Renault powers Vettel to victory at Monza

Sebastian Vettel dominated the Italian Grand Prix today, taking his sixth win of the season by over five seconds. The reigning world champion started from pole position and steered his Renault-powered Infiniti Red Bull Racing to a majestic win, his third at Monza.

Team-mate Mark Webber was third, putting two Renault powered cars onto the podium at the toughest ‘engine’ circuit of the year.

The pair came under pressure at various points in the race from the two Ferraris but kept the hammer down in the rounds of pit stops to extend Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s lead in the constructors’ championship to 352 points to Ferrari’s 248.

Lotus F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean put a third Renault powered car into the points in eighth overall, a strong effort from 13th on the grid and under pressure from both McLarens and then Lewis Hamilton in the latter stage of the race. Kimi Raikkonen finished 0.3secs from a points-scoring position.

The Finn had contact with Sergio Perez at the start, which necessitated a front wing change on the first lap and dropped him down to the rear of the field. Then the charge was on and he put in fastest lap after fastest lap and was up to 5th overall by his first tyre change. The last 10 laps saw a monumental battle with Lewis Hamilton, which ended going the Brit’s way on lap 49 of 53.

Williams F1 Team’s Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas passed the flag in 14th and 15th overall with Caterham F1 Team’s Charles Pic 17th, just ahead of Giedo van der Garde.

Rémi Taffin, Renault Sport F1 head of track operations: "For an engine manufacturer it is a fantastic feeling to win here and getting a double podium is the cherry on the cake. All eight Renault-powered cars finished this toughest race of the season, with three in the points.

This season is proving to be an exceptional one for us so far with wins at all the high power sensitivity tracks this year – Montreal, Spa and now Monza. In the last year of the V8 engines it shows we are pushing just as hard as we were seven years ago when they were introduced.

We’ll celebrate this one but there are still a number of challenges to cover before the end of the season. We go now to Singapore, which is a very different race to here. We will however keep pushing to the very end to help all our teams achieve their respective goals in the championship."

Renault Sport F1

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