Hamilton victorious at Monza, as Perez continues to impress

Lewis Hamilton recorded his first victory at the legendary Monza circuit after holding off a late charge from Sauber’s Sergio Perez to win the Italian Grand Prix for McLaren.

As for Fernando Alonso, the Ferrari driver extended his championship lead by coming through from tenth on the grid to third.

Alonso benefited from his closet title rival Sebastian Vettel receiving a drive-through penalty for forcing him off the track at Curva Grande.

The incident was very similar to what occurred between Alonso and Vettel last year and yet in this scenario, the latest rule changes means at least a car’s width must be given and so Vettel was penalised.

The Red Bull driver would later retire with a mechanical problem.

For much of the Italian Grand Prix, it seemed McLaren were heading to an one-two result thanks to their strong race pace.

Although Felipe Massa made a great start to immediately pass Jenson Button for second position and then pressure Hamilton into Variante del Rettifilo, the pole sitter was soon able to ease away. Button then overtook the Ferrari just before their pitstops.

But with 19 laps to go, Button was forced to park his McLaren on the approach to Curva Parabolica, with a fuel pressure problem.

That brought Massa back up to second position, but with his Scuderia team-mate Alonso catching him.

The championship leader had gained two positions off the start, before overtaking Kamui Kobayashi and Kimi Raikkonen in quick succession.

Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel then proved tougher opponents, though the Spaniard eventually passed both. Along the way, Alonso ended up on the Curva Grande grass as Vettel defended – a move that would earn the defending champion a drive-through penalty.

Vettel still looked set for sixth until being ordered to stop his Red Bull due to a developing technical problem five laps from the chequered flag.

Massa gave Alonso an easy pass into second position, but by then a new threat was looming.

Unlike all the frontrunners, Sergio Perez had started on the harder Pirelli tyres, allowing the Mexican to run until lap 29 before his first pitstop.

Perez rejoined in sixth, benefited from Vettel and Button’s problems, and then started lapping 1.5 seconds faster than the leaders as he thrived on the medium compound rubber.

Both Massa and Alonso were easily overtaken, and Perez then charged off after Hamilton.

The Mexican would run out of time to catch the McLaren, but still claimed his third podium in an excellent season.

Alonso and Massa finished third and fourth, ahead of Raikkonen’s Lotus, holding off the two-stopping Mercedes duo of Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

Mark Webber recovered from a slow start to get into the top six, only to spin his Red Bull out of Variante Ascari in the final laps and then retire.

Force India’s Paul di Resta took eighth position, while his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg’s charge from the back ended with a late technical problem.

Kamui Kobayashi and Bruno Senna completed the points-scorers for Sauber and Williams respectively after a last-lap problem for Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo.

The latter’s team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne retired in dramatic style with an apparent suspension breakage approaching Variante del Rettifilo.

In the drivers’ championship, Alonso has extended his lead to 37 points over Hamilton, 179 to 142, with fifth-place finisher Kimi Raikkonen third on 141 from Vettel on 140, Webber on 132 and Button on 101.

As for the constructors, despite the double non-finish for Red Bull Racing – the first time since Korea 2010 – the team now have 272 points to McLaren’s 243, Ferrari’s 226 and Lotus’s 217.

Italian Grand Prix after 53 laps:

1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h19:41.221
2.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +4.356
3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +20.594
4.  Massa         Ferrari                    +29.667
5.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +30.881
6.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +31.259
7.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +33.550
8.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +41.057
9.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +43.898
10.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +48.144
11.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +48.682
12.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +50.316
13.  d’Ambrosio    Lotus-Renault              +1:15.861
14.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
15.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
16.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
17.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
18.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +1 lap
19.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +1 lap
20.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +2 laps
21.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +3 laps
22.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +6 laps

Fastest lap: Rosberg, 1:27.239

Not classified/retirements:
Button        McLaren-Mercedes             32 laps
Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari           8 laps

World Championship standings, round 13:

Drivers:
1.  Alonso       179
2.  Hamilton     142
3.  Raikkonen    141
4.  Vettel       140
5.  Webber       132
6.  Button       101
7.  Rosberg       83
8.  Grosjean      76
9.  Perez         65
10.  Massa         47
11.  Schumacher    43
12.  Kobayashi     35
13.  Di Resta      32
14.  Hulkenberg    31
15.  Maldonado     29
16.  Senna         25
17.  Vergne         8
18.  Ricciardo      4

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          272
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          243
3.  Ferrari                   226
4.  Lotus-Renault             217
5.  Mercedes                  126
6.  Sauber-Ferrari            100
7.  Force India-Mercedes       63
8.  Williams-Renault           54
9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         12

Next race: Singapore Grand Prix, Marina Bay. September 21-23.

16 thoughts to “Hamilton victorious at Monza, as Perez continues to impress”

  1. Sergio Pérez impressed yet again at Monza, charging through from twelfth on the grid to finish just four seconds behind Lewis Hamilton in the Italian Grand Prix. The result marks the Sauber driver’s third podium finish of the 2012 Formula 1 season.

    Second in Malaysia and third in Canada has been followed by second at Monza, in Ferrari’s home race. The Mexican is still tipped as Fernando Alonso’s most likely team-mate for next year, should the Scuderia elect to drop Felipe Massa.

    “It was a great race for me, for my team,” Pérez told triple Champion Niki Lauda in front of hoards of fans on the podium. “It’s unbelievable to have a podium at Monza with all of these people, it’s really special. I went for the Prime (tyres), stopped very late and then went for fresh tyres at the end, so it’s unbelievable to be here.”

    Pérez, ninth in the Drivers’ Championship, has now moved to within 11 points of Lotus driver Romain Grosjean who was unable to race on Sunday because of a ban.

    Source: GPUpdate.net

  2. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso has nothing to say to Sebastian Vettel following their on-track battle during the Italian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver would later receive a drive-through penalty. Story taken from PlanetF1.com

    Fernando Alonso has refused to slam Sebastian Vettel after their on-track tussle damaged his F2012 in Sunday’s Italian GP.

    Fighting over fourth place around the Monza circuit, Alonso was stuck behind Vettel despite appearing to have the faster car.

    The Spaniard tried several times to look up the inside or around the outside before finally opting for the latter at the Curva Grande.

    But instead of taking fourth, Alonso got a face full of dirt as Vettel pushed him wide and off the track.

    Telling his Ferrari mechanics that “that’s enough,” Alonso overtook Vettel two laps later at the same spot while Vettel was then called into the pits for a drive-through penalty.

    Asked about the incident, Alonso said: “Nothing really to say.”

    “I lost 10 laps behind him, after the incident, and for sure the car is damaged because at 330km/h you are jumping on the gravel so I don’t think the floor and everything will be fine after those jumps.”

    Alonso, who had started tenth after car troubles in Saturday’s qualifying, went on to finish in third place having been overtaken by Sergio Perez in the final ten laps.

    “It was a difficult race starting from 10th but we knew we had possibly the quickest car this weekend,” said the Spaniard.

    “We had the pace to recover the position so it was a good result for us.”

    Alonso’s 15 points mean he now holds a 37-point advantage over Lewis Hamilton with seven races remaining.

  3. After a disastrous qualifying session, Fernando Alonso was left feeling delighted to finish in third position in Monza. Autosport.com has the news story.

    Fernando Alonso declared his third place finish in the Italian Grand Prix a “perfect” result after his qualifying problems.

    A broken rear anti-rollbar left Alonso only 10th on the grid and seemingly in danger of seeing his Formula 1 championship lead slashed.

    But instead he stretched his advantage to 37 points over new second place man and race-winner Lewis Hamilton by charging to third, while both Red Bulls retired.

    “It was a perfect Sunday for us,” said Alonso. “After the problem yesterday it was not easy to think about victory.

    “So if you are not going to win, the podium is the next target.

    “All the simulations and predictions said we would never finish on the podium, so it was much better than expected, and Jenson [Button] was out of the race and so were the two Red Bulls, so the perfect Sunday.”

