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Hamilton wins at Monza, takes Formula One lead from Vettel

MONZA, Italy (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton won the Italian Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday with an utterly dominant drive that sent the Briton clear at the top of the Formula One world championship for the first time in a year. The triple champion, who started the last race of the European season from a record 69th career pole position, led Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas to a runaway one-two finish at Ferrari's home track. "I love it here in Italy and I love the passion of the fans," Hamilton declared on the podium jutting out over a sea of red-shirted Ferrari fans, with plenty of boos coming his way amid the cheers. "We did a great job, the team did an exceptional job this weekend," he added. "Mercedes power is definitely better than Ferrari power." Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who had led the standings since he won the Australian season-opener in March, finished third in the final race of the European season and 36.3 seconds behind the winner. Bottas was 4.4 adrift of Hamilton. "It was a difficult day, a difficult start," said Vettel. "My race was fairly isolated, we tried to keep as close as possible but we simply didn't have the pace... You could say it's a bad day but I know the team is on the right way... so I am in a very positive mood despite the numbers." Hamilton is now three points clear of the German, with seven races remaining. Mercedes are 62 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors' standings. The first driver to win two races in a row this season, with Monza following on from Belgium a week ago, Hamilton now leads Vettel 6-4 on victories in 2017. He has 238 points to Vettel's 235. The last time Hamilton led the standings on his own was at Monza a year ago, with now-retired team mate Nico Rosberg emerging as the eventual champion. FEW THRILLS Hamilton and four-times champion Vettel were level on points this year after China in April, with one win and one second place each. If Sunday's race was a dull affair, there was at least plenty of sunshine in marked contrast to the steady rain that drenched fans and delayed qualifying for hours on Saturday. Hamilton pulled away cleanly from his historic pole, and fourth in a row at Monza, and was never challenged as he drove to the chequered flag with the minimum of fuss. It was his third Italian Grand Prix win in four years and 59th career victory – only Michael Schumacher, whose pole record he beat, can boast more – and few have been more straightforward.

Daimler employees can set email to auto-delete during vacation

The Internet has shrunk the world in terms of the way people communicate by making it possible to send an email from Oslo and have it show up in Cleveland almost immediately. But that instant contact has wrecked the work/life balance for many. They get home from a long day at the office, yet they can never fully put their feet up and relax because another hour or more of checking and replying to emails awaits. However, German automotive giant Daimler is putting an end to that churn, at least while its employees are on vacation.
About 100,000 Daimler employees in Germany are eligible to opt-in to a new program called Mail on Holiday, according to The Atlantic. When the workers go on vacation, they can switch it on, and the service auto-deletes all of their incoming email. "Our employees should relax on holiday and not read work-related emails," said Wilfried Porth, board member for human resources, to The Financial Times as cited by The Atlantic.
Mail on Holiday puts a thumb on the scale of work/life balance in favor of a little more free time. The system means that Daimler employees shouldn't even be tempted to check their email on vacation because there's nothing there - and it also avoids them coming back from a relaxing holiday only to find a mailbox packed full of hundreds of unread messages. These days, people are absolutely obsessed with their work, often to the detriment of their health, not to mention spending time with their families and friends. On one hand, Mail on Holiday sounds like the sort of vacation breakthrough we'd need to truly unplug and unwind, but on the other hand, it makes our skin crawl just thinking about the lack of communication. What's your perspective? Have your say in Comments.

Mercedes spent ˆ250 million to win Formula One titles last year

Success in Formula One requires skill, diligence, commitment and ingenuity. It also takes truckloads of money. In the case of Mercedes in last year's world championship, in which it took both the drivers' and constructors' titles in dominant style, those truckloads came to ˆ250 million last season alone – equivalent to over $285m in dead presidents. A report from Germany's own Auto Motor und Sport details the staggering investment that Mercedes made in order to get to the winner's circle last season. After 15 seasons with McLaren netting one constructors' and three drivers' titles, Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug convinced the Daimler board late in 2009 to take over the Brawn GP team that had just won the championship. Because the team would be getting a large payout from Bernie Ecclestone as the returning champions the following year, and with sponsors lined up, Daimler only had to pony up a small portion of a smaller budget: in 2010 (its first season under the Mercedes banner), the team ran on a budget of "only" ˆ153 million ($175m). Over the course of the following seasons, though, the team's share of the TV revenues from Formula One Management went down as Mercedes struggled to climb back up the standings, but successive advocates (including Haug, Ross Brawn and Niki Lauda) successfully convinced the bean-counters in Stuttgart to ratchet up the payments. By 2012, the budget was expanded to ˆ200 million, and further climbed to ˆ250 million in 2013 and 2014. Fortunately for Daimler, the investment was starting to pay off by then as the team finished second in the constructors' standings in 2013, bringing ˆ74 million in from Ecclestone's coffers to cover roughly a third of the budget. With Malaysian oil giant Petronas alone kicking in upwards of another ˆ30 million per season as title sponsor (as of 2009 when it signed on), and untold millions more coming in from other partners, it looks like the actual cost to Daimler for securing both world titles and a winning reputation was actually more like hundred million or so.