Bottas actually beat Hamilton at the start in the scramble to the first corner, but a collision at Turn 2 involving Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly, the winner of the previous race at Monza, meant two of the pre-race favourites were out. Gasly went from hero to zero, while Verstappen also has two zeros after his name for his failure to finish the last two grand prix. That first lap incident brought out the safety-car and on the restart, Bottas bunched the field up.
Too much it seems, as Kevin Magnussen in the Haas never got going, and Antonio Giovanzzi, Carlos Sainz and Nicholas Latifi, all ploughed into him. All four were out, and the incident meant the race was red-flagged.
Romain Grosjean in the Haas avoided being caught up in the carnage but was quickly on the team radio to express his displeasure.
"That was f***ing stupid from whoever was at the front. They want to kill us, or what? This is the worst thing I've ever seen," he exclaimed.
The answer is probably not quite the worst, Romain. His failure to brake at the first corner at the start of the 2012 Belgian GP, when he collided with and took out Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez and Hamilton was probably worse, but drivers tend to have short memories when it suits them.
Alonso, in a Ferrari, had a 40-point lead in the championship that year heading to Spa, and at season-end lost the title by 4 points to Vettel, so arguably Grosjean's recklessness cost Alonso the championship.
Fast-forward to the restart, and Hamilton drafted past Bottas at the first corner to take control of the race. Later on, Lance Stroll crashed out when he had a puncture and the race was red-flagged again. On the third restart, Hamilton easily held off Bottas who was actually passed by Daniel Ricciardo in the Renault, trying to secure his first podium for the team he is leaving at year-end to join McLaren.
Ricciardo has a bet with Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul that the latter must get a matching tattoo when Ricciardo podiums for the team. He would have been thinking the time to visit a tattoo parlour was getting close, but first Bottas, and then Alex Albon in the Red Bull, got by Ricciardo.
Hamilton cruised to victory, taking an extra point for fastest lap, with Bottas second, and Albon finally making his first podium.
During the race, Bottas asked on the team car radio if he could be put onto a different tyre to Hamilton when they had a pit stop. But as it transpired, his tyres were going off quicker than Hamilton's so he pitted first and went out on hard tyres. Hamilton's team then switched their man to the same hard tyre. Bottas is never going to be allowed to beat Team Lewis. Nor in fact is anyone else so long as he is a Mercedes driver.
Hamilton described his race as "incredibly tough".
"This track is phenomenal, the heat, keeping Valtteri behind, who has been quick all weekend was not easy … and obviously I was behind him at the beginning," he reflected.
"My heart is definitely racing and it is crazy to be here and have 90 grand prix wins."
As great as Hamilton is, and he will soon be the greatest of all time in terms of races won, pole positions taken and championships secured, he nonetheless polarises many F1 fans with his personal life and the way he dresses, including bling and his dreadlocks.
His crusade on behalf of black people seeking equality is laudable, but his latest effort of wearing a T-shirt in the paddock and on the podium, with the message "Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor" , with a photo of her on the back with the words "Say her name", may have breached the FIA rule that states drivers are not to use advertising that is "political or religious in nature that is prejudicial to the interests of the FIA".
Given the FIA has openly allowed Hamilton to lead the other drivers on the pre-race grid presentation by taking the knee and wearing a "Black Lives Matter" T-shirt, it is difficult to see how the FIA can rule against itself.
But Hamilton's outspoken view about who should be driving for a team like Red Bull hasn't gone down well with Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko.
According to the latter, Hamilton told Red Bull boss Christian Horner last year they should replace Pierre Gasly with Albon, advice that was taken halfway through 2019. However at Monza Hamilton suggested Verstappen was on his own and not receiving any help from Albon. Marko suggests it is because twice now, in Brazil last year, and Austria this year, Hamilton has been penalised for colliding with the London born Thai driver.
"I have no idea why Hamilton always feels compelled to interfere," Marko said after the Monza result. "But it doesn't matter to us what opinion people from outside have.
"The one he wanted to get rid of last summer has now won the Italian Grand Prix with our Alpha Tauri team."
Albon insists that seeing Gasly win at Monza didn't put him under more pressure, even though the rumour mill suggested the team might swap them around again.
"I do think Monza didn't really reflect what's going on, but times will come and I'm sure when I have the opportunities I'll be showing what I can do," Albon said prior to the Tuscan GP.
"But in terms of added pressure, the pressure really comes from within, it's yourself wanting to do well rather than anything else."
That time has come as he stood on the podium for the first time. He can feel he has been vindicated, especially after overtaking Ricciardo around the outside of Turn 1.
"Of course, I was a little worried, but I left enough space. When you send it around the outside, you're hopeful, and you have flashbacks to previous times when fighting for podiums, but we managed to get through unscathed," Albon explained.
On the car radio he told the team: "Thanks for sticking with me."
That should have been the message Mexican driver Sergio Perez, who finished 5th, was sending to his Racing Point team. But unfortunately, in the lead up to the Tuscan GP, Perez was told he was being replaced by Vettel for next year.
"I got a call from Lawrence [Stroll]," Perez told the media at Mugello.
"He called me yesterday, that they were going into another direction."
He said there were discussions about his contract that he didn't want to go into, but in the end, they told him he was not continuing.
"I didn't expect that. But that's how it is."
Haas and Alfa Romeo may be possible drives for Perez next year, but he has an ally in Carlos Sainz, who said he was "angry" at the decision.
"Checo's departure shows that in F1 not everything is about performance," he told Marca. "If we judge by performance alone, there is no reason why Checo should leave Racing Point. But in F1 there are other interests. He has saved them from bankruptcy and they now don't want to continue with him just when he is given a car to fight with.
"It makes me angry because I have a good relationship with him and I respect him as a driver. I hope that Checo finds a seat that motivates him."
Vettel will reportedly be paid £15 million, which means he is taking a substantial pay cut, as only Hamilton is paid more than Vettel currently. It reportedly has cost Racing Point £9m to break Perez's contract.
But paying off a driver who put up his own money to keep the team afloat at the end of 2018 is an insult, and demonstrates, as Sainz has hinted at, that F1 is a business, not a sport. And in Hamilton's case, now a platform to politicise his personal views.
