How Hamilton completed a grand slam at Monza while a tyre question hung over the win

At Monza, Hamilton completed a second grand slam of pole, fastest lap, victory and every lap led. Sebastian Vettel finished 25 seconds back in second, and Felipe Massa took third for Williams. Nico Rosberg retired with an engine failure three laps from the end, and Hamilton's win was not confirmed until hours after the flag.

What did the championship look like before Monza?

Hamilton led the drivers' championship on 227 points, 28 clear of Rosberg, and Vettel sat a further 39 points back in third. Mercedes led the constructors' standings on 426 points, with Ferrari on 242 and Williams on 161. Hamilton was the defending winner at Monza.

Pirelli had changed the tyre order for this race. The white-banded medium was the prime and the yellow-banded soft the option, which was the reverse of the year before. Giampaolo Dallara, head of track engineering at Sauber, welcomed the change, arguing that teams would now have to find time in the corners as well as on the straights.

Pirelli had come under fire after tyre failures on Rosberg's and Vettel's cars at Belgium. Bernie Ecclestone urged the drivers to keep their criticism private, insisting the company was doing a good job.

Hamilton led every lap at Monza, and the only question left was about his tyres.

How did the Lotus and contract news shape the weekend?

Lotus had their cars impounded by bailiffs after Belgium, two weeks before Monza, and their financial troubles were well known. The team had them back in time for the race and insisted it had the money to finish the season, despite its financial troubles.

Contract talks were also high on the agenda. Williams announced that Massa and Bottas would stay with the team for 2016, while Nico Hulkenberg agreed a two-year extension with Force India. The Italian Grand Prix itself was at risk of being dropped from the calendar.

Vettel spoke out in favour of Monza after the race, arguing that taking the event off the calendar for money reasons would be like ripping the team's heart out. Monza's future remained an open question for the sport.

How did engine tokens shape the grid at Monza?

Ferrari used three development tokens on an engine upgrade for their home race, while Mercedes spent their last seven. Mercedes were the first squad to exhaust their tokens in 2015, with Honda and Ferrari left with four each and Renault with twelve still to use later in the season.

The upgrades left both Mercedes cars on their third power units, with both Ferraris on their fourth. Toro Rosso, Red Bull and McLaren all took grid penalties for exceeding their allocation of parts. McLaren returned to the snub nose they had dropped earlier in the year, for lower drag on the high-speed Monza circuit.

The race also marked the 900th World Championship start made by Scuderia Ferrari as a team.

What did Friday practice show?

Mercedes and Hamilton led the times in both Friday sessions, with Rosberg second on both occasions. The Guardian described the performance as dominant as ever. In the first session Hamilton was half a second clear of his teammate, with Vettel third, a full second further back.

Daniel Ricciardo was the fastest of the Renault-powered cars, more than two seconds off Hamilton. Jolyon Palmer replaced Romain Grosjean at Lotus and finished fifteenth, half a second slower than his team-mate. Carlos Sainz Jr brought out a red flag when he spun into the gravel at Parabolica.

In the second Friday session Vettel was a little over seven-tenths of a second behind Hamilton, and Rosberg was only 0.021 seconds adrift of his team-mate's 1m24.279s. The Force Indias of Perez and Hulkenberg split the two Ferraris, and Raikkonen finished sixth. Verstappen spun at the Ascari chicane, and Ricciardo's first run was cut short by a hydraulic problem.

Saturday morning brought the same story. Hamilton was fastest at 1m24.544s, and Vettel was second, 0.264s behind. Ricciardo then suffered an engine failure in his newly fitted power unit, and Kvyat spent most of the session in the garage before finishing seventeenth.

How did Hamilton take pole at Monza?

Hamilton took pole at 1:23.397 in the third part of qualifying, his eleventh pole in twelve races that season. Raikkonen qualified ahead of Vettel on the front row, and Rosberg started fourth despite a late improvement on his last run.

Before qualifying Mercedes swapped Rosberg's power unit for the Belgian one, which had covered six full races, after a fault showed up in the newer specification. Lotus had to borrow tyre blankets from other teams after rain ruined their own. Ericsson impeded Hulkenberg's fast lap, and he was later dropped to 12th on the grid.

