Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are being trusted to keep it clean in the opening stages of today’s potentially explosive Italian Grand Prix.
Just a fortnight after the high drama and controversy at Spa where Rosberg collided with Hamilton after deliberately opting not to avoid taking evasive action on lap two, so wrecking the Briton’s race, the duo line up on the front row at Monza. In claiming pole position for the first time in seven races, it was a moment Hamilton has been waiting for since his last top-of-the-grid slot in Spain in May.
The intervening qualifying sessions have not been kind to Hamilton as he has endured a catalogue of issues, whilst Rosberg has claimed six poles in seven races.
With a 29-point gap to reel in, Hamilton simply described the 36th pole of his Formula One career as “a very small step on a huge staircase I have to climb”.
Hamilton and Rosberg have been warned, following a meeting at the team’s headquarters in Brackley, England, on the Friday after their collision, that further incidents such as those at Spa will not be tolerated, with their futures within the team seemingly on the line.
Underlining that point, Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff said: “On Sunday morning there is a strategy meeting. I guess we’ll have the discussion like always, and one of the points will be what will happen on the first couple of laps.
“It is very clear where the line is, so it should be pretty obvious and pretty clear about what is going to happen, and I have no doubt this is how the race is going to pan out.” Wolff has confirmed he considered imposing team orders on both drivers in light of what unfolded at Spa.
“The closest I came was a minute and half after the race ended, but that emotion subsided as the week went on,” added Wolff.
“We decided to go for the philosophy we declared at the beginning of the year – to let them race.
“They are two equal drivers and we want to give them both a fair chance of going for the championship, so it was decided to stick by that philosophy until the end.”