Race - 2017 Italian GP team quotes

Williams

— Lance Stroll finished seventh with Felipe Massa eighth in the Italian Grand Prix
— Both drivers started on the supersoft tyre with Lance dropping back to P3 on lap one whilst Felipe maintained position in P7
— Lance pitted from P5 for a set of soft tyres on lap 17 but suffered a slow pitstop
— Felipe pitted on lap 21 from P7 for a set of soft tyres
— Lance and Felipe pushed hard in P7 and P8, but were unable to find a way past the Force India of Ocon in P6
— Felipe is now 11th in the Drivers’ Championship, ahead of Lance in 12th. The team remains fifth in the Constructors’ Championship with 55 points

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer

From the start, it was a very different day than yesterday. The sun was shining and there was a big Italian crowd, so you could feel we were building up to a good race. It was quite a special feeling to be on the front row looking down the long straight into the first corner. Both drivers got good starts, but unfortunately Lance lost a position to Ocon, and the race settled down from there. I think we had slightly stronger pace than Force India today. We could have potentially got back ahead of Ocon but uncharacteristically, we had a small problem with Lance’s pitstop. Lance pushed hard but wasn’t able to get ahead, so in the end he finished seventh with Felipe right behind him on track in eighth. It’s a valuable 10 points that we really need at this stage in the championship, so congratulations to the team who have done a great job back at the factory and at the circuit this weekend, and well done to the drivers who drove very consistent races to bring home the points for us.

Lance Stroll

I am very happy with the race and I think it was a good one. I really enjoyed myself. It was a bit of a shame at the start, as we lost position to Ocon, as Hamilton had a bad start and defended, so I had to back off. We were in P3 and then both Ferraris and the Mercedes of Bottas overtook. I then had a big flat spot at the end of the race, so started to lose time to Ocon and then was defending from Felipe. All in all, the race was very positive. I finished in P7, which was what we were expecting.

Felipe Massa

I think it was definitely a good result for the team. It’s always good to score points with both cars. Today we scored 10 points with both cars. I was happy with the race and with the fights. I just had a little touch at the end with Lance but fortunately nothing happened and we managed to finish well. I’m happy with the performance and the race. It was a good Sunday for the team.

Red Bull

DANIEL RICCIARDO

“I’m very, very happy about the result and loved it out there today. It was good fun. Two of my favourite races this year have been starting from the back. Silverstone and this one. Some good overtakes in the race kept me excited and I had some real pace in the end. I could see Seb and the thought of a podium was tempting me, so I was obviously trying to catch him right up to the end. The boys did the quickest pit stop and I also got the fastest lap so that’s very cool. You can almost call it a perfect day. We couldn’t have done much more from where we started. Of course I wanted to be up there on the podium as it looked unreal, but I believe it will come next year. Today has been a really good boost for everyone and we’re looking ahead to Singapore.”

MAX VERSTAPPEN

“I had a good start, immediately I was between the Sauber cars and then under braking I chose quite a good line, then out of turn two I got another position and it was all looking good. On lap three I had a touch with Massa and punctured my tyre so my race was really over. I had to pit for tyres and change the front wing which meant swapping to a two-stop strategy. I tried to catch up and the car was working pretty well, so we cannot complain about that. At least we finished the race and at the end of the day I think it wasn’t too bad to end up back in a point-scoring position after what happened at the start.”

CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal

“A fantastic drive by Daniel today. After an imperfect start he fought all the way through the race and had good pace, good strategy and made some fantastic overtaking moves to finish within four seconds of Sebastian, just out of a podium place and fully deserved Driver of the Day. Max was unlucky to get involved in a racing incident with Felipe (Massa) and as a result suffered a puncture. His pace was right there with Daniel’s today and it’s a shame that his race was compromised with that puncture on the third lap. Nonetheless he kept fighting and brought the car in the final points-scoring place.”

Force India

Force India scored ten points in today’s Italian Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon racing to sixth place and Sergio Perez ending the race in ninth.

