MONZA, Italy (AP) – The only thing that came close to stopping Lewis Hamilton at the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday was an inquiry over tire pressure.
In the end – 3 1/2 hours after the Mercedes driver took the checkered flag and was interviewed on the podium by Star Wars creator George Lucas – that obstacle fell away, too.
Hamilton’s left rear tire pressure was found to be 0.3 psi below the minimum of 19.5 when measured moments before the race. But stewards decided to take no action because they determined that Mercedes had pumped the correct amount of air into the tires before the pressure dropped on its own.
“I wasn’t aware of it,” Hamilton said, adding that 0.3 psi “is not really a huge amount on one tire.”
Hamilton cruised to his seventh win of the season, and nearly doubled his Formula One lead over Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, whose engine caught fire with two laps remaining.