Italian GP: Top 10 quotes after race
Mercedes claim one-two victory at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Photo by: Andrew Hone / Motorsport Images
Cla | # | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Gap | km/h | Points | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | Mercedes | 53 | 1:15'32.312 | 243.626 | 25 | ||
“This is obviously an incredibly exciting season; the last two races have been really strong for us as a team. The way things have come together in the second half of the season is exceptional. Today, the car felt fantastic, particularly on that first stint. As we had a bit of breathing room behind us, it was easier for us to extend the life of the tyres. Valtteri did a fantastic job to get through and get this one-two. It is amazing to have the first back-to-back wins in a long, long time and claim the lead in the championship. But the fight will continue, the Ferraris have been really quick this season, especially on the high-downforce tracks. It will continue to be really close between us, so it will be 'beast mode' all the way to the last chequered flag.” | ||||||||||
2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | Mercedes | 53 | 1:15'36.783 | 4.471 | 243.386 | 18 | |
“Starting fourth, finishing second - I'm quite happy with that. What I'm really happy about is the one-two for the team! From my side it was a good race, even though I lost one position at the beginning. Luckily, I got it back quite quickly and could then overtake the Williams and the Force India. After that the pace was great and I was really enjoying it - the car war so strong today. It was amazing to be on the podium. Monza is definitely one of the best - if not the best - podiums in Formula 1. It's such a great atmosphere, so much noise, so many people - I wish everyone could experience it. Looking forward, we know that we still have a lot of work to do, the races ahead will be a close battle with Ferrari.” | ||||||||||
3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | Ferrari | 53 | 1:16'08.629 | 36.317 | 241.690 | 15 | |
“Today we were not as quick as the Mercedes, but considering where we started from, we got the best result in the race. It was not ideal, but we are working very hard on what we want to achieve. The next tracks should be ok for us. We know we have to work on ourselves and where. I was happy at being back here with all our supporters, I got a lot of adrenalin from being on that podium. Of course, I wanted to win, but I am confident we are on the right way. It was not a great day for us, but at the same time it was brilliant to feel all the passion. Leading the Championship is not important as much as winning the Championship, it's where you are at the last race that counts. It is clear where we want to go, what we want to achieve. ” | ||||||||||
4 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | TAG | 53 | 1:16'12.647 | 40.335 | 241.477 | 12 | |
“I’m very, very happy about the result and loved it out there today. It was good fun. Two of my favourite races this year have been starting from the back. Silverstone and this one. Some good overtakes in the race kept me excited and I had some real pace in the end. I could see Seb and the thought of a podium was tempting me, so I was obviously trying to catch him right up to the end. The boys did the quickest pit stop and I also got the fastest lap so that’s very cool. You can almost call it a perfect day. We couldn’t have done much more from where we started. Of course I wanted to be up there on the podium as it looked unreal, but I believe it will come next year. Today has been a really good boost for everyone and we’re looking ahead to Singapore.” | ||||||||||
5 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | Ferrari | 53 | 1:16'32.394 | 1'00.082 | 240.439 | 10 | |
“For the whole race I kept struggling with the balance of the car. It never felt like it should have done. On some laps it was getting better, but most of the time we were lacking the grip and the pace. It was not an easy weekend, we were fighting in all conditions, in the dry and even more in the wet. This is something that we have to fix for these kinds of circuit. I'm disappointed as the result is not what we wanted. For sure if you take the pure layout of the track it's not an easy one for us, which is unfortunate at our home grand prix. I would be surprised if it's the same story at the next race, because on paper the race in Singapore should be better for us. Now we have to go there and do our best.” | ||||||||||
6 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | F. India | Mercedes | 53 | 1:16'43.840 | 1'11.528 | 239.841 | 8 | |
“I really enjoyed the race and I’m happy with our performance. At the same time I’m a little disappointed because I really wanted to finish on the podium today. But you have to be realistic and we didn’t have the pace to match Mercedes and Ferrari, so I think sixth place was the maximum we could achieve. At one stage we were racing against Raikkonen and I thought we could keep him behind, but he was just too quick. I also had a good battle with Stroll for most of the race and I had to work hard to keep him behind me. With the strong qualifying yesterday and the sixth place today, it’s been a great weekend. I have to say a big thanks to the whole team for all their hard work and for giving me such a competitive car.” | ||||||||||
7 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams | Mercedes | 53 | 1:16'46.468 | 1'14.156 | 239.704 | 6 | |
"I am very happy with the race and I think it was a good one. I really enjoyed myself. It was a bit of a shame at the start, as we lost position to Ocon, as Hamilton had a bad start and defended, so I had to back off. We were in P3 and then both Ferraris and the Mercedes of Bottas overtook. I then had a big flat spot at the end of the race, so started to lose time to Ocon and then was defending from Felipe. All in all, the race was very positive. I finished in P7, which was what we were expecting.” | ||||||||||
8 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams | Mercedes | 53 | 1:16'47.146 | 1'14.834 | 239.669 | 4 | |
"I think it was definitely a good result for the team. It’s always good to score points with both cars. Today we scored 10 points with both cars. I was happy with the race and with the fights. I just had a little touch at the end with Lance but fortunately nothing happened and we managed to finish well. I’m happy with the performance and the race. It was a good Sunday for the team.” | ||||||||||
9 | 11 | Sergio Perez | F. India | Mercedes | 53 | 1:16'47.588 | 1'15.276 | 239.646 | 2 | |
“First of all, I want to thank my team for the amazing job they did to change the gearbox on my car before the race. It’s been a difficult weekend for us, when you consider the struggles on Friday and how missing out on Q3 yesterday made our race much more difficult. Today the car felt good and I was strong in the first stint, despite some damage picked up at turn two, but things got more difficult after the pit-stop. We had a slow stop and I got stuck in traffic: I think I lost a couple of seconds and that’s what made the difference between us and Williams. We gave everything to get back to them, but we ran out of laps to pass them. Perhaps with two extra laps I would have made it, but that’s racing. Even though I expected a bit more, we still rescued a few points and I am happy with this result.” | ||||||||||
10 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | TAG | 52 | 1:15'50.678 | 1 lap | 238.060 | 1 | |
“I had a good start, immediately I was between the Sauber cars and then under braking I chose quite a good line, then out of turn two I got another position and it was all looking good. On lap three I had a touch with Massa and punctured my tyre so my race was really over. I had to pit for tyres and change the front wing which meant swapping to a two-stop strategy. I tried to catch up and the car was working pretty well, so we cannot complain about that. At least we finished the race and at the end of the day I think it wasn’t too bad to end up back in a point-scoring position after what happened at the start.” |
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