Christian Horner, Team Principal: "I think fifth and sixth was the absolute optimum today. We picked two different strategies, an aggressive one with Sebastian to undercut the McLaren, which worked and gave him track position but unfortunately made his tyres marginal at the end of the race. With Daniel we took the opposite approach as he was running in clear air. We ran him long in the first stint with a shorter second stint and then his passing moves to come back through the field were truly impressive and obviously with Sebastian struggling with tyre degradation due to the length of the stint, it became inevitable that the two were going to swap positions. But fifth and sixth place, at a circuit dominated by Mercedes-powered cars, is damage limitation achieved."
Thierry Salvi, Renault: "As expected it was a hard race and we played with the strategy to nurse the tyres and stay as close as possible to the front. Sebastian pitted early to protect position, which left him with very worn tyres at the end, but he nevertheless managed to keep as much pace as possible. Daniel went longer on the first stint and was then able to keep his tyres in good shape until the end of the race. We've still got a lot of work to do but overall it's a reasonable result for the team compared to the qualifying pace yesterday."
Lewis Hamilton won the 2014 Italian Grand Prix with Nico Rosberg second, achieving the team's seventh 1-2 finish.
Lewis took his sixth win of the season, driving a great race to recover from a slow start that saw him drop to P4. Nico took the lead on lap one and held it before a mistake into turn one allowed Lewis to regain the lead on lap 29. Both drivers ran the same strategy, starting on the medium tyres and pitting one lap apart on lap 24 (Nico) and lap 25 (Lewis) to change to the hard tyres and race to the end.
The 1-2 finish represents the seventh this season; only three seasons in Formula One history have seen seven or more 1-2 finishes from a team. The team now have a lead of 182 points in the Constructors' Championship (454 points in total) with both drivers 50 points or more ahead of third place in the Drivers' Championship. All of the top four and seven of the top ten today are powered by Mercedes-Benz Hybrid Power.
Toto Wolff: Lewis had fantastic pace this weekend and his qualifying lap laid the basis for his win. He was in a league of his own this afternoon in terms of speed but it wasn't an easy race for him after the problems at the start. But he stayed calm, took his opportunities and delivered the goods. Nico also drove a strong race and took a good second place. It's fantastic to take our seventh one-two of the season, we have been waiting a while for this one. Well done to everybody at Brackley for a job well done - and I'd like to give a special mention to the boys and girls at Brixworth; it's pretty special when you see your Power Unit take a one-two-three-four finish at Monza!
Paddy Lowe: It was fantastic to score another one-two finish again. There was a lot of expectation because of the long gap since we last did it in Austria, even though the car has had the potential to do so. It wasn't an easy race, though. The first stress point came when we had to change Lewis' front wing after it sustained slight damage on the grid. Then at the race start, Lewis' systems for the start would not engage the correct mode, which meant he had the wrong engine settings and lost three positions off the line. He did a great job to recover, and pulled off a very classy pass on Massa into the first chicane. He had the better pace overall today and closed in on Nico, until Nico's mistake in Turn One. We had briefed both drivers to take the long route if they made a mistake under braking, rather than locking up and trying to make the corner. This was because a flat spot could have severely compromised the one-stop strategy, so Nico did absolutely the right thing - but it also cost him the lead. Overall, a great team result; congratulations to everybody back at base who worked so hard to make it happen and to both drivers for two very strong performances after our difficult race in Spa.
Pat Fry: "On a weekend which we knew would suit the characteristics of our opponents' cars, trying our best was unfortunately not enough. Having pulled off a brilliant passing move on Perez round the outside at first Lesmo, Fernando then spent the whole first stint in a group of cars all doing the same lap times, with all the drivers benefiting from the DRS effect on those cars ahead of them. Unfortunately, his race ended after the first stop, because of a failure within the ERS system. Even if it's been a long time since we've had a reliability issue, this incident shows how important it is to continue to focus on this aspect. Thanks to a good getaway, Kimi managed to make up one place at the start and another by passing Hulkenberg on lap 6, but he could not make up enough ground to attack those in front. We finished in the points with him, however it's disappointing that we were unable to do more for the fans. Now, all we can do is look to the future and try and do well starting with the very next Grand Prix in Singapore."
Romain started from P17 on new hard compound tyres, pitting on lap 20 for a set of new medium compound tyres and for a piece of bodywork to be removed. Pastor started from P16 on new medium compound tyres, pitting on lap 21 for a set of new hard tyres.
Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: "We saw a very strong race today from Pastor who didn't put a foot wrong and extracted the maximum from our current package. Romain's race was a little more difficult but he drove around the small issues he experienced to bring his car home too. Monza has certainly been a difficult venue for us this year; let's hope for better results in Singapore."
