Driver comments 2018 Italian F1 GP

What suppose to be a very successful home grand prix, turned out into a nightmare for Ferrari. The famous racing team from Maranello had their first front row lockout since China 2018.

This time it wasn't Sebastian Vettel who grabbed pole, it was Kimi Raikkonen who scored his 7th pole for Ferrari, but they still got beaten by Mercedes.

In the first lap it was Sebastian Vettel who wanted to overtake his teammate in the braking zone of turn 4. Raikkonen shut the door and Vettel had to go back to the racing line to make the corner.

At the same time Lewis Hamilton's racing instincts where on full speed and the Brit was able to come alongside Vettel to occupy the racing line, so Vettel couldn't go back to the racing line once he understood overtaking Raikkonen wasn't possible. Vettel's radius to make the corner was cut short and a collision with his title rival was unavoidable. After they hit it was only Vettel who spun. Hamilton got P2 and Max Verstappen had already passed Valtteri Bottas before turn 1 and was driving on P3.

On the other hand Mercedes their teamwork was working perfect. When race leader Raikkonen did his pitstop he came back on the Monza track behind his fellow countryman Bottas, but the Fin in front was not gonna do a fever for the Ferrari driver. Instead Bottas was trying to slow down Raikkonen, so his Mercedes teammate Hamilton could overtake Raikkonen.

In lap 43 of the race we again saw a very harsh 5 seconds penalty being given to Verstappen. The Dutchman was battling with Bottas for P3. The talented Red Bull driver was able to keep the much faster Mercedes behind almost the whole race. Verstappen was given a penalty for causing a collision when they touched wheels in the braking zone of turn 1, mainly because he didn't left Bottas enough room. Bottas ran into 2 cars during the 2018 Hungarian GP and got a 10 sec. penalty for his collision with Ricciardo that race.

Haas driver Romain Grosjean finished a great P6, but after the race Renault lodged a protest against the floor of the Haas VF-17. After investigation the FIA confirmed the floor was found illegal and Grosjean got disqualified from the classification. The Haas team who thought was on 4th place in the constructor standings now is back on fifth.

We summed up all the comments for you again of all the 20 Formula One drivers that participated in the 2018 Italian F1 GP

Mercedes Italy 2018 comments

Lewis Hamilton (started P2 - finished P1)

Lewis Hamilton

"Under the sheer pressure we are under, I definitely will consider it to be quite far up there," he said.

"Obviously to do it on Ferrari's home turf as well and so much pressure on the team... with the performance that they have, to really be able to pull a little bit more out of the bag, and really make it stick...

"I generally think this year I've been quite consistent in my delivery. I really have been happy with what I've been able to extract from the car and again, just incredibly grateful and proud of the team for continuing to keep their faith in me and keep pushing as they are.

"Days like this, it'll be amazing to go back and see the guys, we'll have a team photo to celebrate and that is a very, very proud moment to be a part of that.

"There are so many people in these teams now, it's incredible. And there's not one single person or component that's more important than another. It's been great teamwork."

This season is proving to be one of the most intense in recent times, how is Lewis handling that?

"The heat is there, the intensity is there," the Brit explained. "It's unavoidable for me and him [Sebastian]. It's very difficult for people watching to feel what we feel.

"The pressure is...I don't even know what word to use for it. It's the highest I can ever remember.

"That's the pressure you put on yourself because you want to succeed, it's the pressure of your desires and fears, and of all the people who are depending on you, which is a lot of people."

Valtteri Bottas (started P4 - finished P3)

Valtteri Bottas

"For me, it's disappointing and amazing that I haven't won a race this year," he admitted. "It's been quite close many times, especially in the first third of the season.

"I really want to win races, that's why I am here. I don't think the only way I can win in the next few races is if Lewis secures the title.

"If I have good pace, a good qualifying and I'm strong in the race, I think that I can definitely win. As long as I perform well, then hopefully I will get the results I deserve."

About the collision with Verstappen:

"I was trying to race him hard," Valtteri explained. "I initially tried to go on the inside but maybe I was a bit too far back. He locked up, went straight on, kept his position.

