McLaren’s third in a row – was a special moment and a definite highlight for me!

Vettel was the only driver to pick up a penalty in the race after he ran Alonso off the track at Curva Grande. He received a drive-through penalty which he duly served, however, it is reported that the likes of Vettel and Christian Horner thought the penalty was harsh and that Vettel’s move had not warranted a penalty. Cast your minds back to 2011 when Alonso pulled off a similar move at the same place pushing Vettel wide, with no penalty. Do you think the penalty was deserved, due to the rule that you must leave a car’s width when passing? Or do you think the penalty was harsh, given what else goes on?

Share your highlights and views on the race in general!

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