ESTEBAN OCON

“I really enjoyed the race and I’m happy with our performance. At the same time I’m a little disappointed because I really wanted to finish on the podium today. But you have to be realistic and we didn’t have the pace to match Mercedes and Ferrari, so I think sixth place was the maximum we could achieve. At one stage we were racing against Raikkonen and I thought we could keep him behind, but he was just too quick. I also had a good battle with Stroll for most of the race and I had to work hard to keep him behind me. With the strong qualifying yesterday and the sixth place today, it’s been a great weekend. I have to say a big thanks to the whole team for all their hard work and for giving me such a competitive car.”

SERGIO PEREZ

“First of all, I want to thank my team for the amazing job they did to change the gearbox on my car before the race. It’s been a difficult weekend for us, when you consider the struggles on Friday and how missing out on Q3 yesterday made our race much more difficult. Today the car felt good and I was strong in the first stint, despite some damage picked up at turn two, but things got more difficult after the pit-stop. We had a slow stop and I got stuck in traffic: I think I lost a couple of seconds and that’s what made the difference between us and Williams. We gave everything to get back to them, but we ran out of laps to pass them. Perhaps with two extra laps I would have made it, but that’s racing. Even though I expected a bit more, we still rescued a few points and I am happy with this result.”

ROBERT FERNLEY, DEPUTY TEAM PRINCIPAL

“A successful weekend in Monza with both cars in the points. The car has been competitive across all the sessions and it’s a credit to the whole team that we could convert our potential into a solid result. It was fairly clear that a one-stop strategy was the best approach today and both drivers drove strong races. Esteban ran as high as second after the start, but the pace of Mercedes and Ferrari proved too strong and he had to concentrate on fighting off the Williams’ pair. Checo ran deep into the race on his supersoft tyres and in the final laps he was closing in on Massa. It was an exciting final lap, but ultimately he had to settle for ninth place. It’s great to end the European part of the season on a high note and we begin the Asian fly-away races sitting in a strong fourth place in the championship.”

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat

“A bit of a complicated race. Our battle today was with Haas and Renault; nobody else was really in reach here, especially the Mercedes-powered teams. I managed to get past Hulkenberg, but after that I was stuck behind Magnussen for quite a long time… It’s really hard to follow other cars! I kept trying to get past him but he had clean air in front of him, so it was not possible… This is all we could do today and it’s now time to start thinking about Singapore, a track that suits us better. Once this said, it will still be a difficult fight to end up in the points!”

Carlos Sainz

“Not where we wanted to finish, but today we struggled simply because we don’t have a good package to go racing here in Monza… It’s not just about lacking a bit of power but, because of that, we needed to take out a lot of downforce, which meant that in the corners we were very slow and on the straights we were only okay, but not fast enough. We just didn’t have the pace to score any points here – it’s a shame, because this means that I break a statistic that I liked this year: I can’t say that I’ve finished in the points every time I’ve finished a race any more. It was always going to be a very tough weekend, but now we move onto Singapore, where we should be more competitive and I look forward to fighting for points again!”

Franz Tost (Team Principal)

“Because of this track’s characteristics, with very long straights, we were aware from the very beginning that this was going to be a difficult race weekend for us. We simply didn’t have the pace to score any points here and nothing unexpected happened in front of us – all the cars that finished ahead of us were supposed to finish where they did. Unfortunately, we were never in a position to be within the first ten cars, neither in yesterday’s qualifying or in today’s race. I hope that we can recover in Singapore, at a track with high downforce which should suit our car much more.”

Haas F1

Haas F1 Team nearly came away with a point-paying finish Sunday in the Italian Grand Prix at Autodromo Nazionale Monza as Kevin Magnussen finished 11th, one spot shy of the points. Magnussen was running 10th until lap 47 when Max Verstappen in his hard-charging Red Bull angled his way inside Magnussen entering the turn-four chicane. This forced Magnussen wide and off the corner, whereupon Verstappen took 10th and the accompanying point.

