Rosberg credits ‘awesome’ start for win

Claiming his second consecutive victory, and seventh of the season, Nico Rosberg credited his clean start to securing his Italian Grand Prix win.

Cutting down Lewis Hamilton’s nine-point lead prior to the race to just two-points, Rosberg took advantage of his teammate’s botched start that saw the Brit drop down to sixth.

The German dominated the Grand Prix from then on and crossed the finish line unchallenged, with Hamilton, eventually recovering to P2, crossing the chequered flag 15 seconds later.

“It is absolutely amazing, it is a very special day for me and I am very happy to finally have win here in Italy,” said the delighted Mercedes driver.

“It is unbelievable and it makes it phenomenal to be up here. It was all down to the start I had an awesome start and that made the win. It was all there.”

However, according to the 31-year-old it wasn’t as smooth as it seemed as he had to fend off Ferrari on the softer compound.

“We talked about the start as a great opportunity and it worked out fantastically,” he said.

“We had the soft tyre one and the Ferraris [on the second row] had the supersofts so they had a bit more grip but that worked out great.

“That gave me the race win in the end because from then on I was able to control the pace and we had good speed.”