In the Italian GP, the biggest questions were whether the Mercedes pair would crash into each other again, and how the new asphalt run off at Parabolica would affect proceedings.
The former was relatively easy to answer as they never came within half a second of each other during the whole weekend, and the latter wasn't as bad as it could've been due to everyone having at least two wheels on track for pretty much the whole weekend - but at least it was there to collect any GP2 or GP3 madness that preceeded.
In practice, Mercedes topped the times in every session, but both drivers lost a good hour of time with reliability problems. Williams and McLaren also impressed, and duly took the second and third rows in Qualifying behind the dominant Mercedes pair. Fernando Alonso and the Red Bull pair followed, with Sergio Perez completing the top 10.
Daniil Kvyat became the first person to use a sixth engine this year, and as a result dropped from 11th to 21st. Kimi Raikkonen and Jean Eric Vergne followed, and another below par session for Nico Hulkenberg saw him in 13th. Sauber and Lotus struggled again, languishing in 14th-17th positions - the latter failing to make it past Q1. The usual four completed the grid with the returning Kobayashi beating the Marussias and Marcus Ericsson (who ended up 22nd) started from the pitlane after an FP3 infringement.
In the race, Lewis Hamilton had a slow getaway, leaving Nico Rosberg to capitalise with an early lead over the fast starting Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Massa. Valtteri Bottas was affected by Hamilton and therefore lost out even more.
Max Chilton was an early retirement on lap 6 with a bounce over the kerbs and a crash at the Variante della Roggia (second chicane), and Fernando Alonso ended his finishing record with an engine problem mid race - leaving Ferrari with a genuine chance of not scoring points at home!
Having already gone down the escape road at the Variante del Rettifilo (first chicane) once, Nico Rosberg went there again, however this time he could not keep the charging Lewis Hamilton behind. They powered on to a seventh 1-2 finish of 2014, the first since Austria, and Massa held on to third ahead of Bottas, who had recovered from midfield. It was Felipe's first podium since the Spanish GP last year, and in front of the tifosi, after driving for Ferrari for eight years and being part of the Ferrari network for even longer prior to 2014.
Ricciardo passed Vettel for 5th, and Perez finished 7th after a five second penalty for Magnussen, who finished just ahead of him on the road but ended up 10th. Jenson Button was just behind Perez, and Kimi held off Kvyat after the latter suffered a late brake failure at the first chicane - the 20 year old just managed to keep the STR9 out of the barriers and finished 11th. Hulkenberg and Vergne followed, with the remaining runners (Lotus, Sauber and Marussia) all lapped.
This leaves Nico Rosberg with a 22 point lead over Lewis Hamilton, and Mercedes with a 182 point lead over Red Bull.
Turning our attention to Singapore, FIA have decided to clamp down on team radio messages from the teams from now on - will the radio silence help drivers concentrate over the two hour night race?
We will find out in due course - next week's race is at 8pm local time (1pm UK, the same as most European races).
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