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: "Fourteenth isn't where we want to finish but today's race did give us some signs of encouragement. Pastor's pace was much closer to that of the cars in front of us, and he drove an exemplary race. Both cars were reliable although Romain lost a part of his sidepod and also experienced some downshift issues later in the race which hurt him in the very important braking zones here. We've taken another small step in understanding the car this weekend which helps us for the next races."
Simon Rebreyend, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: "We knew this race would be a challenge but we extracted the maximum potential we could from the Power Unit, with all systems working on point in every area. Pastor finished two places up on his starting slot whilst Romain gained a position but we know that Singapore will suit the stronger points of the car a lot more than here so we'll get straight into preparations now."
Eventual finishing positions of eighth (Jenson Button) and 10th (Kevin Magnussen) weren't quite what the team was expecting following yesterday's promising qualifying session, which saw us lock out the third row of the grid.
The start was electrifying: Kevin deftly jumped from fifth to second into the first corner, but was unable to match the pace of the faster cars behind him once they had started to make up ground. Indeed, scrapping valiantly for position against faster opposition became the story of our race as both drivers pushed hard, enjoying close fights with Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Felipe Massa, Checo Perez, Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel.
Kevin's race came undone when he was given a five-second stop-go penalty - he finished seventh on the road, which dropped to 10th once the time penalty had been added. Into the closing laps, braking and traction issues limited Jenson's ability to fight hard against Checo - despite some sterling wheel-to-wheel action - and he finished ninth, later elevated to eighth following Kevin's penalty.
Eric Bouulier, Racing Director: "Kevin made a truly tremendous start from fifth place on the grid, which gave him momentum enough to slip neatly past Felipe into second place into Turn One.
"Thereafter he drove hard and well, making no errors, but was unable to prevent a number of faster cars from passing him over the next 53 laps.
"In the closing stages he and Valtteri were involved in a spirited and entertaining dice - the kind of wheel-to-wheel racing that Formula 1 fans thrill to see - and in our view he was unfortunate to be penalised for what we saw as a legitimate defence. But the stewards' decision is final, and as a result of it Kevin ended up being classified 10th.
"Jenson drove a typically controlled yet combative race, finishing ninth on the road, which became eighth as a result of Kevin's penalty.
"As a team we scored only five world championship points today, which was quite a lot fewer than we'd expected to score, but there are positives to take from the weekend too: our qualifying pace was strong and our race pace was solid, and as I said yesterday it's clear that we're making sure and steady progress.
"The next race, the Singapore Grand Prix, will be run on a tight and tortuous circuit whose layout could hardly be more different from the flat-out speed-bowl that is Monza, but, on fast circuit or slow, you may be well sure that we'll be doing our damnedest to score as many points as possible in an effort to consolidate our fifth place in the constructors' championship."
Sahara Force India scored six points in Monza as Sergio Perez battled hard to finish in seventh place at the Italian Grand Prix. Nico Hulkenberg finished the race in P12.
Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director: "Six points keeps us where we need to be in our close championship battle with just a single point separating us from fifth place. Sergio was mighty today, showing once again how well he can race with some brilliant overtaking and defending. Nico made a great start, but he has not been completely comfortable with the car balance all weekend and especially in the race today. Despite his very strong start, points were out of reach. With six races remaining this season, I still believe we have all to play for and that we must keep pushing hard."
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "It was a difficult weekend that ended as we expected it would. Under the circumstances the team worked well, even though we have some room for improvement with the consistency of the pit stops. Adrian extracted from the car what was possible today. The contact which Esteban had with a competitor was unnecessary. The tracks which are now coming up are less dependent on power, therefore, we hope we can come back to the level of performance we had in Hungary."
Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "From the beginning it was clear that under normal circumstances it would be extremely difficult to make up positions. We, therefore, decided to choose a tyre strategy which was meant to give us an advantage if some unexpected things happened. However, in the end this didn't pay off. Esteban struggled to get the hard tyres to work, therefore, we switched to a two-stop strategy. But in the race we were simply not fast enough. It looks as if we are stronger in qualifying, but then are losing ground to our competitors with our race settings. The tracks that are now coming up need less power, which should help us."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "Daniil did a fantastic job today. Starting from the last position on the grid he was able to make his way up. I think he is the driver who can count the highest number of overtaking during today's race. In the last two laps he was fighting to close the gap to Kimi Raikkonen, getting quite close to him, but unfortunately he suddenly suffered a front brake failure, which we will have to investigate. Only thanks to his extraordinary driving skills he was able to control the car and avoid a collision. All considered, I'm really impressed by his capability to close the gap to the cars in front of him and I'm convinced that he might have finished the race in 9th position today, after the 5 seconds penalty imposed to Magnussen. As for Jean-Eric, he complained about a lack of grip which made him struggle with the car for the entire race and therefore he finished in the thirteenth position. The team has done a solid job with a good working strategy and fast pit stops. We just have to go on pushing as much as possible to arrive well prepared in Singapore to score the points which we missed out on today."
