2014 Italian Grand Prix

The Autodromo Nazionale Monza, where the race was held.

The 2014 Italian Grand Prix was the 13th of 19 rounds of the 2014 Formula One season, and the 65th running of the event as part of the Formula One World Championship. It was held on 7 September at the 5.793-kilometre (3.600 mi) 11-turn Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Monza, Lombardy.[1] The drag reduction system (DRS) had two activation zones for the race: one was on the straight between the second Lesmo corner and the Ascari chicane, and the second was on the start/finish straight linking Parabolica to the Rettifilo chicane.[2] Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the white-banded medium "options" and orange-banded hard "primes" dry tyre compounds to the race.[3]

Before the race Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg led the Drivers' Championship with 220 points, ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in second and Daniel Ricciardo in third. Fernando Alonso was fourth on 121 points and Valtteri Bottas was a further eleven points behind in the battle for the position.[4] Mercedes were leading the Constructors' Championship with 411 points, and Red Bull were second on 254 points. Ferrari (160 points) and Williams (150) contended for third place and McLaren rounded out the top five on 105 points.[4]

Following a collision between Hamilton and Rosberg on the second lap at the preceding Belgian Grand Prix, the third such controversial incident surrounding the Mercedes team during the season which stretched back to qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix when Rosberg was accused of spoiling Hamilton's lap,[5] the Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff threatened sanctions against one of their drivers in the event a similar situation occurred and insisted that both drivers were obligated to serve the team's interests.[6] Hamilton said his objective for Monza was to regain some of the lost ground in the Drivers' Championship and he would not cede the challenge until the season-closing round in Abu Dhabi: "It's as big as it's been all season so I've got a lot of work ahead of me but anything can happen in this sport."[7] Rosberg was aware of his situation in the title battle and was confident of achieving a strong result: "I'm focused on taking the maximum points possible in the remaining seven races and I know the team is too, starting with a top result this weekend."[8]

Kamui Kobayashi (pictured in 2010) returned to Caterham after missing the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Parabolica corner was altered ahead of the race. A large portion of the turn's gravel trap was replaced with an asphalt run-off area, reportedly for a possible return of the Superbike World Championship in 2015 after series officials raised concerns about a lack of run-off areas on the circuit.[9][10] The change was heavily criticised by the sport's fan base on social media and certain drivers who felt it removed part of the challenge from Parabolica.[11] The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile race director Charlie Whiting, however, defended the changes, revealing that drivers and the series' governing body asked for alterations to be made for safety reasons but acknowledged that the turn might not provide as much of a challenge than before.[10] Others joined in Whiting's defence, including Romain Grosjean, who believed the gravel trap's removal would enable drivers to find their limit more quickly because of a lack of fear of a major accident.[11]

There was one driver change heading into the race. Having driven in one of the two Caterham cars in lieu of regular driver Kamui Kobayashi at the preceding Belgian Grand Prix, three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and 2011 Formula Nippon champion André Lotterer returned to the latter series and Kobayashi retook his race seat.[12] Lotterer planned to compete at Monza but did not do so after a decision made by Caterham team principal Colin Kolles to run Formula Renault 3.5 Series driver Roberto Merhi in the first practice session. He explained to the press that he needed the maximum amount of on-track time because of his "rookie" driver status.[13] Kobayashi said he was looking forward to testing updates to the CT05 chassis and was not doubtful over the team's decision to change drivers: "I always enjoy the Italian GP, not only because of its high-speed nature; I also like the Italian fans, they are always very enthusiastic and a very big part of the Italian GP weekend. They also create a very special atmosphere."[14] Lotus reserve driver Charles Pic replaced Grosjean for the first free practice session for the first time in the season.[15] Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters driver Daniel Juncadella utilised Pérez's Force India for the session's first half hour,[16] and Giedo van der Garde drove Adrian Sutil's Sauber.[17]

Three practice sessions—two on Friday and a third on Saturday—were held before the Sunday race. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions lasted 90 minutes each; the third, one-hour session was held on Saturday morning.[18] In the first practice session, which took place in dry and sunny weather conditions,[16] Hamilton was fastest with a time of 1 minute and 26.187 seconds, six-tenths of a second faster than Jenson Button in second, who held the fastest time until Hamilton's lap, and Rosberg third. Alonso was fourth-fastest, ahead of Kevin Magnussen in fifth and Vettel sixth. Kimi Räikkönen, Sergio Pérez, Daniil Kvyat and Nico Hülkenberg rounded out the session's top-ten drivers.[17] During the session several drivers noted the hard compound tyres took longer than anticipated to reach their optimum working temperature,[17] and multiple drivers went off the track while acquainting themselves with their low-downforce set-ups. Ricciardo had DRS trouble and his session ended early when he entered the pit lane with a suspected energy recovery system problem, and Magnussen struggled with rear-braking issues.[19]

