For the first time in F1 history, two four-time champions are on the same grid and vying for their fifth title.
The six times world champion took the chequered flag at Imola 5.783 seconds ahead of team mate Valtteri Bottas, who started on pole position.
The Briton eased his Mercedes across the line 6.2 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, with Max Verstappen, who started 16th, finishing a surprise third for Red Bull.
Max Verstappen's sensational first Formula One victory, at just 18 years of age, had former champions and grandees of the sport casting around for superlatives at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.
Says he rejected Red Bull offer
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won the Italian Grand Prix at a canter on Sunday to move 53 points clear of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in the Formula One championship after six victories from 12 races.
Hamilton wrapped up his record-equalling seventh title in Turkey last month and picked up his 11th win of the season in Bahrain on Sunday. Mercedes have already won the constructors' title for an unprecedented seventh year in a row.
Vettel, who won all four of his world championships with Red Bull, has gone 16 races without a victory and made some costly errors, while Hamilton has won 14 of the last 20.
Since the traditional Australian opener was cancelled in March, Formula One has agreed changes to help teams hard hit by COVID-19.
The Formula One season has yet to start and the race at the southern circuit is the 10th to be affected by the new coronavirus.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, the Briton's closest rival, finished only sixth after an early collision with Red Bull's Max Verstappen left the German fighting back from 19th place.
Hamilton said he had not been feeling well on Thursday and Friday, when he was also up until midnight working with his engineers.
Hamilton is seven points clear of Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas after five of the 21 races.
'We do believe that staging the event behind closed doors, which our fans can still watch on television, is preferable to not having a race at all.'
Six times world champion Lewis Hamilton can expect a quicker car when the Formula One season finally starts in Austria next month, with Mercedes promising plenty of updates. The W11 car unveiled in February has yet to race, with the season delayed since March by the COVID-19 pandemic, and team technical director James Allison said months' worth of improvements are in the pipeline.
'The best part is if you get on the podium with them two, in the room before we go out on the podium just after the race, you take the helmet off and it's awkward for me because it's just so silent'
IMAGES from the Silverstone F1 GP on Sunday
In other matches on the day, Telegu Titans and Tamil Thalaivas finished the match at 40-40, while U Mumba beat Bengaluru Bulls 46-30.
Making the announcement, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan tweeted: 'The Union government has made arrangements to allow Jallikattu in TN.'
Vettel came out on top, giving Ferrari their first pole position since 2012 with a masterful lap around the floodlit Singaporean track.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday in a Mercedes one-two that ended Sebastian Vettel's bid for a fourth in a row.
Sebastian Vettel made full use of the virtual safety car to sneak in front of Lewis Hamilton midway the race before the German held off the frustrated Briton to win the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Renault's Chinese test driver Guanyu Zhou won a virtual Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday as Formula One sought to entertain fans with esports action in a season stalled by the spreading coronavirus. The first seven rounds of the real championship have been cancelled or postponed, including the showcase Monaco Grand Prix, and it remains to be seen how many there will be ultimately.
The Supreme Court on Thursday turned down a plea seeking its intervention to pass judgment on Jallikattu before Saturday. The top court said it was "unfair to ask the bench to pass order" on the matter.
Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on pole position for their 200th race at the German Grand Prix on Saturday while engine problems dashed Ferrari's hopes.
Daniel Ricciardo showed Red Bull's pace on Wednesday by lapping Barcelona's Formula One circuit faster than anyone since the track was reconfigured in 2007.
The pole was a record-extending 88th of Hamilton's career and fifth of the season.
Lewis Hamilton landed an early psychological blow ahead of Formula One's Abu Dhabi title showdown by lapping faster than Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in both Friday practice sessions.
Meet Lando Norris, who pipped Lewis Hamilton in the Austrian F1 on July 5 for a podium finish.
Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar defended the Centre's move to allow controversial bull taming sport Jallikattu despite opposition from animal rights bodies.
Formula One plans to start its coronavirus-ravaged season in May after cancelling this weekend's opener in Australia on Friday and postponing the next three races in Bahrain, Vietnam and China. Confusingly, while Formula One said in a statement it expected to begin the championship in Europe at the end of May, the governing FIA's statement referred to May 1. Both may prove optimistic as the virus spreads across the continent.
Red Bull's Mark Webber will start Sunday's German Formula One Grand Prix on pole position with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton alongside after a superb qualifying lap.
Sebastian Vettel was Ferrari's first choice to stay and partner Charles Leclerc in Formula One next year until the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything, team principal Mattia Binotto said on Friday. The four-times World champion, who won his titles with Red Bull, will now be replaced by Spaniard Carlos Sainz who joins from McLaren at the end of the season in a decision announced in May.
The apex court has also issued notice to Centre, Tamil Nadu and other states where 'Jallikattu' is played.
The last time Kimi Raikkonen stood on top of a Formula One podium, Lewis Hamilton had just joined Mercedes with one championship to his name and Sebastian Vettel was riding high with Red Bull.
Lewis Hamilton won the Mexican Grand Prix for Mercedes after a first-lap scare on Sunday but the Briton will have to wait another week to wrap up his sixth Formula One world championship. Hamilton's 10th win of the season, and 83rd of his career, was also a 100th for Mercedes as a constructor.
Lewis Hamilton, who won from pole position to take the championship lead after three races, again took a knee while wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt, but some drivers were either too late or remained standing.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel returns to the scene of his first Formula One victory this weekend hoping to pull off another Italian Grand Prix win against the odds.
Team by team analysis of Sunday's Russian Grand Prix (listed in championship order):
The next time the four-time world champion will get behind the wheel will be for first Friday practice at Melbourne's Albert Park on March 23.