    During his charge up the order, Alonso had a battle with Vettel that included the Ferrari being edged onto the Curva Grande grass. Vettel was given a drive-through penalty for the incident, which Alonso felt left his car with damage.

    “I lost 10 laps behind him so I lost whatever seconds at that moment after the incident, and also the laps behind him,” said Alonso.

    “For sure the car is damaged because I was jumping in the gravel at 330km/h. I don’t think the floor is completely fine after those jumps.”

    Vettel and Alonso had a similar incident in last year’s race, but on that occasion it was the Ferrari defending and no penalty was issued.

    “Last year was not a penalty and this year is a penalty,” said Alonso. “That is the big difference for the people that understand this.”

  4. Sergio Perez played down the prospect of his second place in the Italian Grand Prix moving him closer to taking a Ferrari seat for the 2013 season.

    Sauber’s impressive Mexican is part of the Ferrari Driver Academy and has been linked with Felipe Massa’s place in the Maranello team for much of the year.

    That prospect appeared to be fading in recent months, but Perez impressed again at Monza by charging from 12th on the grid to finish second – passing both Ferraris along the way.

    Asked if he felt the performance increased his chances of a Ferrari deal, Perez replied: “I don’t know. I am sure not at all. I am fighting for my team and I will always fight for the team I am in, I will always give my maximum.

    “I will always fight, if it is against Fernando [Alonso] or Lewis [Hamilton], to give my all and every driver would do the same.”

    Perez took a different strategy to the leading qualifiers as he started on the harder Pirellis and then used the medium rubber for his second stint.

    Great pace on both tyres saw him lead for five laps before his pitstop, and then gain on the leaders by 1.5 seconds per lap in the latter part of the race.

    “It was really enjoyable,” said Perez. “One of those races where you have the pace and are the one attacking.

    “There were very crucial moments during the race, especially with my first stint – going long and keeping pace was not easy at all.

    “I did quite a lot of laps on those tyres and then in the second stint we managed to go on maximum attack and were able to have good fight with some drivers.”

    Although he only qualified 12th, Perez reckoned that was partly down to underperformance, rather than the car’s pace being transformed for the race.

    “I don’t think we had pace to be close to the front row or close to the top five,” he said. “We were not quick at all, lacking too much speed on the straights.

    “I didn’t get a good lap yesterday and that is why we qualified outside the top 10. Maybe the top 10 was reachable.

    “It helps us in a way to change strategy. I think we were one of only a few to go for primes and it worked quite well. I was worried about warm up at the beginning but it worked quite well.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  5. Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo was left feeling disappointed to lose a championship point on the very last lap at Monza. Autosport.com has the details.

    Daniel Ricciardo said losing a point in the Italian Grand Prix within sight of the finish was an enormous disappointment amid a tough season for Toro Rosso.

    The 2008 Monza winning squad is a distant ninth in the constructors’ championship at present, but Ricciardo was on course for a 10th-place finish in Italy until a fuel pick-up problem slowed his car heading out of the very last corner of the race.

    “It’s been so hard to score points this year and that means it is incredibly disappointing not to get one today,” said Ricciardo.

    “I was 10th until the last corner on the very last lap.

    “At that point, I accelerated to exit Parabolica and nothing happened.

    “At the moment, I don’t know the cause, but to miss out on a point by a few hundred metres is bitterly disappointing.”

    Team boss Franz Tost said Ricciardo’s car had failed to pick up its remaining fuel.

    “A frustrating race for us at the end of a difficult weekend on home ground,” said Tost.

    “As it was clear we did not have great pace this weekend, we decided to run Daniel on a one-stop strategy in the hope of making up places on those changing tyres twice.

    “It worked to a certain extent, as from 14th on the grid he was in 10th place for most of the final lap.

    “Unfortunately, his car suffered a fuel pick-up problem, which we now need to investigate and this dropped him back to 12th.”

  6. Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne escaped injury in his wild exit from the Italian Grand Prix.