Rosberg set the fastest lap of the second practice session at 1 minute and 26.225 seconds; Hamilton was 0.061 seconds behind in second despite remaining in his garage for an hour for electrical repairs, and Räikkönen was third. His teammate Alonso was fourth-fastest, with Bottas fifth and Button sixth.[20] Vettel (who ran wide at Parabolica corner on his fastest lap), Magnussen, Massa and Ricciardo followed in the top ten.[21] Multiple drivers went off the track during the session and both Lotus cars of Grosjean and Maldonado struggled to generate heat into their tyres and had further difficulty with braking stability and the ability to steer into corners.[22] In the third practice session, which was held in warmer and sunnier weather conditions, Hamilton set the fastest lap of the weekend so far at 1 minute and 25.519 seconds, ahead of Alonso in second and Bottas third. His teammate Massa, Button, Vettel, Räikkonen, Kvyat, Ricciardo and Hülkenberg completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. Rosberg was affected by gearbox problems, forcing him to abandon his short run programme early. It reoccurred when he next emerged on track, curtailing his session.[23]

Lewis Hamilton had the 36th pole position of his career, and took his sixth victory of the season the following day.

Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. The first part ran for 18 minutes, eliminating cars that finished 17th or below. The 107% rule was in effect, requiring drivers to reach a time within 107 per cent of the quickest lap to qualify. The second session lasted 15 minutes, eliminating cars that finished 11th to 16th. The final part ran for 12 minutes and determined pole position to tenth. Cars in the final session were not allowed to change tyres, using the tyres with which they set their quickest lap times in the second session.[18] Qualifying took place in warm weather.[24] Hamilton set the fastest laps in all three sessions to clinch his fifth pole position of the season, the 36th of his career, and his first since the Spanish Grand Prix with a time of 1 minute and 24.109 seconds.[24] He was joined on the grid's front row by Rosberg (using a repaired gearbox)[24] who had improved on his first timed lap,[25] but an oversteer through the Ascari chicane prevented him from achieving the pole position.[26] The two Williams cars were third and fourth (Bottas ahead of Massa) and both drivers could not improve their fastest times on their second attempts.[27] They were ahead of the two McLarens in fifth and sixth with Magnussen faster than teammate Button; the latter lost time through the Lesmo corners on his final timed lap.[28] Alonso was slightly slower than Vettel after his first lap,[25] but he improved slightly for seventh.[27] He attributed his pace to recording similar lap times on four sets of tyres.[28] Vettel out-qualified teammate Ricciardo for the fourth time in the past six races to secure eighth. Ricciardo started ninth and Pérez was tenth.[25]

Kvyat was the fastest driver not to advance into the final session;[29] he took a ten-place grid penalty for an overnight engine change, his sixth of the season.[30] Hence, Räikkonen inherited eleventh.[25] Räikkonen struggled with car grip and locked his front tyres,[28] abandoning his first timed lap because cars leaving the pit lane hindered his visibility for the Rettifilo chicane.[31] After preparing for a second attempt, he locked his right-front wheel and ran onto a run-off area.[32] Jean-Éric Vergne started from 12th with Hülkenberg 13th after slower traffic delayed him while preparing for a lap at Parabolica and felt the car was loose. Sutil had problems driving but gradually improved his car's balance as he drove, and improved on his final lap to secure 14th, ahead of teammate Esteban Gutiérrez, who made a minor error on his final lap.[27][28] Maldonado failed to advance beyond the first session;[29] his teammate Grosjean did five laps after missing the first 13 minutes as Lotus repaired a fluid leak discovered before qualifying.[27] Kobayashi slipstreamed teammate Marcus Ericsson to move past Jules Bianchi for 18th,[27] with Bianchi not improving as he slid sideways through the Ascari chicane and other drivers were faster on the medium compound tyres.[32] His teammate Max Chilton qualified 20th and Ericsson completed the field in 22nd;[27] the latter was hindered due to a lack of running on the medium compound tyres following an engine problem in the third practice session.[32]

Qualifying classification

The fastest lap in each of the three sessions is denoted in bold and the winner of pole position is indicated by a .

