Nico Rosberg has not given up hope of being crowned Formula One world champion despite seeing Lewis Hamilton take a giant stride towards retaining his title at Monza on Sunday.

Rosberg pulled over with flames coming out of the back of his Mercedes just two laps from the end of the Italian Grand Prix as team-mate Hamilton claimed his seventh win of the season, finishing 25 seconds ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

The Mercedes duo then escaped punishment following an investigation into a potential breach of tyre-pressure regulations, so Hamilton now has a 53-point lead over Rosberg with seven races remaining.

Rosberg had been down on pace all weekend after having to revert to an old power unit, which eventually failed so late in the race to deal a major blow to his hopes of dethroning Hamilton.

But the German is not throwing the towel in just yet.

"It's a fact that it's a massive step in the wrong direction," said Rosberg.

"It's the biggest loss I've had in one day throughout the whole season, so that's very bad, and I now need to catch up a few points.

"I keep going. Giving up doesn't exist for me. So I'll just keep fighting and I've got to try to win the next couple of races somehow.

"The whole weekend just went completely wrong and unlucky I think. There were so many repercussions of this engine issue.

"It wasn't an engine issue, actually. It was a chassis issue that made me have to change. To have it explode two laps from the end was unbelievable. It's even more disappointing.

"I was going to have a good go at Vettel because finally I had the brakes cool enough to attack and I could ramp up the electric power, and I was going to really go for it."