Was Lewis Hamilton's win in Italy a sham?

Was Lewis Hamilton gaining the lead a well-thought out move by Mercedes thinktank?

If you thought Lewis Hamilton’s win in Italy was going to be one without controversy, your thoughts would have to be clouded. Afterall so much has happened between Hamilton and his old friend and now team-mate Nico Rosberg during the 2014 season, the last one in Belgium causing quite an uproar in the F1 circuit. So while Hamilton celebrated the sweet victory over his team-mate, social media was buzzing with talks and some of the F1 journalists were never going to miss the opportunity to find a breaking story for their respective publications. So here’s the theory – Rosberg handed over the lead to his team-mate Hamilton on lap 29 without a fight and as a payback for his mistake in Spa. While this sounds unbelievable, let us explore does the theory hold good or it is just like a thriller flick going overboard with the plot.

Nico’s Version

While it was quite evident that after a bad start to the race, Hamilton was fast catching up his team-mate and at some point in time would catch up with the race leader, he was more than happy to get the lead without having to race wheel-to-wheel something the two drivers had already done earlier this year. Rosberg finally succumbed to the persistent pressure from the British driver as he locked up at Rettifilo on Turn 1 something that he had done earlier in the race as well. The mistake was enough for Hamilton to take the lead and maintain it till the chequered flag. The Villain at Spa was the first to put his hand up and take ownership of the mistake. The fact is he wasn’t the only one who had braking issues at Turn 1. Monza as a circuit is quite challenging especially going into the first corner where cars coming from the start-finish line decelerate from top-speeds all season to take on one of the slowest corners in Formula One. Thus making it even more difficult for drivers and increasing the probability of a mistake upfront.

“Spa is behind me, it was behind me before the weekend. In today’s race, it just came to the mistake and that was it – because Lewis was fast from behind” is what Rosberg was quoted as saying after the race. Rosberg later clarified why he did not take corrective action by turning right and instead went straight for the escape road. He was trying to save his tyres and had he gone ahead with the turn, he would have risked a tyre burn-out going hard on the brakes and might have had to pit eventually. A pit-stop would have definitely cost him his second place as everyone else on the grid was running on a single stop strategy. Sounds good and logical.

The Conspiracy

One of the reasons why the rumour mills went into overdrive after Hamilton moved into the lead, was a smile on the face of Mercedes Boss Totto Wolf flashing on TV. That was more than enough for the journalists and fans to think that there was something fishy and as if Wolf had ordered Rosberg to handover the lead to Hamilton and was seen as a payback for what transpired at the Belgian GP. Twitter was the first place where the theory was born and then it was only going to spread all over social media. And soon the question was put to Rosberg and the Mercedes chief on the probable cause of the turn of events. And while Rosberg admitted his mistake after being pushed hard by Hamilton, Wolf termed it as insane to even think about such a theory. But then against a valid point in favour of such thoeries was the fact that Mercedes had done it in the past and why not in such a situation.

While there is no proof to substantiate that Rosberg was ordered by Mercedes to back-off and handover the lead to Hamilton, the theories of the payback still remain. But as the battle moves to Singapore they are expected to be moved under the carpet. But as the battle for the top spot gets heated between the two drivers, expect it to be in the news again.