Nico Rosberg today took his 21st career victory - his 1st at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza and 7th of the 2016 season so far. Lewis completed a 4th Silver Arrows 1-2 of the season in P2. Lewis Hamilton (250) leads the Drivers' Championship by 2 points from Nico Rosberg (148) in P2.
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: First of all, a pretty perfect afternoon for the team in terms of the end result, with a 1-2 finish in front of an amazing Monza crowd this afternoon. The decisive moment was clearly the start: as Lewis dropped back to P6, Nico was able to take the lead and that set the pattern for their races. Nico did everything he needed to in just the right way: he managed the pace, kept the tyres in great shape and delivered a perfect one-stop race. As for Lewis, it was a balancing act for him as soon as he went into recovery mode: he needed to make the stint lengths in order to stay on the one-stop strategy but also fight his way back through. He judged it to perfection and limited the damage in terms of the points situation. As for the start, we obviously changed the rules this year in order to make the process more manual and more variable, and we are seeing that play out. When you start from the front row, poor starts are more visible and good ones not so obvious, so we need to be careful jumping to conclusions. Lewis said on the radio that it was his fault but he also followed all his procedures in a good way - it's simply not an easy thing to get right and there are a lot of different factors at play. But there is no blame game: we will come together, analyse everything, learn our lessons and keep on improving so we don't find ourselves losing places off the line. But looking at the big picture, we have a perfectly balanced championship battle, with two points between Nico and Lewis after 14 races. The pendulum will keep swinging back and forth to the end of the season, I am sure; it will give us some more grey hairs but I think it will be a great fight for the fans to watch.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): Congratulations to Nico on his first win here at the Italian Grand Prix. It's an incredible experience to win here, at one of the most iconic venues on the Formula 1 calendar, and the crowd always comes out in force. It was a very controlled drive from Nico as it was difficult to manage the one-stop strategy and make the two tyre sets hold out for the necessary number of laps. For Lewis, the start was clearly a bad one as he went from 1st to 6th before the first corner and that made it extremely difficult for him to compete for the win. He completed a perfect recovery drive to get back to 2nd though and, with his fighting spirit, he didn't give up on the win until it was clearly impossible. Clearly we need to analyse what happened to Lewis at the start and do better next time. After such a great qualifying lap yesterday we all share Lewis' disappointment that he lost position. It's fantastic to get the 1-2 here today and it's been a sensational performance all weekend from the drivers, race team and the team back at Brackley and Brixworth.
Maurizio Arrivabene: Today we did our best, especially at the start which was very good. We chose the fastest possible strategy for the race, trying to achieve the best possible result. It was a good race, but of course we would have liked to do much better, as a way to pay back our fantastic fans who never failed to give us their support and were always close to us, in particular here in our home race at Monza. The team worked well and unitedly, both here and in Maranello, and we've seen some positive signs. Now the focus has already shifted to the next round at Singapore.
Valtteri Bottas finished sixth and Felipe Massa ninth in the Italian Grand Prix. Valtteri had a good start, running P4 in the opening laps and battling with Hamilton. Running P5 for much of the race and opting for a two-stop strategy, he was ultimately overtaken by the quicker Red Bull of Ricciardo in the final stages of the race.
Felipe had a strong start, moving from 11th to eighth on the opening lap. Greater than expected degradation on the option tyre resulted in a two-stop strategy, and he drove a solid and consistent race to finish in the points.