Magnussen’s teammate, Romain Grosjean, rallied from last in the 20-car field to finish 15th. A crash during an extremely wet qualifying session on Saturday sent Grosjean to the back of the grid. He employed a two-stop strategy, pitting on lap three and again on lap 34. Grosjean swapped the Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft tires he started the race with for Yellow softs on lap three and also donned a new front wing after contact with the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo damaged the right-front endplate. When Grosjean pitted again on lap 34, he bolted on a new set of Red supersofts that took him to the finish.

Magnussen started the 53-lap race around the 5.793-kilometer (3.6-mile), 11-turn circuit in ninth but fell to 10th as the Force India of Sergio Perez got by on the first corner. But amid the wheel banging that is typical of the first turn of a race’s first lap, Verstappen sustained a flat right-front tire on lap three after a scrape with the Williams of Felipe Massa. With Verstappen forced to pit, Magnussen regained ninth. But Verstappen’s teammate, Ricciardo, was also fast, and he grabbed ninth from Magnussen on lap seven.

Solidly in 10th, Magnussen made his only stop of the race on lap 11, exchanging his Red supersofts for a new set of Yellow softs. He emerged from the pits in 16th, but as the race wore on and pit stops cycled through, Magnussen was back in 10th by lap 33.

He ran strong, deftly holding off and eventually outdistancing the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg and later, the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat. All the while, Verstappen was tenaciously regaining lost ground, and he caught Magnussen in the short chute between turns three and four. Once Verstappen was past Magnussen in the chicane, he checked out, leaving Magnussen a safe 11th with a substantial gap over 12th-place Kvyat.

Winning the Italian Grand Prix from the pole was three-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver scored his 59th career Formula One victory, his sixth of the season and second in a row. It was his fourth Italian Grand Prix win, second only to Michael Schumacher’s five. Hamilton’s margin of victory was 4.471 seconds over his teammate, Valtteri Bottas. The triumph also allowed Hamilton to take over the championship point lead. He came into Monza trailing previous leader and Scuderia Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel by seven points, but he now holds a three-point advantage over Vettel.

Thirteen rounds into the 20-race Formula One schedule, Haas F1 Team remains seventh in the constructors standings with 35 points, one point ahead of eighth-place Renault and five points behind sixth-place Toro Rosso and 20 points back of fifth-place Williams. Grosjean and Magnussen are 13th and 14th, respectively, in the championship driver standings. Grosjean has 24 points and Magnussen has 11 points.

Seven races remain in the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship, with the next event coming Sept. 15-17 with the Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Romain Grosjean

“We just had that damage on the front wing in the first corner and from there our race was massively compromised. We tried a few things and we learned about the car. I don’t think the pace was that bad.”

Kevin Magnussen

“Stuff happened in the race today, but it didn’t affect me because both Red Bulls got in front anyway. We were just not quick enough this weekend. P11 is probably the best result we could’ve scored. It’s still annoying when you’re running in the points the whole race and then you get done at the end. Max (Verstappen) was a lot faster than me. I didn’t have a great chance of holding onto that point. Nonetheless, there’s no reason not to try. We tried hard the whole race.”

Gunther Steiner

“A decent end to a tough weekend. We didn’t score points, but we were fighting out there. All the teams in front of us finished, so we ended up 11th, but we fought the Toro Rossos and Renaults. They didn’t take advantage of it with points, so we stay in seventh position. It’s completely different in Singapore. Let’s see what we can do there.”

Sauber

The Italian Grand Prix resulted in P16 for Pascal Wehrlein; Marcus Ericsson’s finish was classified as P18, even though he retired on lap 50 due to a damaged car. With the final race of the European F1 season completed, the Sauber F1 Team is heading to Singapore for the first of the three upcoming Asian races.

Marcus Ericsson

“It was a good start to the race from the middle of the grid. I had some good fights, but when the race settled we struggled to keep up with the competitors in front. We knew that this type of track would be difficult for us. I picked up some damage at the beginning of the race. It was quite difficult to drive the car like that – so it was not the best race for me. We need to focus and come back stronger in Singapore in two weeks.”

