The wait for the results of the Italian Grand Prix took almost twice as long as the race itself. In the end, the outcome was officially confirmed as exactly what we had seen on the track: another convincing and impressive victory for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes.
Until the moment of validation, however, it seemed Hamilton might lose his seventh win of the season because the tyre pressures on his car were below the legal minimum when measured on the grid. If that had been the case, victory would have gone to Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari, a result that would have gone down well at Monza, not only because it was Ferrari’s home territory but also because it would have brought Vettel back into serious play in the championship.
The verdict was also keenly awaited by Nico Rosberg, not necessarily through concern for his team, but because Hamilton’s disqualification would have come at the end of a day in which Rosberg had scored no points for the first time in 2015 following an engine failure while holding third place in his Mercedes.
Ironically, Rosberg was indirectly associated with the cause of the post-race investigation. It had been a tyre failure on Rosberg’s car, plus one for Vettel, during the previous race in Belgium that F1’s tyre company, Pirelli, had issued recommended minimum tyre pressures on the grounds of safety. (This was deemed necessary to prevent teams from gaining a performance advantage on the fundamental basis that the lower the pressure, the faster a F1 car will go).
A spot-check on the starting grid found one of Hamilton’s rear tyres to be 0.3 psi below the minimum. The fact that such a minor discrepancy would make little difference to performance was irrelevant; the pressure was below the legal limit; end of story. The penalty of transgressing a safety regulation is disqualification.
The post-race debate in the stewards’ office showed that the check had been carried out after the tyre warmers had been removed, thus allowing a drop in tyre temperature – and therefore pressure. Such a grey area in the procedure – bearing in mind this had not been carried out before – and the profound effect of disqualification at this stage in the season meant that the results would stand. But the procedure will be examined for the future.
Hamilton and Mercedes could finally relax and savour another fine win even though there will be concern over Rosberg’s rare engine failure. Ferrari and the third-place Williams team might yet question the reason behind the stewards’ decision but, for the moment, both teams were pleased with the result, particularly Felipe Massa who fended off his Williams team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, during an intense fight for third.
Ferrari were more concerned about fifth place for Kimi Raikkonen after the anti-stall had kicked in and the Finn dropped from the front row (his best grid position of the year) to near the back of the field, the prelude to a great comeback drive that hinted at what might have been.
And yet even the staunchest Ferrari fan would admit that Raikkonen, given a clean getaway, would have been unable to do anything about Hamilton and his Mercedes. Pole position, fastest and leading every lap spoke of another flawless drive and another step towards his third championship with seven races to go. But, as Hamilton later admitted, he could do without a repeat of such a long period of post-race uncertainty.