Valtteri remains seventh in the Drivers' Championship with 70 points and Felipe tenth with 41 points. The team regains fourth in the Constructors' Championship, three points ahead of Force India.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: I think that was pretty much the most we could achieve today. We stopped a little bit early with Valtteri but the strategy played out well. Ricciardo got us at the end but he had been quite a lot quicker throughout the race and was right up behind Valtteri, but we did what we could to race him. It would have been nice to have held on to fifth but we just didn't have the pace over the Red Bull. With Felipe, we went into the race planning a one-stop, but stopped earlier to cover Hulkenberg and then tried to keep Felipe out as long as possible to try and chase Perez at the end. The qualifying tyre we put on for the final stint was better than we expected and with one more lap we may have been able to gain another position with Felipe. Overall, in terms of strategy, pitstops, and how we operated as a team we managed the race well and it is satisfying to reclaim fourth in the championship.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "We knew coming to Monza that this would be the most challenging circuit on the calendar for us. This weekend was all about trying to limit the damage and I think we've optimised our performance today with two very strong drives from our drivers. After a difficult start for Max, who got an anti-stall, he recovered extremely well to finish seventh, and Daniel finished well in P5 after an outstanding passing move on Valtteri Bottas. To be leaving Europe 11 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship heading to circuits that hopefully suit our strengths more than here, means this has been a positive weekend."
Sahara Force India scored five points in today's Italian Grand Prix as Sergio Perez raced to eighth place ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in tenth.
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "Overall I think getting two cars in the points means we've come away with a solid result. Both drivers have been chasing the set-up to try and find the sweet spot all weekend, so to come away with five points is a good return for all the team's efforts. As is often the case in Monza, the outcome of lap one tends to dictate your finishing position and while Checo moved up, Nico was caught up in the rough and tumble of the midfield. The battle for fourth in the championship is likely to ebb and flow over the course of the season, but I'm optimistic that some of the upcoming events will play to our strengths more than Monza."
Renault Sport Formula One Team experienced a character-building Gran Premio Heineken d'Italia at the Autodromo di Monza. Jolyon Palmer made up a number of positions after a spirited start however contact with Felipe Nasr - for which the Sauber driver was subsequently penalised - led to retirement on safety grounds. Kevin Magnussen also made a strong start and finished in seventeenth position.
Kevin started the race from P21 with new set of Pirelli's red super soft tyres. He changed to new yellow softs on lap 14 then new super soft tyres on lap 30.
Jolyon started the race in P20 on new soft tyres. After contact with Sauber's Felipe Nasr at turn two on the first lap, he pitted for a new front wing, safety check and a set of new medium (white) compound tyres at the end of the second lap. He returned to the pits to retire at the end of his seventh lap.
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: "After the promise of Spa, Monza proved to be our toughest challenge of the year. Jolyon made a fantastic start but was robbed of the potential to improve further by the actions of Felipe Nasr, who was punished for the incident. Kevin did what he could in a car which was clearly not suited to Monza. We knew this season would be tough and this weekend was particularly so. The positives are not easily seen on track but rather lie in all the hard work going on behind the scenes in Enstone and Viry and we know that in 2017 we will be far stronger. Our immediate focus is now on Singapore where we should show better performance than here."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "As we could expect after yesterday's qualifying, we had a difficult race... Nothing happened in front of us and, because of the fact that all the cars in front of us finished the race, we didn't get the chance to score any points today. We called Daniil in as, in addition to a damaged floor, there was also a problem with the battery, which was overheating. There was absolutely no chance to score any points so we decided to retire him to save mileage on the engine. Regarding Carlos, he drove in the best possible way under these conditions and finished in P15. After Spa and Monza, we now look forward to Singapore, where we hope to finish within the points again."
The Sauber F1 Team finished the 2016 European Formula 1 season at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza with P16 (Marcus Ericsson) and a retirement (Felipe Nasr). After a collision on lap 2, Nasr had to retire early as his Sauber C35-Ferrari was damaged. Because Nasr was given a 10 second penalty afterwards, he went out again to serve the penalty in the pit lane. Otherwise Nasr would probably have been given a grid place penalty for the Singapore Grand Prix.
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "We had a difficult race, which was again unlucky for Felipe as he had to retire due to an accident. This incident was not his fault, so we do not understand why he was penalised. Marcus did his best and put in a good performance. This weekend should encourage us that we are able to finish races higher up if we could get the most out of qualifying."
Neither McLaren-Honda finished in the points at Monza this afternoon, despite spirited scraps from both drivers throughout the race. Jenson's afternoon was compromised by a messy first lap, but he recovered brilliantly, putting his head down to carve back through the field and finish on the tail of 11th-placed Romain Grosjean.