    Vergne’s car snapped into a high-speed spin on the approach to the Rettifilo chicane on lap nine, and was launched into the air over the kerbs.

    “I was taken from the accident to the medical centre, but apart from a bit of pain in my back and my head, I am fine,” said Vergne, who was running 16th at the time.

    The team said it currently did not know what caused the crash, which Vergne said left him baffled but relieved.

    “I don’t know why I crashed,” he said.

    “All I can remember is that when I braked, I completely lost control of the back end of the car.

    “I felt a big impact when the car landed after going up in the air.

    “The kerb is high at that point and I count myself lucky that the car did not flip over.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  7. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa has admitted it was a tyre degradation that cost the Brazilian a chance on the podium at Monza. Autosport.com has the details.

    Massive tyre degradation denied Felipe Massa a podium in front of Ferrari’s Tifosi at Monza, according to the under-fire Brazilian after the Italian Grand Prix.

    The 31-year-old, who is fighting for his drive at Ferrari, enjoyed perhaps his most competitive race of the season.

    Massa ran second until the pitstops despite losing all his car’s telemetry, and then climbed back to second once he had changed to the hard tyres, before allowing team-mate Fernando Alonso through.

    But then he began to suffer serious degradation and was defenceless when Sergio Perez blasted by on his way to second place, leaving Massa an eventual fourth. That equalled his best result of 2012, achieved at Silverstone.

    “It was unfortunate,” explained Massa. “Today we were completely in a difficult situation with the degradation.

    “I think, putting that on the table, it was a good result for the team.”

    Referring to the telemetry, Massa added: “They lost us completely from the beginning of the race to the end, so they couldn’t see us on the track. But everything they were telling me I was doing on the steering wheel. And I don’t think it was a big problem, the big problem was the tyres.

    “The degradation was really massive on our cars.

    “I expected better degradation so that was the biggest thing that happened today. Anyway it was a good result for us, third and fourth for the team was a good result.”

    Massa admitted that his performance, and the result, which helped Ferrari climb to within 50 points of constructors’ championship leader Red Bull, was a huge boost to his aspirations to stay with Ferrari for an eighth season in 2013.

    “For sure my own personal race was very important, but also helping Fernando as well to be in the condition to fight for the championship, which we know is very important for the team. I think both came together during the race.”

  8. Mercedes drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg admitted they had hoped for more from the Italian Grand Prix after their sixth and seventh place finishes.

    The duo were encouraged by their pace in Friday practice, and remained optimistic when they took fourth and sixth on the grid.

    But a lack of pace on the softer tyres in the first of their three stints cost the Mercedes too much ground to get back among the frontrunners.

    Their frustration was then compounded by the strong pace the W03 showed late in the race on the hard tyre, Rosberg setting a string of fastest laps as he charged back to seventh.

    “Seventh place is an improvement on my recent finishes so I’m satisfied with that today, although there may have been potential for more,” said Rosberg.

    “I had no grip on my option tyres in the first stint, which were the same set that gave me problems in Q3.

    “After the first stop, I had very good pace and was able to set a few fastest race laps and move up the field with some nice overtakes.”

    Schumacher felt that although the result was a slight disappointment, Mercedes could still take encouragement from Monza.

    “It was a fun race today – although I must admit that, following our performance on Friday, I had secretly hoped we would be able to move up the field,” he said.

    “But we had a tricky first stint. After that, everything went really well, we were on the pace and I think we showed a clear upwards trend today.

    “I kind of ran out of laps this afternoon and, if the race had been a bit longer, I’d have been able to battle even further forward.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  9. Both the driver and team boss at Red Bull Racing were unimpressed by the harsh drive-through penalty for pushing Fernando Alonso onto the grass at Curva Grande. Autosport.com has the details.

    Sebastian Vettel and his boss Christian Horner believe that the Red Bull racer’s drive-through penalty for pushing Fernando Alonso off the track at the Italian Grand Prix was unjustified.

    The reigning world champion was penalised for not leaving Alonso enough room on the exit of the Curva Grande on lap 26 in an incident reminiscent of when the pair battled 12 months ago.