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:25.363	1:24.560	1:24.109	1
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:25.493	1:24.600	1:24.383	2
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams–Mercedes	1:26.012	1:24.858	1:24.697	3
4	19	Felipe Massa	Williams–Mercedes	1:25.528	1:25.046	1:24.865	4
5	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren–Mercedes	1:26.337	1:25.973	1:25.314	5
6	22	Jenson Button	McLaren–Mercedes	1:26.328	1:25.630	1:25.379	6
7	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:26.514	1:25.525	1:25.430	7
8	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing–Renault	1:26.631	1:25.769	1:25.436	8
9	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing–Renault	1:26.721	1:25.946	1:25.709	9
10	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	1:26.569	1:25.863	1:25.944	10
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:26.261	1:26.070		211
12	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:26.689	1:26.110		11
13	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:26.140	1:26.157		12
14	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:26.371	1:26.279		13
15	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:27.034	1:26.588		14
16	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:26.999	1:26.692		15
17	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:27.520			16
18	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:27.632			17
19	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:27.671			18
20	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:27.738			19
21	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:28.247			20
22	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:28.562			22
107% time: 1:31.338
Source:[29]

Notes:

• ^1  — Daniil Kvyat was given a ten-place grid penalty for using his sixth engine of the season.[30]

The weather at the start was dry and sunny, with the air temperature 25 °C (77 °F) and the track temperature between 37 to 42 °C (99 to 108 °F).[33] A cooler on Hamilton's right-front wheel detached and crunched on his car's front wing, causing Mercedes to push his car to pole position upon arriving on the grid following his reconnaissance lap. The problem was inspected and it was determined not to be a major problem.[34] Unlike previous years when softer tyre compounds were selected, a one pit stop strategy was calculated to be faster than a two-pit stop strategy by around 12 seconds.[26] Ericsson was ordered to begin from the pit lane after being penalised for driving too fast under double waved yellow flag conditions in the third practice session.[35] When the race began from its standing start at 14:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00), Hamilton's car remained in race start mode, dropping him to fourth and moving Rosberg to the lead into the Rettifilo chicane.[26] Wheelspin dropped Bottas to eleventh.[36] Magnussen passed Massa on the left for second going into the Rettifilo chicane. Pérez accelerated faster than Alonso off the line and was ahead of him before Alonso retook the position on the left-hand line at Curva Grande corner.[26]

Nico Rosberg led 26 of the first 29 laps before locking his tyres and running off the track, prompting Hamilton to take over the lead.

Vettel made a good start, moving to fifth by the end of the first lap but his teammate Ricciardo was forced wide onto the chicane's run-off area, dropping four positions over the same distance.[34][37] Massa attempted to take second place from Magnussen by braking later than he did at the start of lap two while Rosberg pulled away from the two drivers.[26] Magnssen went wide at Curva Grande corner and fended off another pass from Massa.[34] DRS was enabled on the next lap and Hamilton used it to attack Massa, allowing Magnussen to pull away from the Williams. After starting 21st, Kvyat passed both Marussias and Kobayashi to run in 17th.[37] Magnussen defended but he ran deep entering the Rettifilo chicane, enabling Massa to slipstream the McLaren driving towards the Variante della Roggia chicane and steered right to pass him for second.[26][37] Magnussen entered the turn off the racing line, spun his tyres on its exit, enabling Hamilton to overtake Magunssen with better acceleration for third going into the first Lesmo corner. Massa and Hamilton pulled away from Magnussen who was being caught by a group composed of Vettel, Button, Alonso and Pérez.[26][34]

Hülkenberg lost ninth to Räikkonen on the same lap and Bottas attempted to gain an advantage at Parabolica corner but no space was available to attempt a passing manoeuvre. Bottas did however overtake Hülkenberg for tenth at the Rettifilo chicane. Chilton entered the Variante della Roggia chicane too fast on lap six, and hit the second set of kerbs at the corner, launching his car airborne and sending him straight into the barrier, ending his race.[34] The safety car was not needed.[38] Rosberg held an advantage of almost four seconds by the end of the lap and he moved his brake bias towards the front of his car.[26] Kvyat continued to gain positions by passing Gutiérrez and Sutil for 15th by the eighth lap.[34] As Massa increased his pace Rosberg did the same in response. On the following lap, Rosberg locked his tyres driving towards the Rettifilo chicane at 206 miles per hour (332 km/h), went onto an escape road and slalomed through its obstacles.[26] He remained the leader, although his lead over Massa was lowered to two seconds.[39] Hamilton used DRS to steer left going into the Rettifilo chicane and passed Massa for second place on the tenth lap.[26][37] Bianchi made wheel to wheel contact three times with Grosjean at the same turn two laps later with Grosjean passing Bianchi.[37]