Fernando made a strong start, but was delayed by a pit-stop traffic-light issue at his first stop. He was passed by Jenson, who ran a set of Options in his third stint as opposed to Fernando's set of Primes, then elected to make a late stop to fit a set of Options. He enlivened a somewhat uneventful afternoon by blasted away to set the fastest lap of the race.
Another notable landmark was achieved today: our timing system measured a 2.15s stop for Fernando on lap 33, our fastest-ever tyre stop.
Eric Boullier, McLaren-Honda Racing Director: "We always knew that Monza was going to be one of the toughest races of the year for us from an overall car performance point of view, so the fact that we finished 12th and 14th today isn't a surprise.
"Having said that, both our cars ran flawlessly, reliable from lights to flag, and our race pace was reasonable throughout.
"Jenson and Fernando had a good dice at one point - hard but fair - and I'm sure their battle must have made for great viewing for TV viewers and grandstand spectators alike. It sometimes looked a little too close for complete comfort from our pit-wall, but McLaren always lets its drivers race, and rightly so. After all, our drivers are both super-experienced professionals and they know exactly what they're doing. Equally, we may be a very serious and focused organisation, but we should never forget that we're also in the entertainment business.
"Talking of entertainment, we were happy to allow Fernando to make an extra pit-stop and take on a new set of Supersoft tyres just before the end of the race, the result of which was that he was able to record the afternoon's fastest lap - the 22nd of his Formula 1 career.
"Next we go to Singapore, a diametrically different kind of racetrack. We're always aware of the danger of over-promising, so I won't do so; but it's likely that the twisty streets of Marina Bay will suit our car rather better than the wide-open curves and flat-out straights of the Autodromo di Monza have this afternoon. We'll be gunning for points, make no mistake about that."
Yusuke Hasegawa, Honda R&D Co Ltd Head of F1 Project & Executive Chief Engineer: "As we expected, this was a difficult race.
"We definitely saw improvement and stability in race pace from our qualifying, although we still weren't able to challenge the teams ahead of us.
"It was unfortunate that we couldn't finish in the points today, but we showed potential to do so. Both the drivers and the team did a great job, and I think we had a good race at a tough circuit, so I'm not unhappy. We're already looking forward to the next race where we hope we can have a better result."
A disappointing race day for Manor Racing. Though Esteban took his second chequered flag, his shot at a good result was hampered by his starting position after yesterday's problem in qualifying. Pascal was forced to retire after 18 laps after a sudden drop in oil pressure.
Dave Ryan, Racing Director: "We came to Monza with high expectations and as demonstrated by Pascal's qualifying performance it's fair to say that this was justified. However, we were let down by reliability on both cars at various times over the event and as a result suffered the consequences.
"Both Pascal and Esteban have been brilliant all weekend and are obviously frustrated that we have let an opportunity pass us by, but at the same time they appreciate it is a team sport, collectively we are Manor Racing, and on that basis we move on, lessons learned and looking forward to the next race in Singapore."
Haas F1 Team just missed a point-scoring result in the Italian Grand Prix Sunday at Autodromo Nazionale Monza with drivers Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez finishing 11th and 13th, respectively.
Grosjean overcame a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change that turned his 12th-place qualifying effort into a 17th-place starting spot. Despite the setback, Grosjean made the most of his start, rallying to 13th after the first lap around the 5.793-kilometer (3.6-mile), 11-turn circuit. He then passed the Manor of Pascal Wehrlein on lap two to take 12th. From there, Grosjean settled in for a long haul, at least by Formula One standards. He was the last driver to pit, going 28 laps before swapping the Pirelli P Zero Yellow soft tires he used to start the race for a set of Red supersofts. Grosjean then managed those tires for the next 25 laps, with his one-stop strategy allowing him to finish 11th even while holding off the surging McLaren of Jenson Button in the closing laps.
