Lewis Hamilton recovered from a poor start to win the Italian Grand Prix ahead of his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg. Hamilton had a little help from Rosberg after the German mistimed his breaking into the first corner, therefore giving the lead to Hamilton and he never lost it to record his first win since the British Grand Prix in July.
Rosberg got a fantastic start off the grid with McLaren's Kevin Magnussen having a brilliant start from 5th to 2nd in the lead up to the first corner. Hamilton dropped to 4th after a suspected problem with the RS mode on his car.
The German started to pull away from Magnussen and Felipe Massa in the first few laps with Massa and Hamilton overtaking Magnussen for 2nd and 3rd respectively. On lap 9 Rosberg locked up under breaking and went wide at the first chicane, going down the slip road, he managed to keep his lead with Hamilton now on his tail having passed Massa for 2nd.
In the next few laps Hamilton closed in on Rosberg, cutting down his lead substantially per lap. Williams' Valterri Bottas was impressive as he passed many drivers at the first corner, including Sergio Perez and Jenson Button.
But the key moment of the race came on lap 29, 20 laps after his first mistimed brake, Rosberg made the same mistake again at the first corner and Hamilton was there this time to pass, taking the lead and never surrendering it.
Lap 29 proved to be eventful as it also gave us Fernando Alonso's first retirement since 2009 and his first non points finish this season due to a suspected power failure. It was two of Formula One's most consistent drivers who were the retirements from this weekend as Marussia's Max Chilton crashed out early in the race, only his second retirement since his debut in 2013.
Kevin Magnussen was fighting hard, battling with Bottas for 5th place. Bottas made a move at the first corner, only to be pushed off the track by Magnussen. The young Dane was given a 5 second time penalty for the collision and Bottas soon passed him.
Former team mates Jenson Button and Sergio Perez had a fascinating wheel to wheel battle in the closing stages, being wheel to wheel from the first corner through to the long back straight. Perez prevailing with Button yielding to the Mexican.
Most of the attention was in the midfield as the top 3 pulled away, with an intriguing 5 car battle between Vettel, Magnussen, Perez, Button and Kimi Raikkonen. Daniil Kvyat started to get involved in the battle until he went very wide at the first corner, mistiming his breaking and handling the car admirably as he kept composure and got back on track.
Hamilton perhaps distanced himself from the rumours regarding his possible return to McLaren as he spoke on the podium afterwards. When asked by former F1 driver Jean Alesi whether he and Rosberg were friends again, the Brit said "we're team mates, we always will be" before patting the German on the back.
In a rather anticlimactic race following the eventful Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago, Hamilton took the chequered flag ahead of Rosberg to cut the German's Championship lead to 22 points coming into the final 6 races of the season.