We are not alone - Mercedes F1 Singapore

[davidgh]

I think the only thing that's been setup was Nico's chicane diversion(s) at Monza, and that was purely his penalty for Spa (IMHO).

I was tempted to consider this until I noticed that LH set the fastest lap of the race on lap 29 -- the lap in which Rosberg made his "error". This indicates to me that Hamilton had extra speed and really was applying pressure. It's quite unusual for the fastest lap of a GP to be set around mid-way through -- it is almost always set towards the end (much lower fuel, more rubber on the track). This was the case with almost all the other main protagonists (http://f1fantasygame.com/en/results/Italian-Formula-1-Grand-Prix-2014/42) -- and indicates to me that LH had a worthwhile speed advantage throughout and spent the second half of the race cruising. Rosberg's best was two tenths off Hamilton's, even though he set it with twenty laps less fuel on board.

[stephenh]

Hamilton gained something like 3 secs. in one and a half laps, just before the chicane incident, he had just changed to fresh tyres, and had a clear bit of track, so yes, he was exerting tremendous pressure on Rosberg at that point. And don't forget that Rosberg had already had an identical incident at the same chicane earlier in the race when Hamilton was nowhere near. They had some new brake material I believe, and Rosberg was finding much harder to get the right balance, so kept locking up a wheel under braking for that chicane. I'm not so inclined to believe in a conspiracy theory therefor.