Gutierrez began the 53-lap race in 10th place thanks to a strong qualifying performance on Saturday. It was rendered moot, however, when a slow start saw the field zoom around him, dropping him all the way to 20th. Gutierrez recovered a bit to climb to 18th by lap seven. He made his first pit stop at the end of lap 16, changing from the Red supersofts he first used in qualifying to a new set of Yellow softs. By lap 24, Gutierrez had climbed to 15th. He made his second and final stop at the end of lap 34, grabbing a used set of Red supersofts that helped him finish 13th and keep the 14th-place McLaren of Fernando Alonso at bay.
Fourteen rounds into the 21-race Formula One schedule, Haas F1 Team remains eighth in the constructor standings with 28 points. There was no movement on either side of the American squad, as seventh-place Toro Rosso and ninth-place Renault failed to score points in the Italian Grand Prix. Toro Rosso's margin over Haas F1 Team is 17 points and Renault is 22 points back.
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg won the Italian Grand Prix by a stout 15.070 seconds over his teammate Lewis Hamilton, further tightening the championship battle. Rosberg's second straight victory lopped seven points from Hamilton's advantage, thinning the margin to just two points. The victory was Rosberg's 21st career Formula One victory, his seventh of the season and his first at Monza.
Joining the Mercedes duo on the podium was Scuderia Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. His teammate, Kimi Räikkönen, finished fourth. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top-five.
Seven races remain on the 2016 Formula One schedule, with the next event coming in two weeks with the Singapore Grand Prix Sept. 18 at Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Guenther Steiner: "Here we go again with an 11th and a 13th-place finish. I think once we got going, it was a pretty good race. If you take off the first 20 seconds of it, we could have been in a different position with Esteban. He missed the start, and that put him back, but he recovered to finish 13th. Romain came from 17th to 11th with a good strategy and good driving and, overall, it was a good effort. Unfortunately, none of the big boys dropped out, so we ended up 11th again. We showed that we have some speed at this kind of track. Hopefully, we can bring that forward to some of the upcoming tracks we visit. Being ahead and fighting with McLaren is something we can be proud of. McLaren is a team that's been around a long time, and we're the newcomers. Fighting with them and racing with drivers of the caliber of Button and Alonso makes us proud. But, we still haven't got any points from today."
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg won the Italian Grand Prix from second on the grid using a one-stop strategy - which has been the winning strategy in recent years as well - starting on the P Zero Yellow soft tyre, and then switching to the P Zero medium halfway through the race. His team mate Lewis Hamilton finished second with an identical strategy.
In fact, Rosberg and Hamilton were the only two drivers who qualified in the top 10 to start the race on the soft tyre, which gave them the possibility to drive a longer first stint than the supersoft starters. This formed the key strategic battle for the podium.
A variety of one and two-stop strategies were seen throughout the race as expected, with the two Ferraris following identical sprint-style two-stoppers: a pair of opening stints on the supersoft followed by one stint on the soft.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo tried an alternative two-stop strategy, taking the supersoft tyre at the end of the race in order to attack Williams driver Valtteri Bottas on the soft tyre. Another alternative strategy was that of Romain Grosjean: the sole driver to finish the race with a soft-supersoft strategy.
Manor's Esteban Ocon was the only driver to begin the race on the medium tyre. This meant that for the second race in succession, all three compounds nominated were seen on the starting grid as well as at the finish, having performed perfectly from lights to flag.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: "Tyre strategy formed a key part of our home race, with an exciting start putting the accent further on tyre tactics. Although Lewis Hamilton lost the advantage of pole position at the start, tyre strategy meant that he was up to second position before the halfway point of the race and was able to retain it. From there on it was a strategic battle for the podium with the two-stopping Ferraris. Before the next grand prix in Singapore, we will be hard at work in Barcelona with Ferrari and Paul Ricard with Mercedes this week as we continue to test the wider 2017 tyres with mule cars."
Truthometer
We predicted that two-stops was the theoretically fastest solution (adopted by Ferrari) but Mercedes was able to turn a one-stopper - the second-fastest solution on paper - into a winning strategy. Rosberg followed the one-stop format we expected, starting on soft and switching to medium on lap 24.
