A bittersweet Italian Grand Prix sees Lewis victorious as Nico retires. Lewis took his third Italian Grand Prix victory and seventh of the season
The result marks his 40th career win on his 160th Grand Prix start. Nico was forced to retire just three laps from the flag with a mechanical failure of his Power Unit. The Power Unit in question was being run for a sixth race weekend. The root cause of the failure will be diagnosed at Brixworth.
Both Lewis and Nico ran a one stop strategy of option / prime. Mercedes AMG Petronas now lead Ferrari by 181 points in the Constructors' Championship. Lewis now leads the Drivers' Championship by 53 points from Nico.
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: A bittersweet day for us all with a fantastic win for Lewis but a DNF for Nico after he had climbed back through the field. The pattern was set at the start, when Lewis retained the lead but Nico suffered a bad start. Lewis was able to build a good gap to Vettel, drove a flawless race and thoroughly deserved his victory. The result leaves him in a very strong championship position with seven races to go.
Nico climbed back through the field thanks to strong pace and some great work on the pit wall, when he made an aggressive early stop to undercut both Williams cars in front of him - with a great stop from the boys. That put him in free air and he started a long charge to hunt down Vettel in front. P2 looked possible and Nico was pushing hard to close in - we pushed the power unit very hard and, in hindsight, too far for the high mileage it had. It's a bitter pill to lose a podium finish just three laps from the end and with P2 in your sights.
Of course, we had to manage the situation with the stewards after the race, although we were confident that we had acted correctly throughout and followed the guidance from Pirelli. As Mercedes-Benz, our number one priority is to operate our car within the prescribed safety limits and this is not something we would ever take a chance on. Indeed, we worked very closely with Pirelli since Spa to help define these limits for the race weekend in Monza, and we saw today that there were no problems in a very high-speed, hard-fought race; my compliments go to Pirelli for the job they have done here in Monza.
Overall, this has been an extremely challenging race but after so many ups and downs, it's very satisfying to come away with a strong win. However, like we always say, small details decide between success and failure, and we had more evidence this weekend of how hard we must keep pushing to maintain our level of performance in every single race. We have a fantastic team and they have done a great job this season, both at the track and in the factories. Now we need to get our heads down, fix our problems and keep moving forward.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): Congratulations first and foremost to Lewis on a fantastic win. It was a superbly controlled drive. But, at the same time, our apologies must go to Nico. The weekend first started to unravel for him on Saturday with the failure of a component which contaminated his engine, forcing him to run a Power Unit which had already competed in five race weekends. The power loss from the age of the engine likely cost him a front row grid slot in qualifying and had then clearly been pushed too far in undertaking a sixth race on Sunday. He produced a fantastic recovery drive after a tough start and deserved a result, so our apologies once again to him. We will learn a lot of lessons from this weekend to take into the coming races.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "Considering our starting positions for the race, it was a great job from both drivers today. Ricciardo's last lap in particular, to take that place from Ericsson, was impressive. The team work and strategy were solid and, given the penalties we faced, getting both cars to finish in the points at this track is a positive result."
Matthieu Dubois, Renault: "It is nice to see both cars finish in the points with both engines under control after eventful practice sessions. A last second overtake by Daniel was good to watch and double points is as much as we could have expected starting from the back. We came here with reasonably low hopes, wanting to use the power unit changes to cover us for the rest of the season. Let's hope the penalties we took will serve us well."
Felipe claimed his second podium of the season in front of a cheering Italian crowd in Monza today. Valtteri finished in fourth, pushing his teammate hard in the final laps. After good starts for both cars they ran third and fourth until Rosberg quicker pitstop allowed him to jump ahead of both cars after the one and only round of stops. Both drivers capitalised on Rosberg stopping on track in the late stages of the race to claim a valuable 27 points for the team.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It was a good race for the team. The mandate from the start of the weekend was that we had to have a clean weekend. If there were 15 points on the table, we had to come away with 15 points. The great news is that we've taken 27 points and a podium. We've moved away from the people behind us in fourth by a good amount, which was the absolute priority. We've kept pace with Ferrari, so in championship terms it's been a good weekend for us. We came out of what was not a particularly good race in Belgium, from both a performance and operational point of view, and we've reacted really well. They team were absolutely spot on all weekend which is a great show of the strength and depth we have at Williams now.
