Lewis Hamilton keeps Italian GP win after investigation

Lewis Hamilton cruised to a dominant Italian Grand Prix victory – and kept the victory after an investigation over tyres.

Hamilton’s seventh victory in 12 races puts him 53 points ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg as the German retired.

There was an investigation after his left-rear tyre pressure was found to be below the minimum allowed at the start.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was second as Rosberg suffered an engine failure with three laps to go.

Hamilton survived a scare in the final laps when his team told him he had to drive flat out but not what the problem was.

It seems Mercedes were trying to get Hamilton to build a lead of more than 25 seconds in case of a penalty for the tyre pressure, which was 0.3psi lower than the minimum amount specified by Pirelli on safety grounds.

Hamilton crossed the line exactly 25.0 seconds ahead of Vettel.

As Hamilton commented on being unsettled by the team’s unusual request over his team radio, he was quickly interrupted by his race engineer and told everything would be explained to him later.

Rosberg’s left-rear tyre was also found to be below the required pressure – by 1.1psi in his case. Williams’s Felipe Massa fended off a late attack from team-mate Valtteri Bottas to take the final podium place. BBC