    Speaking about whether he felt it was right to be given a penalty, Vettel said: “From my point of view no, but it is not for me to judge.”

    When asked by AUTOSPORT for his feelings on what happened, Horner said: “It is irrelevant effectively after the DNF, but judge it for yourself – it seemed a bit harsh. It didn’t seem to warrant a penalty but that is my opinion.”

    Vettel’s sanctioning this year, compared to Alonso not being penalised in 2011, is the result of a clamp down on defensive driving issued by the FIA – as revealed by AUTOSPORT earlier this year.

    In a note sent to all drivers ahead of the British Grand Prix, Formula 1 race director Charlie Whiting had clarified that: “any driver defending his position on a straight and before any braking area may use the full width of the track during his first move provided no significant portion of the car attempting to pass is alongside his. Whilst defending in this way the driver may not leave the track without justifiable reason.”

    To further clarify the situation he later added: “For the avoidance of doubt, if any part of the front wing of the car attempting to pass is alongside the rear wheel of the car in front this will be deemed to be a ‘significant portion’.”

    Alonso said about the matter and how it compared to last year: “Last year it was not penalised, this year it has been. I think there is a big difference for the people who understand this movement.”

  10. After scoring his 20th Formula One career victory, the McLaren driver has commented that Sergio Perez’s late race charge was not a threat. Autosport.com has the story.

    Lewis Hamilton reckons his 20th career Formula 1 victory was never in doubt despite a late charge from Sauber’s Sergio Perez in Sunday’s race at Monza.

    Hamilton, who led the Italian Grand Prix from the start, having taken his 23rd pole position during a dominant weekend for the 27-year-old McLaren driver, was only headed by Perez in the pitstop phase mid-race.

    But Perez, who started 12th, optimised a late one-stop strategy, having started the race on prime hard tyres to come on strong late in the race, passing both Ferraris and closing to within five seconds of Hamilton by the flag.

    Hamilton though, whose future has been the subject of intense speculation all weekend, said he was never worried about the Sauber catching him.

    “I was cruising up until that point [that Perez was closing],” said Hamilton. “And then I heard he was catching at a second a lap up until about 14s so then I tried to balance that over a certain number of laps.

    “Then with six laps to go he was maybe seven seconds away…

    “I can’t say there was huge pressure. I think if he was a lot closer to start with then it would have been quite tough, but the last few laps I had to accelerate a little bit more to reduce the amount that he was catching me.”

    Hamilton added that Perez passing Fernando Alonso for second actually did him a favour.

    “When I heard that Fernando had got to second, I thought ‘How the hell did he get to second?’, and then I thought to myself: ‘That’s OK, I’ve just got to try and finish’. So once I had heard that Sergio got past I thought, ‘That’s great’.”

    This was Hamilton’s first Italian GP victory, having already collected trophies at other classics Silverstone and Monaco, and he said he was glad to add it to his collection.

    “It’s an incredible feeling,” said Hamilton, who became the second driver in 2012 to win three races after Alonso. “It’s phenomenal.

    “You never know what is going to happen when you come into a race weekend. But I have been so happy that it has just run quite smoothly throughout the weekend and the guys have done a great job with the package.

    “I knew that from the previous weekend with Jenson [Button]’s pace, I thought straightaway that means I have got to do the same here and the guys did a great job.

    “And this is Monza, this is one of the very historic circuits and one that I have not won at before so it’s great to take another stepping stone in my career.

    “It’s not as special as Silverstone or Monaco, but it is one of those special grands prix, as this is a very historic circuit,” he added. “I wish we had a better reception here but I know, and I could hear, the great British fans we had here this weekend, standing in amongst the crowd of Italian Ferrari fans.”

  11. As for his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button, this non finish at the Italian Grand Prix has not dented his desire to win the world championship. Autosport.com has the details.

    Jenson Button does not think his Italian Grand Prix retirement has killed off his 2012 Formula 1 world title hopes – but admits he needs to find more consistency if he is to keep his championship challenge alive.

