Outside Line: Hamilton and Mercedes Bask in the Boos

Sometimes in sports, the only thing better than the support of your own fans is the derision of the opposing ones. To elicit the sort of anger Lewis Hamilton did in Monza on Sunday, you have to be doing something really right – and hey, he did just knick their lunch money.

A race Ferrari should have undoubtedly won, instead the tifosi were forced to swallow the reality they blew it on two separate occasions.

First, obviously, was Sebastian Vettel's first-lap coming together with Hamilton through the second chicane, where instead of conceding his rival had got the jump on him, the German decided to force two-into-one and came off worse for it.

Sure, it isn't ideal to conceal to any driver (let alone Hamilton), but there

Still, Ferrari had a shot at the win with Kimi Raikkonen, albeit one that Vettel had just made a lot more complicated. If his first stint had been longer, we could have seen a very different ending, but whether because Kimi couldn't manage the tyres, or because the pit wall got spooked by Mercedes' we-swear-it-wasn't-a-dummy pit stop (which, considering Hamilton ended up going another eight laps, looks an awful lot like a dummy), they never had a chance in the final stint.

From a front-row lockout to being helpless as Hamilton sailed by on lap 45, things could hardly have gone worse for the Scuderia.

Protest as he might, Max Verstappen's penalty was an open and shut case. The Dutchman likes to toe the line with his moves under braking – there's no doubt that this time he crossed it.

Heart-breaking stuff for Romain Grosjean and Haas, whose disqualification from P6 has now brought Renault level with them for fourth in the constructors' at 84 points apiece.

Not that you ever want reliability to be "going backwards", but Zak Brown backing-up such an assertion from Fernando Alonso 14 races into the season really makes you wonder what's going on at McLaren.