Nico Rosberg wins Italian GP, Hamilton comes second

Nico Rosberg managed to clinch the first spot at the 2016 Italian Formula 1 Gran Prix, after a slow start by his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who finished second. With this win, Rosberg has cut Hamilton's championship lead to just two points. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel completed the podium trio for the Sunday race.

After qualifying in pole position on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton had a bad start in the main race with too much wheelspin off the line, and lost five places before the first corner. The British driver later confessed to his team that the slow start was his own fault and there wasn't anything wrong with the car. Hamilton later put up a good show and climbed up to the second position, but wasn't able to challenge his teammate. Rosberg easily held on to his lead till the chequered flag and finished with a gap of more than 15 seconds.

Interestingly, Mercedes employed a single stop strategy for their cars, starting on soft tyres and finishing on mediums. In contrast to this, both the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen made two stops, shifting from supersofts to supersofts, and eventually, to softs.

Sebastian Vettel managed to get a podium finish for Ferrari on its home turf. The other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen crossed the line in fourth position. The fifth and sixth positions went to Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Williams' Valtteri Bottas respectively.

Max Verstappen too suffered a bad start in his Red Bull and slipped down to 11th. He spent the entire race trying to recover, and eventually, managed to secure the seventh spot. Force India's Sergio Perez, Williams' Felipe Massa, and Force India's Niko Hulkenberg completed the top 10.

The current World Driver Championship standings are as follows:
1. Lewis Hamilton - 250 points
2. Nico Rosberg - 248 points
3. Daniel Ricciardo - 161 points