Pascal Wehrlein

“I did my best today. We knew that this race would be difficult for us, but the whole team did a good job throughout the weekend. I am looking forward to Singapore now – it is a race that I particularly like and I hope that we will be more competitive there.”

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal:

“In comparison to the rest of the weekend, our race pace was acceptable today even though the results do not exactly show that. Pascal and Marcus both did a good job in keeping up a decent pace – bearing in mind our current situation. Unfortunately, Marcus had to retire just before the race ended after the data showed that his car was damaged. We are now heading to Singapore for the first stop of the Asian race season.”

McLaren

A gut-wrenchingly disappointing day for the team at Monza. Before the day had even begun, the team discovered an issue with Stoffel’s MGU-K yesterday evening. While changing this element alone within the PU is possible, it’s extremely time-consuming, and due to the parc ferme restrictions the team judged that this would not be possible in the time allotted. Therefore, the team elected to change Stoffel’s engine in its entirety, bringing in a new MGU-K, MGU-H, ICE and turbocharger to the mix, and therefore an associated 25-place grid drop for the race today. This meant Stoffel started in 18th place, just ahead of Fernando in 20th, following his 35-place engine penalty.

At the start, both drivers made excellent progress from their grid slots and quickly made their way through the pack. For Fernando, the progress was short-lived, as he struggled with upshifts due to an issue with the gearbox sensors. He drove an aggressive race despite a car that was difficult to manage, and fought his way up to 11th place before his one and only pit-stop of the race. The gearbox issue progressively worsened and the team lost the ability to monitor it due to the sensor issues, and opted to retire his car on lap 51 as a precaution.

Conversely, Stoffel – who also made a great start – was running strongly from the first lap, making solid progress through the pack, including a decisive move on Sainz. He ran much of his race inside the all-important points-paying top 10, reaching as high as seventh on lap 19. Cruelly he was robbed of any reward for his strong performance, as he reported a loss of power owing to a further suspected MGU-K issue within the new power unit. He retired from the race on lap 34.

FERNANDO ALONSO

“Our bosses were here today and, unfortunately, we could not deliver a good result. It’s very disappointing to have a double DNF.

“I had problems with upshifting from the very early stages of the race, which at some points was costing me a lot of time – almost a second a lap. We tried to fix the issue by changing some settings, but the shifting never worked as it should have, and it hampered my race.

“Starting from the back of the grid was never going to be easy here. We made up a few places during the race, but there was little chance we could make it into the points today.

“Now we are looking forward to Singapore, which is a more suitable track for us.”

STOFFEL VANDOORNE

“We only knew on the lap that I retired that there was any sign of a problem, as I lost power. It’s a similar issue to yesterday, and it’s a shame because we changed the engine overnight for a brand new one today. To have another problem in a race which was going very well is obviously frustrating. Hopefully it will be better in Singapore.

“It’s pretty difficult to draw positives from a weekend like this. From my side, it had actually been a really positive weekend in terms of my driving and the performance I’ve put in – it’s been very strong. The last few races have been very strong for me, in fact. It’s just such a shame to finish with another retirement, and not have any reward for all of that. And we’ve had another issue today, but we have to move on.

“I guess it’s possible I’ll have another grid drop in Singapore, although we don’t yet know exactly what the issue was today, despite it looking like a similar problem. We’ll have to wait and see.”

ERIC BOULLIER

“Today, as we have seen so many times this season, the talent of our drivers shone, and we held onto hope that we would be able to achieve a positive result against the odds this afternoon. Once again, we were left dejected and dissatisfied. Both drivers made excellent starts and held their own in the pack for as long as they possibly could, on a track where we knew we’d be facing a tough challenge. By the end of lap six, Stoffel and Fernando were sitting in 13th and 14th positions respectively, and began progressively pushing forwards as other cars began to pit.

