Lewis Hamilton eased to victory in Sunday’s Formula 1 Gran Premio d'Italia 2015, beating Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, with Felipe Massa finishing third for Williams. Hamilton also extended his championship lead over Nico Rosberg to 53 points, after his team mate was forced to retire whilst running third just two laps from home, the rear of his car on fire.

Ferrari’s hopes of defeating Mercedes took a serious blow as soon as the start lights went out, as Kimi Raikkonen - alongside Hamilton on the front row of the grid - failed to get away cleanly and dropped to the back of the pack.

It was thus left to Vettel to give chase, but the German had no answer to Hamilton’s pace and the world champion went unchallenged throughout the 53 laps as he brought his Silver Arrow home 25 seconds clear.

Valtteri Bottas completed a strong race for Williams, narrowly losing out to team mate Massa to take fourth. Raikkonen was a distant fifth after fighting his way back through the pack. Force India were sixth and seventh, courtesy of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg. The Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat, split by the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson, completed the top ten.

After their podium return last time out in Belgium, it was a disastrous afternoon for Lotus, with both cars going out on lap one after drama at the opening turn. Romain Grosjean looked to make contact with Hulkenberg, causing rear suspension damage, while Pastor Maldonado ran heavily over the kerbs and was forced to immediately pit to retire.

The only other DNF was Fernando Alonso, who pulled his McLaren into the pits with technical issues on lap 50.

Photos via Sutton.