Race report
Italian GP: Top 10 quotes after race
Magical Monza produces 1-2 finish for Silver Arrows
Photo by: Daimler AG
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 1:17'28.089 |
| "It means so much to me to win here at Monza. The crowd were unbelievable over the entire weekend and especially during the podium ceremony. This win is incredibly special for me and standing up there and singing with thousands of people gave me goosebumps. The race went perfectly for me and after a good start I was able manage the gap between myself and the car behind. Our car has been amazing this weekend and I extend a massive thank you to the whole team. I'm looking forward to Singapore, which was our weakest race last year. Hopefully we've learnt lessons from 2015 and we'll come back even stronger!" | ||||
| 2 |  Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 15.070 |
| "It's tough to take when you lose a race because of such a poor start. From there it was just about managing the tyres during the first stint and I was delighted to get back up to second after the first stop. I kept pushing as hard as I could and came within 15 seconds of Nico when we crossed the line. I'm happy with my performance this weekend but after such an incredible qualifying day yesterday it was disappointing to be unable to capitalise. I'm sure we'll work on what happened at the start between now and Singapore." | ||||
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 20.990 |
| "Of course I am very happy for all the team. It is a very special race for us, to stand on the podium here in Monza, is just great. But for sure you are always aiming for the top step, so well done to our rivals, they have been in a league on their own in the race. Yet, we tried our optimum, this is the perfect result for us, the whole weekend has been very smooth, no issues with the car. We brought an engine update, so grazie anche to the guys at Maranello, for their support. I feel things are changing: it will still take a little bit, but we are heading the right way. And on a day like this, you realize that life is to enjoy, to get so much support is just unbelievalble. I feel we have the best fans in the world, it is difficult to find the right words. This podium here, it's not the Adriatic sea, it is the sea of tifosi.. We had a rough season, we had high expectations, we have put ourselves on high pressure, we have also done mistakes, but the most important thing is that we stay a team, that we stay together. We have a lot of races ahead, we know we have a good car, unfortunately not yet quick enough for being able to say, here 'we have the best car', but I am sure that one day we will be. " | ||||
| 4 |  Kimi Raikkonen |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 27.561 |
| "I think that today we were closer to our rivals than we expected after qualifying. Obviously we were on different tactics, but we did the correct things, the right choice with tires and the fastest race we could. We had a pretty good speed but we were not fast enough for gaining a better position. Fourth position is not exactly what we were looking for, but this is not the easiest circuit for us against the Mercedes, and we did our maximum. With Sebastian we were more or less driving behind each other and when you race against your teammate there's not much that you can do, we both know what the other guy is going to do. After the start it was a bit tricky, I got close after the first pit stop, but then he was able to pull away. In the last few weekends it seems that we are going in the right direction, now we have to keep trying and improving doing our maximum. Every race is a different story, a small mistake here and there from somebody might give us a chance, who knows." | ||||
| 5 |  Daniel Ricciardo |
Red Bull | TAG | 45.295 |
| “You hope for a podium every race but realistically, coming here, we thought Ferrari would have an edge on us. We also thought Williams and Force India would be strong and we targeted fifth place. I just missed out yesterday in Qualifying but managed to make it happen today and for us to finish in fifth and seventh represents Championship damage limitation here at Monza. I was pretty close to (Valtteri) Bottas in the middle of the race and knew I could race hard from that position. It was a really enjoyable overtake (on Bottas). I have a three hour drive home tonight and didn’t want to spend the whole journey regretting not trying it. He is a fair racer and had seen me in the mirrors so I knew he wouldn’t turn in, so I had a go. It was great fun and felt nice to come from so far back and make it stick. We altered the strategy a bit which meant I had the supersofts on at that stage, so great work by the team to give me the chance to make the move. Our performance so far this season and the result we have achieved here makes me really excited heading into Singapore where I think we can challenge for the top spots.” | ||||
| 6 | Valtteri Bottas |
Williams | Mercedes | 51.015 |
| “I was personally expecting a bit more from today. I set myself a target of finishing on the podium, but we didn’t quite have the pace which meant that I had to push the tyre a little bit more in every stint just to secure my position on track. This meant that towards the end of the stint I was struggling a bit. The pure pace wasn’t there today, but overall we leave Monza with a positive result for the team, taking back fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.This gives us a bit of confidence and shows that we can definitely keep hold of fourth if we keep doing the right things.” | ||||
| 7 |  Max Verstappen |
Red Bull | TAG | 54.236 |
| “I went into anti-stall at the start. I don’t know what happened there so I have to analyse that. After that it was just very difficult, because you have to push harder on the tyres to get past people and that compromises your strategy, but in the end our last stint was very positive. I think we did the best we could with the tyres we had so we can be very happy about that. The car behaved very well today even though this track is not our favourite. We’re definitely looking forward to Singapore and hopefully we can put in a strong performance there.” | ||||
| 8 |  Sergio Perez |
Sahara Force India | Mercedes | 1'04.954 |
| “I didn’t really enjoy myself out there today: it was a fairly lonely race for most of it, but at least it gave me a chance to look after my tyres. I think we got the maximum result we could hope for because we didn’t have the pace to achieve more. We tried an aggressive strategy, with a very early second stop, to try and cover Verstappen, but it turned out to be too early and in the end we had a lot of pressure from Massa. It was very important to keep in front of him and bring home as many points as we possibly could. We always knew it would be a challenging race and it’s shown that we need to keep working hard. I think we can fight back strongly in Singapore because it’s a very different kind of circuit compared to Monza and we’ve performed well on street circuits so far this year.” | ||||
| 9 |  Felipe Massa |
Williams | Mercedes | 1'05.617 |
| “I think it was a good race apart from the fact that we didn’t have the pace we expected to have with the option tyres. My race started after I changed on to the supersoft tyres and my pace was really good. If I could have got a bit more out of my tyres then it could have been better but I’m pleased that we managed to get enough points to take fourth place back in the Constructors’ Championship.” | ||||
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg |
Sahara Force India | Mercedes | 1'18.656 |
| “My initial start off the line was okay, but Max [Verstappen] in front of me really bogged down so I had to react and turn around him. That really hurt my traction and I lost all the drive going forward, which is why I lost a few positions. Later in the lap, I was side-by-side through turn four with Felipe [Massa] and was on the outside line for turn five. Felipe jumped over the kerb, gave me a little hit, and pushed me wide on the exit, allowing Fernando [Alonso] to get ahead. So it was not a great first lap. Then, in the first stint, it wasn’t easy to overtake and I was stuck behind Fernando until the first pit stop. The second half of the race was actually quite lonely for me, but the damage was done by losing so much ground on lap one. So I’m slightly disappointed with the outcome because I believed we would be more competitive here. We need to learn the lessons, understand where we can improve and come out much stronger in Singapore.” | ||||
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