    The McLaren driver’s Belgian GP victory a week ago revived his title bid, but a fuel system problem forced him out when running second at Monza this weekend.

    That leaves Button sixth in the standings, 78 points behind leader Fernando Alonso with seven rounds to go.

    Button said he was buoyed by race-winning team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s progress up to second in the championship.

    “[The Monza result] is not good but it shows with a good race how many positions you can pick up because Lewis overtook two or three guys in the championship so it shows what can happen if you have a good weekend,” said Button.

    “The problem is I’m just not doing them consistently at the moment.”

    The Briton’s Spa victory followed a disappointing sixth place at the Hungaroring, which had been preceded by a strong second at Hockenheim. Button admitted inconsistency was hurting him badly.

    “It is going to be very very difficult [to win the title] but it just shows you that if you can be consistent you have such a good chance of winning the championship,” he said.

    “At the moment it is one race off and one race on and if you get 25 points one race then don’t finish it mixes it up.”

    Button was open-minded about whether he could have closed in on Hamilton and fought for victory had he continued. He was 7.3 seconds behind when he retired.

    “The car felt good and it was always going to be difficult to win but with such a long stint you never know what is going to happen to the other guys around you,” he said.

  12. Red Bull boss Christian Horner says Red Bull cannot afford a repeat of the kind of mechanical problems that ruined Sebastian Vettel’s Italian Grand Prix if it is to win the world championship.

    Vettel retired from the Monza race with an alternator failure on lap 48 – the second time his car had been stopped this weekend with the issue following a similar problem in third practice.

    Horner was clearly deeply disappointed by the situation, which comes after the team lost a likely victory in Valencia with the same problem. He urged Renault to address the matter with some urgency.

    “I think the most important thing is that we need to find rectifications for the faults that have occurred,” explained Horner.

    “DNFs are extremely expensive and it is our first non points scoring race since [Korea] 2010 – which also happened to be an engine failure that cost us on that day as well. We cannot afford to not be finishing races.”

    Horner was unaware of the cause of the alternator failure – which Renault believes was caused by overheating – but thinks it vital his outfit works with the French car manufacturer to get on top of the matter.

    “We have had two race-stopping failures: one that cost us a certain victory and today one that cost us a sensible amount of points. It is extremely costly and something that needs to be rectified for the remaining eight races.

    “I think there was another issue on another car with the same component during the weekend, so it is very disappointing. But we need to work with Renault to understand it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

    The other alternator issue hit Jerome d’Ambrosio in the Lotus on Saturday, when the alternator did not fail but was changed as a precautionary measure after qualifying.

    Source: Autosport.com

  13. Despite putting on a late charge from Sergio Perez, the Sauber team admitted later that Italian Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton would still have won the race. Autosport.com has the details.

    Sauber does not believe Sergio Perez had a realistic chance of beating Lewis Hamilton to victory in the Italian Grand Prix – despite him finishing less than five seconds behind at the chequered flag.

    Perez executed a brilliant alternative strategy to the leaders to charge through to second from 12th place on the grid – even overtaking Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso on the way.

    But although he came close to Hamilton in the closing stages, Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn says her outfit is not wasting any time wondering if even more would have been possible.

    “I think we were too far away from that, and that is speculation that you don’t want to get into,” she told AUTOSPORT when asked whether Perez had the possibility to win. “With the laps we had remaining we were too far away.

    “Even if you start thinking: what if we had more laps? Well, if you have more laps you also have more laps where things can go wrong, so we should not forget that.”

    Kaltenborn said it had been a tough call to opt to start the race on the hard tyres; but the team quickly realised that its strategy was correct once Perez hit the right pitstop window.

    “It was very tight,” she said. “The engineers had actually calculated the window that you have to look at, and that is what you have to decide: do we go for a one-stop or a two-stopper? And it was a very tricky decision.”

  14. Lotus trackside operations director Alan Permane reckoned Kimi Raikkonen drove an “exceptional” race to salvage fifth place from the Italian Grand Prix.