“Only a few laps into the race, Fernando began to struggle with gearbox issues, which we suspect derived from sensor problems. Although his engineers worked hard throughout the race to instruct Fernando with software management tools to try to rectify the issue, it became more and more difficult to monitor the gearbox remotely due to the sensor failures, so we had no choice but to retire the car as a precaution. Fernando had been on the back foot for most of the race, and had found it tough to maintain pace and momentum in a car that was tough to manage. Under the circumstances, he drove an excellent, very spirited race fraught with challenges, and it’s a shame we couldn’t get him to the flag.

“For Stoffel, his day ended with heartbreak. His performance all weekend has been stellar, and this afternoon he was running in the top 10 for the duration of his race – at one point as high as seventh from 18th on the grid. It’s both frustrating and a huge shame that once again engine reliability issues have meant that he was not only forced to waste the opportunity to start the race in eighth place on the grid, but that all the hard work he would ultimately put in to make progress through the pack and aim for points would be rendered pointless. Like yesterday in Q3, he lost power with what we suspect is the same issue as in qualifying, and he had to retire the car.

“For the whole team – who have all worked so hard to give us a fighting chance on this most challenging of tracks – it’s an utterly frustrating and disappointing way to end our Italian Grand Prix weekend and the European season.”

YUSUKE HASEGAWA

“We had a beautiful Italian blue sky today, the exact opposite of yesterday’s cold and rainy day. Unfortunately, the on-track action didn’t improve for us and the race turned out to be extremely disappointing.

“The day started with a PU change on Stoffel’s car as a result of the MGU-K issue in yesterday’s qualifying session. This meant Stoffel started the race from the back of grid in P18 alongside Fernando. Despite the tough circumstances, Stoffel had a good start and was having a strong race within the top ten before his retirement. Unfortunately, he lost power supply from his PU and we’re investigating the cause of the issue.

“Fernando also started the race from back of the grid. He showed a consistent pace during the race, but the team eventually had to retire his car as the ability to monitor his gearbox was lost.

“Although it’s disappointing we were unable to finish the race, it’s still slightly positive that we showed good pace here in Monza, even though this is one of the more challenging circuits on the calendar for us.

“The next race in Singapore is on a circuit that suits the characteristics of our car, so we will focus there on pushing for much-needed championship points.”

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finished the Italian Grand Prix in third and fifth places respectively. It wasn’t the best result for Scuderia Ferrari’s home race, but at least the team was able to get a driver to salute the tifosi from the podium, after the difficulties of yesterday. Seb is now three points behind the leader in the Drivers’ World Championship.

With qualifying run entirely in the wet, drivers had a free choice of dry tyre type for the start. Kimi and Seb lined up on fifth and sixth places on the grid shod with the Supersofts. It was an aggressive choice, actually adopted by all those at the front end, with the aim of immediately going on the attack. Raikkonen did just that, passing Bottas round the outside of the Curva Grande. The battle rumbled on to the First Chicane, where Valtteri took the place back. Then Seb successful passed his team-mate heading down to the first Lesmo to go fifth. On lap 5, it was Stroll’s turn to give best to the German who set about chasing Ocon in the Force India who, like the Canadian in the Williams had done surprisingly well in qualifying. Around this time, Kimi went straight on at the first chicane. At the start of lap 8, Sebastian made a determined move on Ocon to get into a podium position.

Kimi was suffering with an unstable rear end and on lap 16, he pitted to switch to the Soft tyres, rejoining in 11th place. Two laps later, Stroll covered the Ferrari’s strategy, but the Iceman was now out in front, also passing Vandoorne to go eighth. On lap 26, he pulled off a copybook move on Ocon, slipstreaming before outbraking him into the First Chicane. Seb meanwhile kept putting in the quick laps to free himself from traffic at the pit stop, which happened on lap 32. A perfect job from the mechanics saw him emerge in fourth place in clean air.

The race was not exactly a thriller, but there was a moment of excitement when Ricciardo, who was on a charge, finally pitted. Kimi stayed ahead and so the SF70Hs were third and fourth. However, the Red Bull was on the softer compound and it got ahead at the first braking point. In the final 10 laps, Sebastian also had to keep an eye on his former team-mate and responded with his best lap, upping the pace in the closing stages. He defended in determined fashion all the way to the flag and was clearly proud to stand on the podium, having achieved the minimum goal the team had set itself on the most difficult weekend of the year.

