Lewis Hamilton scored his 68th career victory at Monza and managed to escape unscarred from his first-lap contact with title rival Sebastian Vettel.
Hamilton overtook Vettel around the outside into the second chicane on the opening lap, and Vettel ran wide, hit the Mercedes and spun to the back.
Sebastian charged through to finish fourth behind Valtteri Bottas, as a time penalty dropped Max Verstappen from the podium to fifth.
Raikkonen maintained the lead despite pressure from Vettel and a lock-up into the first corner, before Hamilton drafted the Ferraris and attacked Vettel around the outside the Roggia Chicane.
Hamilton held his car level with the Ferrari, which drifted into the side of the Mercedes and spun.
Vettel dropped to the back and had to pit as he damaged his front wing in the contact as well, but was handed a silver lining thanks to a safety car.
Brendon Hartley pulled over on the right-hand side of the circuit seconds after the start, having been squeezed on the run to the first corner and suffered a front-right breakage on his Toro Rosso.
Racing resumed on lap four and Hamilton pressured Raikkonen but was not close enough to mount an attack.
That was the story of the opening stint as Hamilton gradually drifted outside of DRS range, but Raikkonen’s lead never rose above two seconds before he stopped on lap 20.
Mercedes was ready to receive Hamilton as well but instead the Briton did not pit and ran another eight laps, shipping five seconds to Raikkonen in that time.
However, Mercedes kept Bottas on track, with the Finn fighting to overhaul Verstappen, who had just pit, for third.
That meant Bottas was able to hold up Raikkonen and, within three laps of Hamilton pitting, he was within DRS range of Raikkonen and on fresher rubber.
Bottas led until lap 36 before pitting, releasing Raikkonen and Hamilton to duke it out for the win.
Hamilton was closer than ever as they crossed the line to start the 45th lap but only drew alongside the Ferrari as they approached the braking zone but nailed Raikkonen around the outside.
Raikkonen tried to fight back into the Roggia Chicane but Hamilton held the place and quickly broke clear as Raikkonen nursed a blister on his left-rear tyre.
That situation was so “critical”, as Ferrari put it, for Raikkonen that he fell almost 9 seconds behind Hamilton, whose victory extended his points lead in the championship to 30 as Vettel received a late gift by nicking fourth from Verstappen.
Bottas had used his fresh tyres to quickly wipe out Verstappen’s three-second lead and started to attack for the final podium place with ten laps to go.
He got a great run on Verstappen and pulled to the outside when Verstappen moved under braking for the first chicane, which bumped Bottas onto the grass and sent him onto the run-off.
Verstappen was hit with a five-second time penalty, then defended aggressively from Bottas when his rival recovered a four-second deficit, telling his team he did not care that he was costing himself time to Vettel.
That allowed Vettel, who stopped again in his fight back to fifth on-track, to sneak within five seconds of the Red Bull and salvage another two points.
Romain Grosjean was almost unseen on FOM but came under immense pressure from the Racing Point Force Indias in the best-of-the-rest fight.
Grosjean just held on to claim sixth for Haas, with Esteban Ocon besting a charging Sergio Perez – who started P14 – to P7.
Carlos Sainz finished ninth for Renault, while Lance Stroll claimed only the second points finish of the year for Williams as he completed the top ten.
Two drivers joined Hartley in retirement over the grand prix. Fernando Alonso stopped his McLaren with an unconfirmed problem on lap 10, while running in the points, while Daniel Ricciardo pulled a smoking Red Bull over exiting the second chicane just before mid-distance.
So congratulations to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes in winning the Italian Grand Prix. This was an important result for the championship and taking victory at Monza was just magic.