Up front, Hamilton began drawing closer to Rosberg but required a further few laps to pull clear from Massa and thus did not attack Rosberg and stayed out of his teammate's slipstream, nursed his tyres and minimised his fuel usage.[26] Bottas overtook Räikkönen for ninth on lap 13;[37] the next lap, he slipstreamed Pérez's Force India, moving to ninth by passing him on the left entering the Rettifilo chicane.[34][39] Alonso steered right to defend from the faster Bottas but the latter overtook him for seventh on the start/finish straight on lap 16.[38] Two laps later,[39] Bottas passed Button on his right for sixth.[34][38] Red Bull elected to bring Vettel into the pit lane at the end of the same lap for hard compound tyres in an effort to pass Magnussen through pit stop strategy rather than battle with Bottas. Pérez followed in response on the following lap.[26] Bottas pressured Magnussen and passed him for fourth at the Rettifilo chicane on lap 21. Magnussen and Alonso made their pit stops on the next lap, rejoining in ninth and eleventh,[37] behind Vettel and Pérez separated them. Magnussen attempted to pass Pérez at the Variante della Roggia chicane but slid leaving the turn.[34]

Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth after late race move up the field

Massa made his pit stop from third on lap 24, and emerged in fifth. Hamilton received instructions for an engine mode change and Rosberg entered the pit lane from the lead on the next lap and handed the lead to Hamilton.[37] Bottas made his stop on the same lap and rejoined alongside Vettel on the start/finish straight but was forced wide, allowing Magnussen to pass him.[34] Hamilton took his pit stop on the 26th lap and handed back first to teammate Rosberg.[37] Bottas also fell behind Pérez but re-passed the latter going into the Rettifilo chicane.[34] Hamilton's race engineer Peter Bonnington told him over the radio to remain at least two and a half seconds behind teammate Rosberg and conserve tyre life for an attack in the closing laps.[37] Hamilton was aware from previous experiences earlier in the season that the method to pass a driver was to do so when tyre grip was optimal otherwise it would not have been possible to draw close enough to effect a passing manoeuvre.[26] He recorded the race's fastest lap at that point to move within seven-tenths of a second behind teammate Rosberg by the start of lap 28, causing debate among Mercedes pit lane employees.[26][39]

Massa at this point was twelve seconds in arrears and Hamilton was granted permission by Bonnington to attack earlier than planned. Rosberg's front brake temperatures overheated and his attempt to conserve his rear tyres by moving his brake bias towards the front of his car compromised them.[26] Hamilton used DRS and as Rosberg applied his brakes, he drove straight onto the Rettifilo chicane's run-off area and slalomed his way through the obstacles, enabling Hamilton to gain the lead.[26][37] Alonso's energy recovery system failed which triggered a complete electrical shutdown half a minute later; he drove to the side of Rettifilo's run-off area to retire for the first time in the season.[26][34] Button attempted to move past Pérez driving into the Rettifilo chicane but could not get ahead and the two narrowly avoided contact.[34] Bottas made an passing attempt on Magnussen entering the same turn but Magnussen drove defensively, forcing Bottas to cut the chicane on lap 31.[40] On the 34th lap, Ricciardo overtook Räikkönen for ninth by turning right into the Rettifilo chicane and braked later than him.[34][40]

Hamilton began to pull away from Rosberg, leading his teammate by 4.3 seconds by the start of lap 36.[37] Bottas moved left heading into the Rettifilo chicane on the following lap and Magnussen responded by steering right, causing Bottas to mount a kerb to avoid a collision; he succeeded in passing the McLaren car.[26] Soon after, Magnussen incurred a five-second stop-and-go penalty from the stewards for his role in putting Bottas off the track in the latter's earlier overtaking attempt.[37] Button turned right to pass Pérez driving into the Rettifilo chicane for seventh on lap 39, which Pérez responded to by drawing alongside Button through the Curva Grande and Variante della Roggia turns. Pérez steered right and was forced wide onto the Curva di Lesmo chicane kerbing in retaking seventh place from Button.[26][34][37] On the following lap, Bottas passed Vettel at the Rettifilo chicane to move into fourth and his teammate Ricciardo overtook Button for seventh at the same turn.[26][39] Ricciardo drew close and pressured Pérez into locking his brakes entering the Rettifilo chicane. He achieved a good rhythm through the Curva Grande corner, and moved lanes to pass Pérez on the left-hand lane for seventh at the Variante della Roggia chicane on lap 41.[34][37][40]

Felipe Massa finished third to secure his first podium result since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.