Maurizio Arrivabene

“It’s been a difficult weekend at a track that definitely didn’t suit the technical characteristics of the SF70H. The great crowd of our fans here at Monza supported us all the way and the entire team thanks them for that. After a far from ideal qualifying in the wet, Sebastian managed to get the better of the drivers directly ahead of him on the grid and thus make it to the podium. As for Kimi, he had a more difficult time due to the balance on his car being inconsistent. Despite the fact that everyone in the team did their utmost, we cannot be satisfied with this result. We will tackle the next race in Singapore with our feet on the ground and with our usual determination.”

Sebastian Vettel

“Today we were not as quick as the Mercedes, but considering where we started from, we got the best result in the race. It was not ideal, but we are working very hard on what we want to achieve. The next tracks should be ok for us. We know we have to work on ourselves and where. I was happy at being back here with all our supporters, I got a lot of adrenalin from being on that podium. Of course, I wanted to win, but I am confident we are on the right way. It was not a great day for us, but at the same time it was brilliant to feel all the passion. Leading the Championship is not important as much as winning the Championship, it’s where you are at the last race that counts. It is clear where we want to go, what we want to achieve.”

Kimi Raikkonen

“For the whole race I kept struggling with the balance of the car. It never felt like it should have done. On some laps it was getting better, but most of the time we were lacking the grip and the pace. It was not an easy weekend, we were fighting in all conditions, in the dry and even more in the wet. This is something that we have to fix for these kinds of circuit. I’m disappointed as the result is not what we wanted. For sure if you take the pure layout of the track it’s not an easy one for us, which is unfortunate at our home grand prix. I would be surprised if it’s the same story at the next race, because on paper the race in Singapore should be better for us. Now we have to go there and do our best.”

Mercedes

Silver Arrows claim one-two victory at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza

— Lewis took his 59th career victory today – turning his record-braking pole position into his fourth win at Monza and sixth win of the 2017 season
— Valterri finished today’s Italian Grand Prix in P2 – claiming his first F1 podium in Monza
— Today’s result marks the 72nd victory for the Silver Arrows in Formula One and the third one-two victory of the 2017 season
— Lewis (238 points) takes the lead in the Drivers’ Championship from Sebastian Vettel (235 points), with Valtteri (197 points) in P3
— Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (435 points) lead Ferrari (373 points) by 62 points in the Constructors’ Championship
— Ashley Way, Head of Mechanical Design, accepted the Constructors’ trophy on behalf of the team in the last race of the European season

Lewis Hamilton

This is obviously an incredibly exciting season; the last two races have been really strong for us as a team. The way things have come together in the second half of the season is exceptional. Today, the car felt fantastic, particularly on that first stint. As we had a bit of breathing room behind us, it was easier for us to extend the life of the tyres. Valtteri did a fantastic job to get through and get this one-two. It is amazing to have the first back-to-back wins in a long, long time and claim the lead in the championship. But the fight will continue, the Ferraris have been really quick this season, especially on the high-downforce tracks. It will continue to be really close between us, so it will be ‘ beast mode’ all the way to the last chequered flag.

Valtteri Bottas

Starting fourth, finishing second – I’m quite happy with that. What I’m really happy about is the one-two for the team! From my side it was a good race, even though I lost one position at the beginning. Luckily, I got it back quite quickly and could then overtake the Williams and the Force India. After that the pace was great and I was really enjoying it – the car war so strong today. It was amazing to be on the podium. Monza is definitely one of the best – if not the best – podiums in Formula 1. It’s such a great atmosphere, so much noise, so many people – I wish everyone could experience it. Looking forward, we know that we still have a lot of work to do, the races ahead will be a close battle with Ferrari.