Italian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 53 1h16m54.484s
2 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 53 8.705s
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 53 14.066s
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 53 16.151s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Renault 53 18.208s
6 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 53 56.320s
7 Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 53 57.761s
8 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 53 58.678s
9 Carlos Sainz Renault 53 1m28.140s
10 Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 52 1 Lap
11 Sergey Sirotkin Williams-Mercedes 52 1 Lap
12 Charles Leclerc Sauber-Ferrari 52 1 Lap
13 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Renault 52 1 Lap
14 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 52 1 Lap
15 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso-Honda 52 1 Lap
16 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 52 1 Lap
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 52 1 Lap
– Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 23 Power Unit
– Fernando Alonso McLaren-Renault 9 Retirement
– Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 0 Collision
Drivers’ standings:
1 Lewis Hamilton 256
2 Sebastian Vettel 226
3 Kimi Raikkonen 164
4 Valtteri Bottas 159
5 Max Verstappen 130
6 Daniel Ricciardo 118
7 Nico Hulkenberg 52
8 Kevin Magnussen 49
9 Sergio Perez 44
10 Fernando Alonso 44
11 Esteban Ocon 43
12 Romain Grosjean 35
13 Carlos Sainz 32
14 Pierre Gasly 28
15 Charles Leclerc 13
16 Stoffel Vandoorne 8
17 Marcus Ericsson 6
18 Lance Stroll 5
19 Brendon Hartley 2
20 Sergey Sirotkin 0
Constructors’ standings:
1 Mercedes 415
2 Ferrari 390
3 Red Bull-Renault 248
4 Haas-Ferrari 84
5 Renault 84
6 McLaren-Renault 52
7 Toro Rosso-Honda 30
8 Force India-Mercedes 28
9 Sauber-Ferrari 19
10 Williams-Mercedes 5
Italian Grand Prix race review as reported by Formula1.com.
Ferrari were overwhelming favourites for victory in front of their loyal fans, the Tifosi, at Monza as they locked out the front row. But Lewis Hamilton had other ideas, taking advantage of a spin from Sebastian Vettel after a brilliant pass on his title rival, before hunting down Kimi Raikkonen to take a shock victory in a thrilling Italian Grand Prix…
On Saturday, Vettel said Raikkonen would be allowed to win the Italian Grand Prix from pole position and for much of the race, it looked like that would be the case. The Finn’s chances were boosted when Vettel defended too hard from Hamilton into the second chicane on Lap 1.
Hamilton was on the outside and Vettel opted to try and hang on alongside. The result was contact, with Vettel’s Ferrari spun round to drop him to the back of the field. Hamilton, meanwhile, was unscathed and set about chasing down Raikkonen.
Raikkonen pitted first, with Hamilton going eight laps longer. With fresher tyres, and the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, who had yet to stop, backing Raikkonen up at the front, Hamilton closed onto the Ferrari’s gearbox. Bottas then pitted, giving Raikkonen clear air, but his tyres were in trouble.
Hamilton bided his time and then pounced to snatch the lead with eight laps to go, before pulling away to take a brilliant victory against the run of form. It was Mercedes’ fifth successive win at Monza with Hamilton the first driver to win from below the front row since Rubens Barrichello from fifth in 2009.
Raikkonen nursed his car home to second, clinching his 100th podium, with Verstappen crossing the line third before a five-second time penalty dropped him behind Bottas and Vettel in the final classification.
Vettel leaves Monza 30 points adrift of championship leader Hamilton on a weekend where he would have expected to slice the deficit to at least 10. However, there are still seven races and a maximum of175 points left on the table.
Raikkonen bolted across the track to defend the lead at the start, with Vettel tucking into his tow and then attempting a pass around the outside into the first chicane before bailing out.
On the approach to the Roggia chicane, Hamilton picked up a slipstream from Vettel and dived to the outside. Vettel was baulked by Raikkonen, allowing Hamilton to move alongside the Ferrari. The Mercedes driver got his nose in front as they entered the corner, but Vettel stayed side by side with the silver car. They touched, with Vettel spinning and dropping to the back of the field.
Meanwhile, the Safety Car was called into action, with debris on the start-finish straight after Brendon Hartley found his Toro Rosso sandwiched between Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson at the start. The contact broke the New Zealander’s front-right suspension, forcing him out immediately.
Vettel used the neutralisation to pit for a new front wing and swap his supersoft tyres for softs, opening the opportunity for him to complete the race on that set of tyres.
At the restart on Lap 4, Hamilton got a lovely tow down the main straight and glided by Raikkonen to take the lead before the first chicane. But the Finn regrouped and retook the lead around the outside into the Roggia chicane – much to the delight of the Tifosi that packed out Monza.