Verstappen went out late in the first part and saw his engine cover blow off at Curva Grande, scattering debris over the track. The session ended without further problems for the other cars. Ricciardo got through to the second part and Kvyat, Maldonado, Sainz and Nasr were eliminated there.

In the first runs of the second part Hamilton was seven-tenths quicker than Rosberg, and both Ferraris took provisional second and third. Vettel improved a little on his second lap, but both Mercedes stayed in the garage, and Ricciardo finished that part fifteenth.

When the third part began Rosberg set the first time, but Hamilton beat it immediately. The Ferraris were about three-tenths behind Hamilton. Raikkonen went ahead of Vettel into the front row, while Rosberg finished fourth. Hulkenberg was ninth, but his car stopped at the pit lane entrance after the team miscalculated the fuel load.

Massa and Bottas took fifth and sixth, and Perez was seventh ahead of Grosjean. Verstappen received a drive-through for an unsafe pit release. Raikkonen called it the team's best qualifying performance of the year.

How did the race unfold at Monza?

Raikkonen's Ferrari stayed motionless on the grid and only started once the other cars had passed him. Hamilton got through the first chicane ahead of Vettel, but Rosberg had to avoid Raikkonen and lost two places to Massa and Bottas. Both Lotus drivers were out within the first two laps.

Raikkonen came through the field to twelfth by lap three, and Hamilton soon pulled clear of the one-second DRS range. Rosberg could not get past Bottas and was told to cool his brakes. Sainz gave up tenth on lap 11 to serve a five-second penalty for cutting the chicane early on.

By lap 14 Hamilton was more than eight seconds clear of Vettel, while Rosberg was fifth behind the Williams drivers. Rosberg made the first stop among the leaders on lap 18, trying to undercut the Williams cars, which were forced to pit soon afterwards. Massa followed a lap later, and Bottas stopped on lap 22.

Hamilton and Vettel both pitted by lap 26, with Hamilton more than twelve seconds clear. Raikkonen, still on his original tyres, was third until Rosberg overtook him easily. Ricciardo moved past Perez for sixth, only for the Mexican to take the place back a lap later.

Raikkonen pitted at the end of that lap and almost collided with Merhi at the pit entrance. He emerged tenth but was eighth by lap 32, taking the position from Ericsson. Rosberg was within four seconds of Vettel by lap 36, and Raikkonen moved into seventh at Hulkenberg's expense.

Backmarkers on the track allowed Rosberg to close to less than three seconds behind Vettel. On lap 49 Mercedes told Hamilton to raise his pace without explaining why. He was leading Vettel by 23 seconds, so the call was unexpected, and it later emerged that the left rear tyre had been under-inflated from the outset.

Alonso retired on lap 50 with a loss of power. Raikkonen passed Perez for sixth a lap later. With a lap to go Rosberg's engine failed, which handed Massa the final podium place, and Massa defended it from Bottas over the last lap. Hamilton won by more than 25 seconds from Vettel.

Was Hamilton's win ever in doubt?

Hamilton's left rear tyre was found to have 0.3 psi less pressure than regulated, and Williams officials called for his disqualification. The stewards decided to take no further action, because the tyre blankets had been disconnected in the normal way and the team had followed the procedure supervised by the tyre maker.

Williams officials Symonds and Smedley called for the disqualification, and Smedley described the tyre question as a safety issue. Hamilton said he had not been aware of the problem, and Vettel defended him at the press conference, saying Hamilton did not know what was going on and had driven very well.

What did the drivers say on the podium?

The podium interview was conducted by the film director George Lucas, and Hamilton offered thanks to the team and to the crowd at Monza. Massa, quizzed about his final-lap battle with Bottas, said he was getting old for that kind of battle, and that the last three laps had been very difficult against his own teammate.

Hamilton later described it as the best weekend he had ever driven. The result also made Massa's third place his 41st and final podium finish in Formula One.

Monza 2015 at a glance