    After podium finishes in Belgium and Hungary, Lotus dropped off the pace in Italy, with Raikkonen only qualifying eighth.

    On race day the Finn used a one-stop strategy with a very short first stint to rise to fifth and hold off the two-stopping Mercedes.

    That result moved Raikkonen up to third in the drivers’ championship, 38 points behind leader Fernando Alonso and just one point behind Lewis Hamilton.

    “We weren’t looking forward to coming to Monza as it doesn’t play to the strengths of our car so we’re very happy to come away with fifth place from Kimi,” said Permane.

    “He drove exceptionally well at a circuit where we knew we weren’t going to be super competitive. It’s fantastic that he has moved up into third place in the drivers’ championship, and is now just one point off second.”

    While relatively pleased with his result, Raikkonen was frustrated that points leader Alonso pulled further away.

    “It’s good to go into third position in the drivers’ championship but we lost some points to Fernando which is not ideal,” said the Finn.

    “It was a difficult weekend as we were too slow in a straight line, making it very difficult to hold off anyone and even with the DRS it was difficult to overtake the cars in front.

    “We came into the race looking for sixth or seventh so fifth is the maximum we could have done here this weekend.”

    Jerome d’Ambrosio, standing in for the banned Romain Grosjean in the second Lotus, finished only 13th after KERS problems.

    “It was a pretty long and difficult race for me today,” he said.

    “After losing my KERS on lap six it was always going to be tough as that’s worth about half a second per lap around here.

    “I got a good start and was up fighting with Daniel [Ricciardo] and Nico [Rosberg], but once I lost that extra boost it was impossible to keep up and I dropped back.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  15. Force India’s Paul di Resta will not be feeling downcast following his race at Monza. Autosport.com has the details.

    Paul di Resta said he would “take the positives” from Force India’s Italian Grand Prix weekend and not rue the team’s downturn in performance from qualifying to the race.

    Di Resta was one of the stars of the first half of the event as he flew in practice and then set the fourth-fastest time in qualifying – although that only translated to ninth on the grid because of a gearbox-change penalty.

    But Sunday proved disappointing, as he could only manage an eighth-place finish.

    “Coming into this weekend I probably would have settled for eighth place, but when you consider the pace we showed in qualifying yesterday, we certainly had high hopes for the race,” he admitted.

    “I struggled at the start with the heavy fuel load and didn’t really have the race pace on the medium tyres.

    “Things improved after my stop when I was running the hard compound and our pace was much stronger towards the end of the race. But there was no way I could keep the Mercedes behind me and with their two-stop strategy they had a bit more speed than us.”

    Force India remains seventh in the constructors’ championship, but sixth-placed Sauber’s podium finish with Sergio Perez means it is now 37 points ahead of the Silverstone-based squad.

    “It’s good to extend our lead over Williams with a few more points, but obviously Sauber look strong and outperformed a lot of people,” said di Resta.

    “We will take the positives from the weekend, analyse things and try and improve our race pace in time for Singapore.”

    Di Resta’s team-mate Nico Hulkenberg retired with brake problems.

  16. Bruno Senna believes Paul di Resta should have been penalised for their coming-together in the Italian Grand Prix.

    Williams driver Senna was challenging di Resta’s Force India for 10th on lap nine when the incident occurred.

    Senna attempted to go down the outside into the Roggia chicane, but the cars banged wheels and the Brazilian was forced over the run-off.

    “It was pretty clear,” said Senna. “I had the front wing of my car next to his car and then of course the tyre under braking and he squeezed me off the track.

    “We touched. Fortunately, we didn’t launch each other but for me a driver has been banned for a race for doing something similar to that and even [Sebastian] Vettel got a drive-through penalty for squeezing [Fernando] Alonso off the track.

    “It’s a stewards’ decision, so we’ll respect it, but I don’t think that what Paul did was right. It’s racing and sometimes we make errors in judgement but it’s up to the stewards to decide.”

    The officials did not impose any form of penalty. Di Resta went on to finish eighth, while Senna could only manage 11th.

    Source: Autosport.com

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