However, Hamilton didn’t let the Ferrari driver scamper away, the Briton keeping the pressure on until the Scuderia called Raikkonen in to pit at the end of lap 20. It was a super slick stop and he was sent back out on a set of supersofts and into clear air.
Mercedes opted not to respond, with Hamilton staying out for another eight laps before pitting. On the face of it, that looked to be the wrong call, as he rejoined 5.2s behind Raikkonen. But Raikkonen was baulked by Bottas, who had inherited the lead by virtue of not having pitted.
Hamilton set about reeling Raikkonen in, slicing at least a second per lap out of the gap until he was right on the Finn’s gearbox with 20 laps to go. Mercedes told Hamilton that “this race will be won on lost on tyres, you need to look after yours. It looks like Kimi is killing his”. They were referring to a blister that had appeared on Raikkonen’s rears, with the Finn struggling with vibrations.
Bottas eventually pitted at the end of lap 36, leaving Raikkonen and Hamilton to battle for the lead. The Finn rejoined in fourth, just 3.2s behind Verstappen but with tyres that were 10 laps fresher and began the chase for the final podium position.
Back up front, Hamilton hustled Raikkonen, with the Finn increasingly struggling with his tyres. Eventually, he could hold on no more, with Hamilton diving around the outside of the first chicane to take the lead on Lap 45, to the disappointment of the Ferrari fan-packed grandstands.
Ferrari then told Raikkonen to take care of his tyres and “bring the car home”, with the Finn fading and allowing Hamilton to move well clear. Further back, Verstappen and Bottas made contact at Turn 1, with Verstappen given a five-second time penalty for the incident.
Bottas couldn’t find a way past, but he inherited the final podium position courtesy of Verstappen’s penalty. Vettel completed a strong recovery drive to take fourth ahead of Romain Grosjean in the Haas, who took his fourth successive points finish.
The Force Indias of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez finished seventh and eighth, while Renault’s Carlos Sainz and Williams’ Lance Stroll completed the top 10.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton is adamant that he left Sebastian Vettel “enough space” at the second chicane. Motorsport.com has the news story.
Lewis Hamilton is adamant that he left “enough space” in making the move that resulted in his Formula 1 title rival Sebastian Vettel spinning on the opening lap at Monza.
Hamilton qualified behind the Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Vettel, and remained in third place after going through the first chicane.
But with Vettel boxed in behind Raikkonen on entry into Variante della Roggia, Hamilton moved ahead on the outside line.
The pair clashed exiting the first part of the chicane, and Vettel spun, leaving Hamilton free to attack Raikkonen and eventually win the race.
Vettel, who finished the Italian Grand Prix in fifth and now trails Hamilton by 30 points, laid the blame on Hamilton for the incident after the race – but the Mercedes driver was confident he had done nothing wrong.
“I think we all got to similar starts and I got wheelspin and went to Turn 1, and I was surprised that Seb went to the left.
“We got to Turn 1 and there was a small touch between us all and powering down to [Turn] 4, again a bit surprised Seb chose the inside and not going to the outside of Kimi.
“And that was my opportunity, I stuck it down the outside and made sure I was far enough alongside, I had the experience a few years ago of being on the inside and it didn’t come off too well.
“I think there was enough space between us. I am guessing he locked up, we touched, it was a brief moment, damaged the car a little bit but I could continue.
“The rear moved around a lot [after that], which made it a little bit more difficult but not impossible.”
Ferrari led Mercedes in every practice session and qualifying segment this weekend, and Hamilton admitted he did not see himself winning the race.
“I definitely didn’t expect it,” Hamilton said. “|I started third on the grid, looking at pace of last race and pace here, I didn’t know where we would be here.
“I was to stay within 1.5 [seconds], I thought ‘this will be a serious uphill battle’, and throughout the weekend there was so much pressure on us all to deliver, a lot of pressure from team, sponsors and myself.
“I never expected to win but I prayed. I went in with a clear goal, but you never know – sometimes they pulled away like the last race [at Spa].”
Hamilton said he was wary of taking too much risk in passing Raikkonen, as his title battle against Vettel was the priority.
