How Will Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg Approach 2014 Italian Grand Prix Start?
It took seven grand prix weekends and almost four months, but Lewis Hamilton has finally secured pole position for a Formula One event.
The British driver will start Sunday's Italian Grand Prix from the No. 1 grid slot, alongside his Mercedes teammate and championship rival, Nico Rosberg, who qualified over two tenths of a second adrift of Hamilton, according to the official Formula One website.
For the first time since qualifying for May's Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton enjoyed a trouble-free Saturday.
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There were no poorly-timed yellow flags. There were no frustrating lock-ups or spins under braking.
There were no instinctual judgement calls to be made on track conditions.
No failed, or glazed, brakes. And there were no flames bellowing from the rear of his Mercedes.
At the Autodromo di Monza, it was Hamilton, rather than his car, on fire.
He required only one truly gung-ho effort, in contrast to Rosberg's two flying laps in Q3, to take pole—which almost makes you wonder what all the fuss was about between Spain, the fifth round of the 2014 season, and Belgium, the 12th event of the campaign.
Hamilton has stopped the flow of pole positions, preventing Rosberg from taking his fifth successive pole, and will now look to start the erosion of the German's 29-point lead in the drivers' standings as he seeks his second world title.
Despite the dominance enjoyed by Mercedes this year, it may come as a surprise that the Italian Grand Prix will be only the seventh occasion in 13 races that both Hamilton and Rosberg will start from the front row of the grid.
And after last month's Belgian Grand Prix, which saw Rosberg controversially puncture Hamilton's rear-left tyre at Les Combes on the second lap in a half-hearted overtaking manoeuvre, the start of the Italian Grand Prix promises to be the most compelling for some time.
A statement released by Mercedes in the aftermath of the grand prix at Spa-Francorchamps confirmed that "another such incident will not be tolerated," meaning all eyes will, of course, be on the Silver Arrows drivers as the five red lights go out on Monza's home straight.
Hamilton and Rosberg will be faced with a fascinating psychological dilemma as they pull away from their respective grid slots and accelerate towards the first chicane.
And with the run from the start line to the first braking zone at Monza among the longest on the calendar, there will be plenty of time for both title protagonists to think, to think again and to think some more before acting either offensively or cautiously.
For Hamilton, the choice is simple.
Aggression is the only way he has ever known and, as the pole-sitter—and as long as he gets a satisfactory start—he arguably has the right to be as attacking as he pleases in the opening stages of the race.
The 29-year-old's main focus, you suspect, will be on building an early gap between his car and Rosberg's to evade the threat of DRS and therefore work himself in a comfortable position to control the grand prix.
However, the prospect of backing his teammate into the pack containing Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa—the hungry, chasing Williams drivers who will start from third and fourth respectively—might be too good to turn down, particularly on the first sector of the opening lap.
The challenge facing Rosberg, meanwhile, is much more complicated and will be a true test of his status as Formula One's "thinking driver."
The natural urge of a racing driver is to attack, to prove that you're the best on every single occasion that you step into a car.
But Rosberg has rarely been the type of man to act on impulse, despite Hamilton being quoted by Crash.net as claiming that his teammate hit him "to prove a point" at Spa.
That, as well as Mercedes' official website confirming that "suitable disciplinary measures" were taken against Rosberg after the Belgian Grand Prix, would suggest that the German will take a conservative approach at Monza.
Although, with a large points advantage in his favour, Rosberg can afford to sit behind Hamilton, but even a tentative start carries an element of risk.
Sebastian Vettel, who will relinquish his crown to one of the Mercedes drivers in the coming months, discovered that the hard way in the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, where—with the world championship on the line—he dropped from fourth to seventh in the very first corner alone before being hit at Turn Four.
And with Bottas and Massa likely to identify the first lap as the prime, if not the only, opportunity to pass at least one of the Mercedes cars, Rosberg—who has had trouble getting off the line in various races this season—could find himself swarmed by his team's closest rivals.
Furthermore, Massa and Kevin Magnussen, who will start from fifth on the grid, have made a habit of colliding with their peers in the early stages of grands prix in 2014.
Massa retired on the first laps of the Australian, British and German grands prix, and was fortunate to emerge unscathed from a clash with Fernando Alonso in China, while Magnussen played a role in the Brazilian's spectacular barrel roll at Hockenheim, with the Dane also hitting Kimi Raikkonen in Malaysia and Bahrain.
Rosberg, in a sense, could be damned if he does attack Hamilton and damned if he doesn't.
And Hamilton? Well, he has nothing to lose.
The first corner of the Italian Grand Prix will reveal more about the post-Spa states of both Mercedes drivers than any PR waffle ever could.
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