"Then, on the second time, knowing the fact he is definitely one of the more aggressive drivers in terms of defending and attaching, I wanted to race hard and expected him to be fair.

"He covered the inside, I braked on the outside, we were pretty much side-by-side and he just started to drift left.

"For sure, he saw me there. And for me, the rule is very simple - when you defend on the inside, it doesn't cost you anything if you leave a cars' width and it's fair for the guy on the outside. That wasn't fair, so that's why he got the penalty.

"I definitely wanted to overtake him, for sure it gives you a boost but in the last two laps we saw Sebastian wasn't actually closing in that quickly.

"So, the team told me to not take risks anymore, because he's got the penalty anyway. So, for me it was important to be close enough. I would have still loved to overtake him."

Ferrari Italy 2018 comments

Kimi Raikkonen (started P1 - finished P2)

Kimi Raikkonen

“Our car was really good today. The first set of tires was ok, while the second one didn’t last as long as we had expected.

There wasn’t much we could do, we had to push all the time and there was no single moment in which we could take it easy and look after the tires.

For sure we wanted a better result, but this is what we’ve got; we did our best but it was not enough. It’s easy to say what we should have done in an ideal world, but we did what we thought was right and I think there was nothing wrong.

Second position is not ideal, but we take it; I think that we were lucky to finish the race, on the rear left tyre there was no rubber left. In the next races it’s going to be close pretty much everywhere. We keep doing our best and hopefully it will be enough for when we come to the last race.”

Sebastian Vettel (started P2 - finished P4)

Sebastian Vettel on the podium in Spa

”At the beginning I tried to overtake Kimi in Turn 1 and 4, but I couldn’t. He opened the brakes, which he had the right to do, so I moved aside and opened a gap to Lewis.

Then I had room left and no chance anymore. So, when I touched Lewis, I span around and that was unfortunate, as my car got quite some damages. It could have gone differently, but obviously it wasn’t the case.

Unfortunately, our race was compromised and it was a shame, but then I tried to do my best and had a decent recovery from the back.

All in all, it could have been even worse. It’s disappointing of course, because we had the pace and we definitely could have won.

There are many points to win back now in the championship, but we still have time to improve and we have the margin to recover. I am sorry for our tifosi because they just deserved a different result today.”

Red Bull Racing Italy 2018 comments

Max Verstappen (started P5 - finished P5)

Max Verstappen

“I think if you look at the car performance, we’ve done a really good job in being that competitive on this track today. I don’t think it could have been better for us and finishing third on the road was a good result.

Unfortunately we had a penalty and I was put back to fifth. I think I gave Valtteri enough space on the left so he didn’t need to go off the track. The rule says that as long as you give the other driver a car width space, it should be enough. That’s what I did, but he clipped my wheel at Turn 1 and he had to go straight on. I don’t agree with the penalty, but the decision is taken and we can’t do anything about it.

Of course after I heard about the penalty I was even more determined to keep my track position. I’ve tried to do the best race I could and I had to fight hard for it as we are so much slower on the straights. Before the race I thought fifth would have been the best possible result for us, but after a good start and keeping the Mercedes behind, we were in third position, so I gave it everything.

Looking at the positives, the car was performing very well today and in terms of pace we were competitive. In general keeping a Mercedes behind you on this track is a very positive sign and hopefully we can keep this momentum going to Singapore where our car is usually strong.”

Daniel Ricciardo (started P19 - DNF power unit)

Daniel Ricciardo

“It’s been another frustrating race for me. I passed Stroll and looked in the mirror to see if I was clear of him but I couldn’t see that well. I then realised that was because there was a lot of smoke coming out the back of the car and when I reported it to my engineers they asked me to stop.

I feared it could have been something to do with the power unit but after we got the car back to the garage and the guys investigated, they suspect it’s a clutch issue.

It’s been a frustrating period of races but hopefully we can change some things on the car, improve the reliability and aim for the podium in Singapore.”

