Italian GP: Top 10 quotes after qualifying

Silver Arrows storm to 8th front-row lockout of the season!

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 Team, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 Team and Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W07 Hybrid

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari with his wife Minttu Raikkonen,

Sergio Perez, Sahara Force India F1 signs autographs for the fans

Nico Hulkenberg, Sahara Force India F1 VJM09

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'21.135
"I loved that lap, it felt fantastic. It was poetry in motion - the adrenaline was crazy. I've felt good all weekend and it all started with the initial setup from Friday. I've been working closely with my engineers and mechanics, taking small steps forward with the balance of the car, and I knew if it all came together then I could do that kind of lap time. It's a really tough circuit and you have to get everything right, especially the braking zones. The team has done another fantastic job today and I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow."
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'21.613	0.478
"I've had a good weekend so far, but Lewis produced some really good laps. I couldn't match him today. But my race pace was really good in practice on Friday, so I'm very positive for tomorrow. It's a long race and you never know what can happen, I will give it everything. It's clear our car is the quickest around the Monza track and I anticipate a great duel with Lewis again. The atmosphere is great and it would mean a lot to me if I were to win here."
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'21.972	0.837
"Overall it has been a good weekend so far, putting both cars in the second row. I'm sure we can have a good race from there tomorrow. Hopefully we can take the advantage at the start but we have to wait and see. Once the lights go out we hope we can find a good traction which the tires should give us. It's a long way down to Turn 1 and even if we can try something the race is not one stretch, it's 53 laps around here. To be honest, after I saw the times already in Q1 and in Q2 on a different compound, I knew it would be difficult, but you never know...I was pushing as hard as I could, probably too hard in the first run in Q3 and it wasn't a good lap; fortunately in the end I got it back again. I think overall I'm pretty happy, not so much with the beginning of the lap but I think our race pace is better than the gap in qualifying indicates, so we'll see. We don't mind who's behind us, the important thing is whoever is in front and we still have two cars. The gap is a bit bigger than we would like, but equally the last two races things are coming down a little bit more and things are heading the right way also back in the factory. Even if we don't like it, we need to be a bit patient, I'm sure it will come."
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'22.065	0.930
"Today we did the best we could and got the most out of the car. For sure we would have been more satisfied with the first row, but this is the maximum we could achieve. We have to be happy with what we did knowing our limits, but obviously our aim is to be higher up. Tomorrow is a different day and if we can make a very strong start we can build our race. Certain teams will start with different tires, time will tell what will happen in the long run, but we felt that starting with the Supersoft compound was the best choice for us. It's going to be a long race, tricky for the tires, and a lot of things can happen; we have to put ourselves up there and if something happens we have to try to maximize our result. We'll try to make the good choice when it comes to pit stops and see how it pans out. Our rivals have been very strong today, but we'll try our best tomorrow and hopefully we have the chance to challenge them."
5	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	1'22.388	1.253
"I felt it was a very good qualifying today. Fifth is a good position to start in and I’ll be on the clean side of the track, so we definitely maximised the potential of the car. I felt I did one of my best qualifying’s ever. I think we have a good chance to score some good points and I hope Felipe can also come back from P11 with a free choice of tyres to get some strong points for the team."
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	1'22.389	1.254
“We expected to be floating around the top five and we were one thousandth of a second off fifth. It’s a little frustrating but at least there were no major surprises. Qualifying on the soft tyres would have been ideal but the pace was really high and our lap time was close to the cut off. We were forced to use the supersoft instead to be on the safe side getting into Q3. If we had qualified on the soft tyre we could have had a good fight with Ferrari but that will be a little harder now we are on the supersofts. We knew Williams would be quick around here but with DRS and being strong on the brakes we can still pull off some moves. I think we can have good race pace and it would be nice if we can find an edge overnight but either way we can have some fun and challenge for top five.”
7	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	1'22.411	1.276
“I’m actually pretty happy with qualifying today. I thought we would be more behind but actually everything was very tight. We lost radio communications in the end so I didn’t know where I was and when I came back and saw that I was seventh I thought that’s not too bad. We’re within three hundredths to P5 so I think we can’t complain, especially with the compromises we have to make with the downforce levels. You never know what will happen tomorrow, normally we’re a bit stronger in the race than in qualifying, so let’s hope for a good race. Of course you always want to be further ahead but we have to be realistic and this track is a challenge for us.”
8	Sergio Perez	Sahara Force India	Mercedes	1'22.814	1.679
“I think we can be satisfied about today’s result. We have been struggling all weekend, but we worked really hard last night to improve the car balance and made a step forward for qualifying. Some of our rivals seem to have very strong pace, but I think we maximised our qualifying effort with both cars in the top ten. In Q1, it was crucial to put together the perfect lap on my first run; that gave me a bit more freedom in Q2, with an extra set of new tyres available. All in all, it was an exciting session and I had a very intense battle with Nico. The strategy options for the race are quite limited and will depend on what happens during our first stint on the supersoft tyres, and how things go on lap one. Our long run pace looked better than our one lap speed, so hopefully we can match the cars ahead of us and get a good result.”
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Sahara Force India	Mercedes	1'22.836	1.701
“I’m as happy as I can be with ninth on the grid. For some reason we’ve struggled to find the harmony and balance with the car this weekend, so it’s a good result to see both cars through to Q3. We’ve tried a lot of things with the set-up and made some small improvements, but I’m still not entirely happy with the balance. Tomorrow is another day - tyres will play a big role and it’s going to be interesting to see how things play out. When the middle of the grid is so close we need to make sure we make the correct strategy calls because the final results will be decided by some very small gaps.”
10	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	Ferrari	1'23.184	2.049
“First of all, I have to say thank you to the team. I’m very grateful and proud of them because everybody has done a great job in achieving the consistency that has allowed us to work on the details that make the difference. In qualifying, for the first time we broke the top-10 barrier by getting into Q3. It was an amazing effort from everyone involved in setting up the car throughout the weekend and having the communication and level of understanding to make it work. The laps were fantastic. I really enjoyed them and I loved pushing the car. Today we have extracted the maximum from our opportunities and we have to make sure we do the same tomorrow.”