Sunday’s race in Monza was not without incident - or statistical significance…
- Ferrari may not have got the home victory they craved, but former Prancing Horse favourite Fernando Alonso did score the 22nd fastest lap of his career, moving him ahead of another former Scuderia driver Gerhard Berger for 12th on the all-time list.
- It was Alonso’s first fastest lap since the 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and McLaren’s first since Malaysia the same season. The Spaniard also became the seventh different driver to score fastest lap this year.
- And one further point on Alonso's fastest lap - it was the 58th for a Honda-powered car, but the first for the Japanese marque for 24 years. Their last came at the 1992 Portuguese Grand Prix when Ayrton Senna bagged fastest lap, also in a McLaren-Honda.
Alonso scored the first fastest lap for a Honda-powered car since 1992. © Sutton Images
- Senna of course won at Monza twice, and on Sunday Nico Rosberg joined the roll of honour, becoming the 36th different driver to win at famous 'Temple of Speed', and the first non-polesitter to win since Rubens Barrichello in 2009.
- It was the 21st victory of Rosberg’s career, which moves him ahead of Mika Hakkinen and into 14th on the all-time list.
- It was also Rosberg’s second win in a row, and to put his form into context the German has led 96 of the last 97 racing laps since the summer break.
- Rosberg has now scored more victories this season than he managed in either 2014 or 2015 (five and six respectively). He also has more wins in 2016 than team mate Lewis Hamilton (7-6), though he still trails him by two points in the drivers’ standings.
- Monza also marked the 50th time that Rosberg has stood on an F1 podium, which is the same number as Jenson Button. The duo are joint 14th on the all-time list.
Nico Rosberg became the 36th different Monza winner, while Sebastian Vettel scored Ferrari's 66th Monza podium in the 66th race at the fabled 'Temple of Speed'. © Sutton Images
- Lewis Hamilton meanwhile scored his 98th podium finish, which moves him past Fernando Alonso for sole possession of third on the all-time list. Only Alain Prost (106) and Michael Schumacher (155) have scored more podiums than the reigning world champion.
- Hamilton of course was going for a hat-trick of Italian wins, but his failure to take victory means that the great Juan Manuel Fangio remains the only man to win three Monza races in a row.
- Behind the Silver Arrows, Sebastian Vettel gave Ferrari their first podium in five races. Fittingly it was the Prancing Horse’s 66th podium at their home race in what was the 66th Italian Grand Prix at Monza. That’s a pretty good strike rate by anyone’s standards!
- For the third successive race Force India got both cars home in the points, but it wasn’t enough to stop Williams wresting P4 back from them in the constructors’ championship thanks to Valtteri Bottas’s sixth place and Felipe Massa’s ninth. The gap between the two teams is now just three points.
- Haas meanwhile continued to stake their claim for the most unlucky team on the grid. For the fifth time this season they had a car finish in 11th - the first non-points-paying position. On this occasion Romain Grosjean was the man to miss out, but Esteban Gutierrez still leads the way with four 11th place finishes.
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