Jack Leslie F1: 2014 Italian Grand Prix in pictures

The Monza circuit hosted yet another dramatic and action-packed F1 weekend, with Lewis Hamilton storming to the Italian Grand Prix victory.

The classic and historic track always produces some stunning photography. Here is the race weekend in pictures.

The images featured in this piece are courtesy of Octane Photographic. You can see more of their work here.

Friday

Roberto Merhi made his debut driving a Formula 1 car in first practice, replacing the returning Kamui Kobayashi for the session.

Fernando Alonso gave the enthusiastic fans a wave in the early stages of first practice.

Lewis Hamilton topped the opening practice session on Friday morning, from his team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Giedo van der Garde competed in his seventh FP1 session for Sauber, replacing Adrian Sutil.

Rosberg set the pace in the second session, with the drivers sampling the medium compound Pirelli tyre for the first time.

Ferrari had a positive Friday, with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen featuring near the top of the timesheets.

Saturday

Hamilton returned to the top of the timesheets in the third and final practice session on Saturday morning.

Kobayashi was eliminated from qualifying in the first session. He finished behind both Lotus drivers, but ahead of his team-mate and the Marussia duo.

Kimi Raikkonen surprisingly dropped out of qualifying in the second session. The Finn could only manage 12th place on the grid, but he was promoted to 11th due to a penalty for Daniil Kvyat.

Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo both made it through to Q3, but could only qualify eighth and ninth.

A late improvement for Kevin Magnussen jumped the Danish rookie up to fifth place on the grid, one position ahead of his team-mate Jenson Button.

Hamilton aborted his final lap, as his first Q3 attempt was good enough for pole position. Rosberg just missed out, while Bottas out-qualified his team-mate in third.

Sunday

A problem with his start system caused Hamilton to drop to fourth place on the run to turn one, with Rosberg storming into the lead.

It was a relatively clean and contact-free first corner, but several drivers took to the run-off area.

Bottas had a disastrous start and fell to 10th at the first corner, after starting from third on the grid.

Magnussen charged from fifth to second on the long run to turn one and held on to the position early in the race, before dropping behind Massa and Hamilton.

Lotus suffered a disappointing weekend, with Grosjean spending the first few laps of the race fighting the Marussia drivers.

Bottas quickly started recovering ground, completing some fantastic overtakes en route to fourth place.

A second lock-up at the first chicane dropped Rosberg behind his team-mate, and Hamilton was unchallenged to the chequered flag.

Massa enjoyed a quiet run to third place, securing his first podium since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton eventually won the Italian Grand Prix by 3.1 seconds, standing on the top step of Monza's iconic podium for the second time.

This F1 fan found a good way of getting the autographs of the top three drivers.

Hamilton, Rosberg and Massa celebrate on the Monza podium, with the fans filling the main straight.

8 September 2014

2014 Italian Grand Prix in pictures

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