Haas Italy 2018 comments

Romain Grosjean (started P6 - finished P6)

Romain Grosjean

“It’s great to be in the points again and enjoying a good series of races.

It was a good race, but tough. The Force Indias were definitely faster today. I had to push the car very hard to keep them behind. I was very happy with that, and very happy with the team’s progress.

We’ve now moved up to fourth in the constructors’ standings, so that’s pretty amazing. I’ve never really had a good race at Monza, but today that wasn’t the case. I’m happy and looking forward to going to Singapore.”

Kevin Magnussen (started P11 - finished P17)

Kevin Magnussen

“It was a pretty long race for us today. We had some damage on the rear tire after the first lap. I had to box for mediums and just went nowhere from there.

Our race ended on lap one. We were then doing the whole race on one set of medium tires – the slowest – so it was never really going to be a case of us getting back in the race.”

Racing Point Force India Italy 2018 comments

Esteban Ocon (started P8 - finished P7)

Esteban Ocon

“I’m feeling happy with the result today. We were targeting sixth place, but we just didn’t quite have enough pace advantage to make the move on Grosjean. However, seventh and eighth for the team is a great effort.

My start was really good but I was squeezed onto the grass on the approach to turn one and had to back out of it, which cost me a couple of positions. From then on we had good pace and we managed to get ahead of Sainz.

I was able to look after my tyres and make them last. I had one realistic opportunity to try and get Grosjean towards the end of the race, but it didn’t work out.

I’m pleased we could end the European season with a strong result. We head to the flyaways in good shape and we have good momentum.”

Sergio Pérez (started P14 - finished P8)

Sergio Pérez

“I am happy to come away from here with points, especially considering we were starting pretty far back on the grid.

Unfortunately, I had to carry really big damage for the whole of the race: I was in a battle with Kevin [Magnussen] and he cut the chicane twice when I had already passed him. He was not told to give the position back but I managed to get alongside him again at Lesmo. He just didn’t give me enough room and put me all the way to the inside. In such a fast corner, there was always going to be contact and it ended up damaging my car badly. I had lots of understeer so it was a very difficult race.

Despite these problems, we had strong pace and I was right behind Esteban in the final part of the race as we both tried to get ahead of Grosjean. We didn’t quite manage to be ‘best of the rest’, but all things considered we did a good job today. The results from the last two weeks show how strong this team is. We would be theoretically fourth in the championship and we are scoring good points.

In Singapore we will get some upgrades, which hopefully means we can keep performing well in the final few races of the championship.”

Renault Italy 2018 comments

Carlos Sainz (started P7 - finished P9)

Carlos Sainz Jr

"We can be happy with the weekend in general. We gave it all we had today. We’ve managed to take four points from a weekend where we expected difficulties, so we can be happy with that.

The pace was as good as it could be, but we missed a little on the straights and lost a few positions in that area. On the positive side, we’ve made good progress since Spa and I felt much better in the car. Now we look forward to Singapore where we hope to be more competitive.”"

Nico Hulkenberg (started P20 - Finished P14)

Nico Hulkenberg

“It’s always difficult when you start at the back of the grid, but I’m pleased with today.

We gave it a real go to get into the points by going long on the Soft tyre after an early stop, but we fell short and had to bail out of it in the end. The tyre wear was too high after doing 40 laps, so that didn’t quite pay off in the end.

I’m happy to have had a clean race and see the chequered flag. It’s difficult to make progress here, but we can draw the positives from the weekend and head into Singapore feeling a little more encouraged.”

Williams Italy 2018 comments

Lance Stroll (started P10 - finished P10)

Lance Stroll

“Feeling good is an understatement. I hoped we would score points, but I didn't really expect it.

We didn't expect coming into today we would have the pace to stay there, but we did. We were following Sainz all race and were catching him a little bit towards the end, so I am really happy with the job we did today and all weekend.

We really nailed it this weekend in qualifying, the race and with the strategy. It was one of those weekends where it all just came together.

