After winning on Ferrari’s home turf at Monza, Formula One championship points leader Lewis Hamilton took the opportunity to troll his haters.
Let’s start with the basics: Lewis Hamilton won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the 13th race of 20 on this season’s Formula One schedule. But he didn’t just win the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. He dominated the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. And by doing so, he claimed his 59th career Formula One victory, inching slightly closer to the all-time record of 91 wins of Michael Schumacher, the only driver he still trails on the all-time wins list.
The 32-year-old also took the lead of the Formula One championship standings for the first time this season. And who did he pass for the lead? Sebastian Vettel, who drives for Scuderia Ferrari. And Monza is Ferrari’s home turf.
Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas simply took off from the rest of the field at Monza. Hamilton won the race by 4.471 seconds over Bottas, but 3rd place Sebastian Vettel was an astonishing 36.317 seconds out of the lead, with his Scuderia Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen over a full minute off the pace in 5th.
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To the surprise of absolutely nobody, the race fans that occupied the 3.6-mile circuit were not happy at all by the fact that Ferrari’s biggest rival Mercedes was so dominant throughout the entire race, and they were even less thrilled by the fact that Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took away the lead of the championship standings from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel for the first time in the 2017 season.
And they made it known, giving Hamilton a hostile reception as he emerged from his car and made his way onto the podium as a winner for the sixth time this season.
But do you think the three-time champion cared? Not one bit. Amid the boos and jeers from the hostile crowd, Hamilton made that fact known, and he did so by “rubbing it in”, further riling up the Ferrari fans that made up much of the race’s attendance.
"“I love it here in Italy and I love the passion of the fans. The Ferrari fans are fantastic. This energy is like nowhere else we ever really get to see apart from maybe Silverstone. I expect it, I appreciate it. I’m happy…Mercedes power is definitely better than Ferrari power! It worked well this weekend.”"
For the Ferrari fans, the worst part of it is that everything he said was absolutely true. And he has the race win, his sixth in 13 races this season, and now the lead of the championship standings to back it up. Ouch.
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