Maurizio Arrivabene: "This time I see the glass half full. Sebastian's race to second place was unbelievable. His contribution to the team so far has been outstanding. As for Kimi, he had a great qualifying yesterday, then maybe he messed up a bit at the start of the race. But afterwards he was able to pass a lot of cars on the track with a fantastic race. Ideally, we would have hoped for two good starts, but we're happy anyway with this weekend. We came here investing a few tokens on our Power Unit and we're satisfied with our gain, also in terms of reliability. In the forthcoming races, the gap to our main competitors will depend much on the kind of track. We will keep on working with humility and determination to the end of the season, trying to jump on every opportunity".
As expected, that was a tough afternoon for McLaren-Honda. Both drivers made strong starts - Jenson Button jumped five cars on the first lap, and ran as high as ninth in the opening laps. However, he was soon passed by a number of faster cars, eventually settling into 15th position. A late retirement from another car elevated him to 14th at the end.
Fernando Alonso ran the opposite strategy to Jenson, starting on the Prime [tyre] before switching to the Option. He too made a strong start, scrabbling through into 12th, but again was thereafter powerless to avoid slipping down the order. Just as he was about to begin dicing with Jenson, he suffered an electrical control board issue, which prompted him to box. However, a quick switch-change brought the car back to life, and Fernando drove through without stopping. However, he was forced to stop at the end of the lap.
The whole team is now looking towards the next race in Singapore, which should give our technical package a slightly better opportunity of being more competitive.
Eric Boullier, Racing director: "We always knew that Monza and Spa-Francorchamps would be among the least well-suited circuits for our car, and so it proved at both venues.
"Here in Italy, we've come away with nothing to show for our efforts, and obviously that's hard to take for all concerned.
"It's been a stressful few days for us - that's probably been as obvious from the outside as it's been painful on the inside - but we'll now return to Woking and Sakura and continue the hard work in an effort to claw our way back to the front.
"We aren't predicting great things for the next race, Singapore, but we're hoping that that street circuit's characteristics will be slightly kinder to our car than Spa-Francorchamps and Monza have been."
Yasuhisa Arai, Honda R&D senior managing officer - chief officer of motorsport: "Though expected, it was a very difficult weekend. From free practice to the race, the team worked together to get the cars' set-up fit for the race, but the assist time from the MGU-K affected the lap times, and could not be improved during the race.
"Fernando's car unfortunately had an electrical control board issue, and therefore had to retire. We will need to investigate the reason for this further, but we do not believe there has been any effect on the ERS itself.
"The next race in Singapore is a street circuit, so the load on the chassis and power unit will be very different from Monza."
Sahara Force India scored 14 points in today's Italian Grand Prix as Sergio Perez raced to sixth place ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in seventh. The result moves the team back up to fifth place in the constructors' championship.
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "To be leaving Monza with 14 points in our pocket completes a very competitive weekend for Sahara Force India. It means we've regained the advantage in our battle for fifth place in the standings and gives us a nice boost ahead of the fly-away races. The circuit certainly played to our strengths, but the team has worked incredibly hard this weekend to get both cars home in the points. Sergio and Nico both drove very mature races, fighting hard when they needed to and looking after the tyres. Nico was less comfortable with the car, so we will explore those issues, but all things considered we can feel extremely positive about our performance today."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "Even before coming here to Monza we knew that we would start from the back of the grid. As we didn't expect to score points at this track, we thought it wasn't a bad idea to be penalised for engine changes to prevent any potential issues at circuits that suit our car much better. Unfortunately, Max was also given a drive-through penalty for losing part of the bodywork on track yesterday during qualifying, while Carlos got a five-second penalty in today's race for cutting the first chicane and gaining an advantage. Nevertheless, the pace in the race was very promising and both drivers did a very good job, as well as the whole team, providing a competitive car for a challenging race. If we could've started from higher-up on the grid - something we are generally able to achieve - most likely, we would have scored some good points. We are now looking forward to Singapore, where we expect to be really competitive and start a very positive last part of the season."
Cedrik Staudohar (Renault Sport F1 track support leader): "We expected a tough weekend because of the calculated engine penalties. The most important thing is both drivers made the most of the situation in the race today. We can be pleased with how the engines behaved in the race, and we know that the car is good. It's a shame that Carlos had his 5secs penalty early in the race otherwise we could have scored some points. We have to capitalize on the one hand on reliability for the next few races and on the other hand the tracks we know will suit us better."