Button initiated a second attack at Pérez and passed him entering the Rettifilo chicane but was slow leaving the turn after locking his tyres, enabling Pérez to fight back and regain eighth by forcing Button wide heading into the Variante della Roggia chicane.[26][34][40] Ricciardo caught and passed Magnussen on his left at the Rettifilo chicane for sixth place on lap 44 despite locking his tyres and drifting sideways. Ricciardo received a message to chase his teammate Vettel and attempted to overtake him to his right entering the Rettifilo chicane on lap 47 with Vettel defending fifth place but the latter was slow leaving the turn.[34][37][40] Both drivers went alongside each other through the Curva Grande corner and Ricciardo turned left to overtake Vettel for fifth place at the Variante della Roggia chicane.[26][37] Hülkenberg lost eleventh position to Kvyat on the same lap and began drawing closer to Räikkönen.[34] Gutiérrez had brake problems and made contact with Grosjean at the Rettifilo chicane on the 51st lap, puncturing the Sauber's right-rear tyre, and was forced to drive slowly back to the pit lane.[40][41]

Kvyat's brakes failed on lap 52, causing him to turn left to avoid hitting Räikkönen. He went onto the grass at the Rettifilo chicane, clipping a polystyrene marker and rejoined the track.[26][34] Hamilton maintained the lead and crossed the start/finish line after 53 laps to win the race.[34] Rosberg finished second, 3.1 seconds behind,[42] with Massa securing his first podium result of the season in third, his first since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix. Bottas took fourth, ahead of both Red Bull drivers Ricciardo and Vettel in fifth and sixth. Pérez, Button, Räikkönen and Magnussen rounded out the top ten points-scoring positions after his five-second time penalty was applied. Kvyat, Hülkenberg, Vergne, Maldonado and Sutil, Kobayashi and Bianchi filled the next seven places. Gutiérrez finished 19th on the road with Ericsson the last of the classified finishers.[34] It was Hamilton's sixth victory of the season, his second at Monza, and the 28th of his career.[43] There were three lead changes in the race; two drivers reached the front of the field. Hamilton led twice for a total of 27 laps, more than any other competitor.[42]

Post-race

At the podium ceremony following the race, Rosberg was booed by the crowd, mirroring a similar incident towards him at the previous race in Belgium for a collision with Hamilton, which was the catalyst for their displeasure.[44] Hamilton later told the press that he felt uncomfortable about the fans behaving in such a manner: "I've had it here, years and years ago, and it's great personally for me to have such great support, from the Ferrari fans and the Mercedes fans. But when I was up there, it was awkward for me to hear them booing Nico because I just don't like that in sport."[44] Wolff affirmed that booing should not be heard on the podium but acknowledged Formula One is an emotional sport for its fans while also saying: "It's a sport and sport should unite."[45] When asked about the booing in the press conference, Rosberg replied while it was "not nice" he hoped over time the fans would forgive him for his past actions.[45] In the podium interviews, conducted by former driver Jean Alesi, Massa expressed his happiness over finishing third and was certain luck was beside him and that there was "a lot more to come."[46]

Toto Wolff denied theories that Rosberg's race-lead mistake on the 29th lap was deliberate.

In the hours following the race, conspiracy theories emerged on social media around the circumstances of Rosberg relinquishing the lead to Hamilton on lap 29. They suggested the incident was an act of revenge for the collision between Rosberg and Hamilton at the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks prior.[47] Three-time world champion Jackie Stewart said he felt the move was "a bit too easy" and appeared to indicate the error was done purposely: "I thought [Rosberg] could have least made an effort to get round the corner. I first thought 'that's wise', because he knew it wasn't a difficult thing to believe; the second time I thought: 'Hello, what's going on here?'"[48] Wolff denied the allegations that the mistake was deliberate, suggesting Rosberg was under pressure because of the Drivers' Championship battle but admitted it was uncommon for Rosberg to perform the same error twice: "Only a paranoid mind could come up with such an idea."[48] Rosberg responded by stating Hamilton's fast pace prompted him to push hard. He said there was a large probability of flat-spotting one of his tyres and driving onto the run-off area was the safer option.[49] He stated he learnt about the theory but that there was "no possible reason" for him to purposely go off the track.[50] Television pictures apparently showed Wolff smiling moments after Rosberg's error. Wolff asserted that the broadcast was not live and stated the transmission of pit-to-car radio about Hamilton reducing his pace to conserve tyre life for a late race attack did was inaccurate.[51]

