Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes refused to be drawn into a blame game after a dreadful start by Lewis Hamilton at the Italian Grand Prix scuppered his chance of a 50th career win and blew the world championship wide open.
Nico Rosberg moved to just two points behind Hamilton after he took advantage of his title rival’s slow getaway to claim his second victory in eight days.
Pole-sitter Hamilton (31), was bidding to become the first driver since the great Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s to claim a hat-trick of victories at the so-called Temple of Speed.
But a poor opening to the race, after a similar start cost the world champion probable victories at the opening two rounds in Australia and Bahrain, was to prove damaging on Sunday.
Hamilton, who recovered to finish second, informed his team that he was at fault for his slow start, but following the race he insisted it was not his error.
‘We are never blaming anybody,’ said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. ‘I will never permit anybody to be blamed. Not the driver. Not the engineer. Nobody. Because if you start to blame people this is when it starts going downhill because people will try to protect their a*** and make sure they have a conservative system in place rather that putting the best developments on the car.
‘In this particular case, it is a combination of things so that is why I don’t want to go there.’
But despite the setback, Hamilton, who at one stage this season was 43 points behind Rosberg, remained upbeat on his prospects of keeping his sole title challenger at bay in the remaining seven rounds.— Sportsmail.