Ricardo Penteado (Renault Sport F1 track support leader): "A great race for Daniil, who did an incredible job to recover from his penalty and finish just outside the top ten. JEV had a harder race, but on the engine side we really pushed the Power Units to the max, taking calculated risks to improve performance on the hardest 'engine' track of the year. Despite the higher than expected temperatures everything worked fine. We are now looking forward to Singapore, which should suit the car more than this track."
Felipe Massa achieved his first podium for Williams as Valtteri Bottas finished in fourth position in today's Italian Grand Prix.
Felipe was up to third after the first lap, with a Mercedes and McLaren in front, whilst Valtteri suffered from wheel spin and slipped to 11th. Valtteri fought hard through the field both before and after his pitstop, whilst Felipe established himself in third. The result takes Williams into third in the Constructors' Championship moving ahead of Ferrari.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: We finished where we should have done, although we did make it a bit more spectacular than we needed to. We had some issues with the starts which isn't normal, so this needs to be investigated. Valtteri drove an incredible race to recover from 11th whilst managing his tyres. Felipe had an incredible race too, using all his experience including a great overtaking manoeuvre on Magnussen to secure a fantastic result. It was great to see the fans reception for him as well.
John Booth, Team Principal: "A tough day for the Team and on the back of yesterday's qualifying result, overall it has not the best weekend we have experienced this year. Max's race ended fairly early on with a rare mistake at Turn 4. With Jules we followed the fairly conventional one-stop strategy, as was adopted by the majority of teams, and with this there was not much else we could do in order to try and help move him up. Coming into Monza we weren't particularly confident that we would have a strong weekend, however the pace up until qualifying looked encouraging, although it is clear that the race pace was more in line with our prior expectations. The car has not been particularly unbalanced and nor have we suffered with any stability problems this weekend, so at least we can be confident going into Singapore that we have a car we can build on there and with that type of track we are hopeful of a much better weekend."
Claudio Albertini, Head of Customer Teams Power Unit Operations, Scuderia Ferrari: "It was a weekend that leaves a bad taste in the mouth because we really wanted to do well at this track in the first season of the partnership between Ferrari and Marussia. Unfortunately, the level of performance has not been what we wanted, both in qualifying and in the race. Jules gave his best but he could not fight with our main rivals and the race of Max was too short to be judged. The only good thing about this weekend was the reliability: on the most demanding track for the usage of the power unit we had no problems that have affected the technical program. At the end of the European season, we now begin the final part of the championship with six races in two months between Asia and the Americas. We will do everything to help the team to maintain its current position in the Constructors' Championship and look to the future."
Cedrik Staudohar, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: "Today was a good race for us, with both cars getting to the end and a big fight between Kamui and Bianchi. In the end we were clearly ahead, which shows the progress we've made over the last couple of events. On the engine side we had to manage temperatures at the beginning of the race but everything stayed manageable and under control. We hope to be able to bring improved engine performance to capitalize on this race with an even better result in Singapore."
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has won in Monza, Pirelli's home race held half an hour's drive from the company's HQ in Milan. Hamilton won the race with a one-stop strategy, starting on the P Zero White medium tyre and then switching to the P Zero Orange hard tyre for the rest of the race.
He is now seventh in the all-time list of grand prix winners, surpassing fellow Briton Sir Jackie Stewart. Hamilton was presented with his trophy on the podium by Pirelli brand ambassador Jean Alesi.
The winning strategy was adopted by the majority of frontrunners, with the top 10 finishers all using similar tactics. At one of the fastest races of the year, with approximately a 24-second time loss in the pit lane, most drivers were able to take advantage of the low wear and degradation of both compounds to stop only once: clearly the best way to approach the race.
The top 10 on the grid all started on the medium tyre, with Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg the highest-placed driver to start on the hard tyre, from 13th on the grid. He then completed a long 33-lap final stint on the softer tyre at the end of the race.
Another driver to start on the hard tyre was Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat, from 21st on the grid following a penalty. He completed a 30-lap opening stint on the hard tyre and was set for a points finish with the different strategy helping him gain track position, until a braking issue on the final lap.
Temperatures were slightly cooler than they had been during the weekend previously, with the race starting in 29 degrees ambient and 44 degrees of track temperature.
Paul Hembery: "Throughout the weekend, wear and degradation rates were low on both compounds – even with the punishing speeds and impacts with kerbs that the tyres have to face here at Monza. We've seen top speeds during the race in excess of 360kph, putting on a great show for the spectators. Also, we've experienced no blistering during the course of the weekend, which can occasionally be an issue at Monza. Congratulation to Lewis Hamilton for his second win with us at Monza: we saw plenty of high-speed action further down the field as well, showcasing all the skills of the current generation of Formula One drivers and cars."
Truth-O-Meter
We predicted a one-stop strategy, starting on the medium tyre and then switching to the hard tyre on lap 23. Hamilton followed our prediction, stopping at the end of lap 25 – one lap later than his team mate.