Gutiérrez incurred a 20-second time penalty after the stewards deemed him responsible for the collision with Grosjean, which punctured the Sauber's right-rear tyre although they accepted the view he had brake problems.[41] Gutiérrez stated his brake problems had appeared in "an inconsistency that sometimes you cannot predict". and that while he did not move lines purposefully, the contact with Grosjean was "an unfortunate moment."[41] Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn deemed the incident "unnecessary" and Grosjean said he was not sure as to what happened with Gutiérrez.[41] Williams performance chief Rob Smedley announced the team were investigating Bottas' slow start that lost him positions. Smedley revealed Williams had believed it to be a clutch-related issue.[52] Bottas stated he felt he was too assertive with his clutch and his race was hindered with a lack of acceleration leaving the chicane: "The start on the formation lap – when we always do the final checks – was a bit compromised because Lewis had a slow getaway, so that maybe hurt a little bit. But definitely the tyres were not in the optimum window."[53]

Alonso was convinced he could have finished fifth had his car not stopped with an energy recovery system failure, saying he felt the car was quicker than Ricciardo's Red Bull and revealed his team changed their approach, prompting him to slow after his problem emerged.[54] He stated the remainder of the season was "not going to be too different" after a strenuous campaign in the past 12 rounds but that Ferrari was prepared: "It is the way at the moment but we cannot do anymore than this."[55] Bottas told the press after the race that Magnussen's driving was "on the limit" but was unsure whether his rival deserved a penalty. Magnussen was "frustrated" upon receiving his second consecutive time-penalty and stated he would review the incident and carry over lessons into the next race of the season.[56] While initial reactions in the United Kingdom disagreed with the stewards decision,[34][37][40] Smedley felt the penalty was justified.[56] Red Bull team principal Christian Horner praised Ricciardo's overtaking manoeuvres and called it a strength of his: "For somebody that had a question mark over his overtaking coming into the year, he [has shown it] is right up there with the best."[57]

The result saw Hamilton lower Rosberg's lead in the Drivers' Championship to 22 points, with Ricciardo consolidating third place on 166 points. By finishing fourth Bottas moved ahead of the non-finishing Alonso for fourth and the latter fell to fifth.[4] Mercedes further extended their advantage in the Constructors' Championship to hold a 182-point lead over the second-placed Red Bull. Williams's strong result moved them to third place and demoted Ferrari to fourth position, five points behind the team. McLaren rounded out the top five with 110 points with six races left in the season.[4]

Race classification

Drivers who finished in the top ten points-scoring positions are denoted in bold and by a .

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	53	1:19:10.236	1	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	53	+3.175	2	18
3	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	53	+25.026	4	15
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	53	+40.786	3	12
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing–Renault	53	+50.309	9	10
6	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing–Renault	53	+59.965	8	8
7	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	53	+1:02.518	10	6
8	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+1:03.063	6	4
9	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	53	+1:03.535	11	2
101	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+1:06.171	5	1
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	53	+1:11.184	21
12	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	53	+1:12.606	13
13	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	53	+1:13.093	12
14	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	52	+1 Lap	16
15	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	14
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	52	+1 Lap	17
17	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	52	+1 Lap	18
18	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	19
19	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	51	+2 Laps	PL2
203	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	51	+2 Laps	15
Ret	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	28	Engine	7
Ret	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	5	Accident	20
Source:[42]

Notes:

• ^1  — Kevin Magnussen had five seconds added to race time for putting Valtteri Bottas off the track.[56]
• ^2  — Marcus Ericsson started from pit lane for yellow flag infringement during the third practice session.[35]
• ^3  — Esteban Gutiérrez had 20 seconds added to race time for causing an avoidable collision to Romain Grosjean.[41]

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Nico Rosberg 238 2 Lewis Hamilton 216 3 Daniel Ricciardo 166 1 4 Valtteri Bottas 122 1 5 Fernando Alonso 121 Source:[58]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Mercedes 454 2 Red Bull Racing-Renault 272 1 3 Williams-Mercedes 177 1 4 Ferrari 162 5 McLaren-Mercedes 110 Source:[58]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
• Bold text indicates competitors who still had a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

• Media related to 2014 Italian Grand Prix at Wikimedia Commons