Lotus F1 Team crashed down to earth with incidents on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix leading to a double retirement. Both cars started in the top ten but damage to each car in separate incidents meant that Pastor Maldonado parked his car in the garage at the end of the first lap whilst Romain Grosjean parked his at the side of the track early in lap two. The team now heads to the next Grand Prix in Singapore on September 18-20th.
Romain started from P8 on the grid on his qualifying soft tyres. Contact with Felipe Nasr's Sauber at the first corner meant damage to the rear of Romain's car and retirement early in lap two.
Pastor started from P10 on new soft tyres but contact with Nico Hulkenberg's Force India meant damage to Pastor's front suspension and he retired at the end of the first lap.
Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: "What can you say? Everyone at Enstone, at the track, our sponsors, partners and suppliers would have liked to see a favourable result for us today but the cruel mistress that is motor sport gave us a resounding slap in the face. Both drivers had their race undone at the first corner and this was a real blow to all of us. We now focus on the next Grands Prix where we're determined as ever to score more points and keep fighting. Thank you all for your support."
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: "A disastrous race for us with our cars retiring following incidents at turn one. Both drivers started in the top ten and we had potential for a good points haul but Monza's turn one can get very crowded on the first lap, which is what we saw today. It's been a challenging weekend for us, but the response from our fellow competitors has been tremendous and we thank them all for that. We've seen that the E23 has still got strong pace so we're heading to Singapore and Japan eager for clean races to re-ignite our championship fight."
The European season came to a positive end for the Sauber F1 Team - being able to fight for points and finishing in P9 (Ericsson) and P13 (Nasr) at the Italian Grand Prix. The Sauber C34-Ferrari were competitive and able to fight against their direct competitors. Marcus Ericsson again put in a strong performance, ending the race in P9 - scoring points for the third time in a row after the Hungarian and Belgian Grands Prix. On lap one Felipe Nasr had a right rear puncture after contact with another driver. This incident compromised the entire race for the Brazilian.
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "It was an exciting race in which we were able to fight for points. It-s a pity for Felipe. After a very good start, his race was destroyed in the first corner after contact with another driver. Marcus managed to have a good race. Unfortunately in the end we were not able to get even more points. Nevertheless, this result encourages the whole team for the next races - this is also due to the aerodynamic update which will be introduced in Singapore for the upcoming races."
The Manor Marussia F1 Team secured its 8th two-car finish of the 2015 season today as Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi ended the 53-lap Formula 1 Gran Premio D' Italia 2015 in 15th and 16th positions.
John Booth, Team Principal: "All in all, another strong weekend for our team here in Monza. Our reliability continues to be very encouraging, our pace is improving relative to the cars immediately ahead and both drivers are pushing each other hard. This combination of factors is really allowing us to punch a little above our weight at present and it was good to see Will in particular enjoying a good fight with the cars around him in the opening laps today. A positive note on which to end the European phase of races. Finally, our congratulations to our powertrain partner Scuderia Ferrari on achieving a podium result at their home race."
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has extended his championship lead by winning the Italian Grand Prix from pole position, using a one-stop soft-medium strategy. Hamilton won his 50th grand prix with Mercedes, having gone quickest in every practice session, taken pole position and set fastest lap as well. In the end, his winning margin was 25 seconds.
The Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel was second on an identical strategy, with the top 10 all stopping just once. The majority of drivers started on the soft tyre and then moved onto the medium. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was the highest-placed driver to start on the medium tyre and run the opposite strategy, ending up eighth after starting 19th as a result of grid penalties.
Another impressive fightback, using a one-stop soft-medium strategy came from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, fifth at the end after dropping to last following a slow start off the grid.
While Hamilton dominated the front of the field, there was close competition behind him, with many of the points-scoring places only settled on the final lap, as drivers battled for position.
Paul Hembery: "As ever, Monza proved to be an amazing experience, with an incredible atmosphere provided by some of the most enthusiastic fans we see all year. As a Formula One venue, it is simply emblematic. Lewis Hamilton drove a text-book race for Mercedes, ending up with a well-deserved victory thanks to a perfectly executed strategy. Behind him, there were also some great battles throughout the field, with a one-stop strategy becoming the default option for the field – despite the fact that Monza is known for its high wear and degradation."
Truth-O-Meter
We predicted a one-stopper as the most likely winning scenario for the 53-lap race, and this is exactly what Hamilton chose, in line with our expectations. Our prediction said that after starting on soft, it would be quickest to stop for medium on lap 21. Hamilton actually stopped on lap 26.
