Mercedes: We don't know why we had such a discrepancy

What was panning out to be a perfect afternoon with Lewis Hamilton in command of the Italian Grand Prix and Nico Rosberg hunting second place, things went dramatically awry for the dominant Mercedes team as Rosberg's race ended with a puff of smoke and flames, while at the front Hamilton's tyre pressures were under the stewards' microscope.

In the end Hamilton won the race, but not after an investigation by officials into the tyre pressures on the winning Silver Arrow. However the whole affair took team boss Toto Wolff by surprised.

Looking shell-shocked Wolff explained to media after the race at Monza, "You check the tyre pressures in the tyre heaters when you put them on the car. This is the moment, because you could say: When is the moment you should check them? Five minutes? Eight minutes from the end, when the red lights go on?"

"I think it is about defining the procedure – and the moment when those pressures are checked – in the future. We don't know why we had such a discrepancy. At the end of the day, it can cost performance if you have one tyre that has a different pressure than the others."

New restrictions on Pirelli tyre pressures were rolled out for Monza in the wake of blowouts which marred the Belgian Grand Prix a couple of weeks earlier.

It's has emerged that Mercedes were informed by officials that both their cars had been found in breach of the newly introduced regulations with 20 minutes left in the grand prix. Hence the palpable panic in the Mercedes pit garage with all the company's heavy hitters in attendance and transfixed to the TV monitors.

Nevertheless the Mercedes duo were allowed to continue, with an investigation called for at the end of the race. Fearing time penalties Mercedes issued a cryptic command to race leader Hamilton.

“We need to pull a gap, don’t ask questions, just execute,” ordered his race engineer, who then informed Hamilton that all would be explained after the chequered flag.

Wolff clarified, "In terms of asking Lewis to push when we got the message that there was an investigation into tyre pressures, we didn't understand what was going on. There could have been possible penalties. And in order to gain a little bit of a margin, we asked him to push."

Hamilton thus scored his seventh win of the season, and extended his lead in the championship to 53 points.