Race report

Red Bull celebrates its 40th victory at Monza

Christian Horner: "A fantastic way to achieve our 40th victory and Sebastian’s 32nd."

Sebastian Vettel, (Finish Position: Winner, Start Position: Pole Position): “It’s fantastic to win this event again. I just managed to make turn one! I locked the front right and it just didn’t seem to come back.

Race winner Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing celebrates on the podium

Photo by: XPB Images

I had a big flat spot, which I felt straight away and I wasn’t sure if the tyre would survive, but fortunately I managed to make it round and have a strong first stint.

I pushed straight away to get a bit of a gap, in case we had to stop early and change to a two-stop strategy. We had a gearbox issue and I had to short shift, which meant we dropped some time in the straights – but I tried to make it up in the corners. It’s great to finish on the top step. The podium here is always very passionate.

We are in Italy and when you walk around outside the track, you see Ferrari clothing and merchandise in all the shops starting from the smallest sizes upwards; it’s part of their DNA, which I understand.

It was great for the Tifosi to have Fernando on the podium today. The season is going well and we’re pushing hard, but we take each race as it comes. We’re looking forward to Singapore next, which I want to finish; I think it’s the toughest race we have all year.”

Mark Webber (Finish Position: 3rd, Start Position: 2nd): “It’s a great place here and it’s very special to finish on the podium. It’s not the circuit where I’ve had the best results in the past, so it’s a bit of a personal best for me in qualifying and the race.

I felt better on the soft tyres today; I had a good battle with Fernando, fair play to him on that and then afterwards I settled in to getting my head down and getting on with the race. We got Felipe on the stop, which was great.

I was happy with my in-lap, the pit stop was great and then my out-lap was strong, so we cleared him reasonably comfortably. We had to nurse the gearbox a bit at the end, but overall it was a good result. Seb is very strong around here and it was great to get such a good result today.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal: “A fantastic way to achieve our 40th victory and Sebastian’s 32nd. To win and finish third in Monza, which is one of the most historic events, is testimony to our strong team work today. It’s been a fantastic effort behind the scenes in preparation for this event.

We had some issues that we had to manage during the race and the pit stops in particular were great and enabled Mark to get ahead of Felipe Massa. It’s very impressive how the whole team have all contributed to this fantastic result.”

Thierry Salvi, Renault: “Everyone knows it’s special to win at Monza, but particularly for an engine manufacturer. It is the last time the V8s run round here so we are naturally over the moon to finish the era with a win and a podium today.

I would like to thank everyone at Renault for getting the job done all weekend - first a 1-2 in qualifying and then both drivers on the podium at the end of the race. It shows the competitiveness of everyone at Renault and the Red Bull team and the strength of the partnership. Everyone pushed hard to get this fantastic result. A great race and a great day. “