The key was just solid work all weekend and everyone in the team played their part. I think this track suited us, but I am still going to be positive going into Singapore, as there last year we had pretty poor pace in qualifying, so qualified 18th, but finished eighth. There are always opportunities.”

Sergey Sirotkin (started P12 - finished P11)

Sergey Sirotkin

“It was a good race but not good enough.

We had the pace to be in the points but unfortunately, as we saw, I wasn’t the luckiest car with blue flags and where I got them on track.

There was a lot of race time lost there which is a shame. I enjoyed the fight and how the car felt pleased me. It allowed me to participate in a good fight and I really enjoyed it.”

Sauber Italy 2018 comments

Charles Leclerc (started P15 - finished P12)

Charles Leclerc

“It was a challenging race. We lost quite a bit of time because of the contact.

After we undercut our competitors with our strategy, we did manage to get ahead but it was too late for us to advance to a top-ten position.

Our pace was quite good, so it is a shame not to finish in the points. Nevertheless, it was a good race, and I look forward to getting back in the car in Singapore.”

Marcus Ericsson (started P16 - finished P18)

Marcus Ericsson

“It was not the best weekend for me.

To be honest, it was quite a tough race. I had a good start, however, shortly after I was touched by another car which caused a puncture on my left rear tyre. I had to pit and from that point on it was a difficult race.

I look forward to Singapore now, and am confident that we can fight back there."

McLaren Italy 2018 comments

Stoffel Vandoorne (started P17 - finished P13)

Stoffel Vandoorne

“It was a pretty decent race for us today, considering the performance we had on Friday. We made a good step on Saturday, went into the race and beat a few cars that we maybe didn’t expect to beat. That was positive.

“Our race pace was pretty good. We were stuck behind a Sauber, the Toro Rosso of Pierre [Gasly] and the Renault of Nico [Hulkenberg] but with our strategy we managed to undercut them and make it work.

“Anyway, we knew that Spa and Monza would be two difficult races for us, even though the latter turned out to be maybe slightly better than expected.

“Next stop Singapore – hopefully we’ll have more performance there.”

Fernando Alonso (started P13 - DNF power unit)

Fernando Alonso

“This weekend we performed much better than we expected and I think we had the possibility to take some points today, so it’s a shame that we had to retire so early in the race.

“Also, we were planning to change the engine at Spa or here and get a penalty at a track we knew was going to be difficult for us in terms of performance, but surprisingly we were good, so we chose not to take it here. In the end, we didn’t score any points here so it’s double pain, as we’ll have to take the penalty later in the season.

“The car was misfiring from the start of the race in Turns Seven and Eight, and unfortunately in the end it switched off and I arrived rolling into the pit-lane.

“It’s a true shame. Let’s see if we can make the car more robust for the coming races.”

”

Toro Rosso Italy 2018 comments

Pierre Gasly (started P9 & finished P15)

Pierre Gasly

"Today was clearly not the day we wanted.

At the beginning of the race, I was blocked in Turn 1 and 2 and lost a couple of places. Very soon I had an incident with Fernando and my floor got damaged on the right side, after that I had another collision with Daniel which compromised the rear.

In these conditions, the car was sliding everywhere and the race was pretty much over for me, it was very difficult to go to the end. We knew it would have been a difficult race for us but the damage to the car made it even trickier, I did the maximum I could but we lost the pace shown during the weekend.

I just need to forget about it and start focusing on Singapore, which is a track where we normally can do very well."

Brandon Hartley (started P16 - DNF collision)

Brendon Hartley

"I was really looking forward to my first Monza GP.

I felt very strong all weekend and was very close to Pierre in Qualifying - even if that meant starting a few positions lower on the grid - I was confident of having a strong race.

Unfortunately, right after the start, Ericsson moved a little bit to the left trying to pass me. It wasn't that aggressive what he did, but it was enough to put an end to my day before Turn 1. It's been a great race to watch from the outside, but of course I would have preferred to be on track and finish the race."

See complete 2018 Italian F1 GP Results
See current 2018 F1 Championship Standings

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