Toto Wolff

I’m absolutely delighted with a one-two finish here in Monza, at such an important and historic race. The main thing is we took 43 points for the constructors’ championship and 25 points for the drivers’ today – Lewis is now in the lead, but ultimately it’s the positions in Abu Dhabi that count. But every bit of momentum matters, and we’ve had a good seven days in that respect. Lewis delivered a perfect weekend – from the impressive pole position to a faultless race drive today. As for Valtteri, he bounced back from the disappointment of Spa in a great way; racing hard against Kimi, then picking off Stroll and Ocon, before pulling away from the field for a very strong second-place finish. We have made the most of our opportunity this weekend and it was important to do so because we know Singapore will be more like a case of damage limitation for us. We will approach the next race with healthy scepticism, leave no stone unturned and aim to deliver every bit of performance that we can. If the Team delivers another perfect performance like this weekend, that will be a very good starting point.

James Allison

This season has been an exhilarating rollercoaster ride and we have won races by the skin of our teeth, others where we have lost by similar margins. But this was the most comprehensive of our eight victories so far this season. It was a 1-2, flawlessly executed by the team, a dominant performance and delivered on the home turf of our main competitor; all that makes it a pretty memorable day. Aside from the emotion, though, these points count the same as any others and put us in the lead of the drivers’ table for the first time as well as building our lead in the constructors’ standings. We know that sterner challenges await us in the races to come, so we need to bank these points, move on and make sure that we don’t relinquish either championship lead from now to Abu Dhabi.

Renault F1

Renault Sport Formula One Team had a tough race at the Italian Grand Prix, with Nico Hülkenberg finishing thirteenth and Jolyon Palmer retiring after 29 laps. Nico made an early pit stop but was unable to work back up the order due to the unique high-speed challenges Monza presents. Jolyon, on a reverse tyre strategy from his team-mate, was making progress before his pit stop, however a five-second penalty dented his charge. He subsequently retired for safety concerns after a transmission issue arose. Today’s race was dry and sunny as a contrast to yesterday’s rain-affected qualifying.

— Nico started the race from P14 on his new set of Supersoft (red) Pirelli tyres, pitting on lap nine for a new set of Soft (yellow) tyres.
— Jolyon started the race from P17 on a new set of Soft tyres, pitting on lap 25 for a new set of Supersofts. He incurred a 5-sec. penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage over Fernando Alonso. On lap 29 he had a transmission issue and retired for safety reasons.

Nico Hülkenberg

“Unfortunately we weren’t able to make into the points here today as the race was a bit of a struggle. As we had anticipated, we lost out on top speed, meaning we couldn’t fight with the cars ahead. I was also struggling with the balance, so overall it was a tough race. That said, I don’t think we need to go crazy over today’s performance. We need to look ahead to Singapore and focus on the next Grand Prix.”

Jolyon Palmer

“Our strategy was promising and I was quite enjoying working up the order today. It wasn’t going to be our strongest race, but there was potential for a decent finish. Sadly, we had a transmission component failure which led to a precautionary stop. It’s a shame because I think the pace was looking quite strong with the Supersofts in the end.”

Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director

“We were expecting a difficult Italian Grand Prix. We did everything within our means to get Nico into the points. However, with the pace we had today, it wasn’t possible; the balance of the car simply wasn’t there throughout the weekend. Unfortunately, we had an issue with the transmission on Jolyon’s car. We made the decision to stop his race, as it was dangerous to continue and risk a sudden breakage. His pace was encouraging and, unlike Nico, he felt good in the car but wouldn’t have been able to score points from where he was in the race.
“Nevertheless, there are two positives to take away: among our closest rivals in the Constructor’s Championship, only Williams scored points. Daniel Ricciardo’s spectacular drive through the field to fourth place must be highlighted. It’s the best finish for a Renault engine at Monza since the beginning of the V6 turbo hybrid era. Monza is a reference point and our progress year on year is promising. This result could have been even better if he was positioned further up on the starting grid. This shows that more than ever before, we have to continue to work hard on reliability both with the engine and the chassis. We hope that the upcoming races will play more to our strengths.”