“Yesterday I was trying to figure out how aggressive you can be because my race is not with Kimi, it is with Sebastian.
“I was trying to get past Kimi at the same time. I was just telling him he did a fantastic race, he drove incredibly fairly and I respect him so much. I really enjoyed racing with him.
“But, yeah, getting past Seb at the beginning was clearly a massive turning point.”
Championship rival Sebastian Vettel commented that Lewis Hamilton left no room in first-lap clash. Motorsport.com has the details.
Sebastian Vettel is adamant Formula 1 title rival Lewis Hamilton squeezed him into his first-lap spin in the Italian Grand Prix.
Vettel could only finish fourth at Monza having spun to the back when he made contact with Hamilton as the Mercedes went around his outside at the Roggia chicane on the opening lap.
Hamilton then beat Vettel’s Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen to victory and extended his championship lead to 30 points.
“Lewis obviously saw a little gap around the outside,” Vettel told Sky Sports F1. “But then he didn’t leave me any space and I had no other choice than to run into him and make contact.
“I tried to obviously get out of there but I couldn’t. Unfortunately I was the one that spun around, which was a bit ironic. But it was that way.”
Hamilton continued in second place behind Raikkonen after the incident, but escaped without damage and was able to snatch the win with a passing move eight laps from the end.
Vettel had to pit for a new front wing, then fought through to fifth on the road before gaining another place via a penalty for Max Verstappen.
“When you’re looking the wrong way, things do not look too peachy,” Vettel added.
“But from there I think I drove well and tried to recover. We still got a lot of points so it could have been a lot worse today.
“Obviously it doesn’t help when you lose points but it’s not the end of the world. We’ll all still wake up tomorrow morning.
“For sure I’m down at the moment but mostly for the people [here]. Their support has been incredible. Unfortunately we didn’t deliver.
“But then what can you do when if get spun round? It could have been a good race, but it wasn’t. It was still very entertaining, probably more entertaining that way, but not very satisfying.”
Ferrari had swept the front row at Monza, a week after Vettel’s dominant Spa victory.
He insisted his conviction that Ferrari was currently faster than Mercedes meant the fact his championship deficit to Hamilton was the biggest it had been all year was nothing to be concerned about.
“I’m not too worried. I think we have the pace,” said Vettel. “The points sound a lot but actually it doesn’t take a long time to get them down.”
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen admitted that he had the speed to win this Italian Grand Prix but unfortunately Lewis Hamilton beat him to victory. The Iceman commented that this defeat was “hard to take”. Motorsport.com has the news story.
Kimi Raikkonen said his defeat to Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix was “hard to take” because his Ferrari had the pace to win.
Raikkonen led a Ferrari 1-2 with teammate Sebastian Vettel in qualifying, but was left defending his lead from Mercedes driver Hamilton after Vettel spun while battling the Briton on the opening lap.
Mercedes crucially left Hamilton’s sole stop eight laps later than Ferrari and Raikkonen, and then kept Valtteri Bottas out longer to impede the race leader and allow Hamilton to close in.
Raikkonen’s soft-compound tyres dropped off towards the end, and he was passed by Hamilton with eight laps to go.
“For sure I think we had the speed [to win] but then the tyre went and there was nothing left in the end on the left rear,” Raikkonen said after the race. “It is hard to take.
“It was a losing battle since that point but I tried, but it was impossible in the end unfortunately.
“It is far from ideal but this is what we have got today, we did our maximum.”
Raikkonen admitted the the laps spent behind Bottas contributed to his tyres going off at the end of the race.
“[It] didn’t help to be behind the other cars for some laps, and it wasn’t really like you can save an awful lot of tyres, you are not in a position to start saving and taking it easy – well you can, but you let him [Hamilton] past,” he said.
“There was no moment we just could take it easy and relax, it wasn’t really a case of ‘let’s just go around and save the tyres for the last moment’, we had to go, and unfortunately it didn’t pay off today.”
Raikkonen went on to finish nine seconds behind Hamilton, having had to drastically decrease his pace and nurse his tyres to the chequered flag.
“Luckily it lasted until the end of the race,” he said. “Not ideal but not much we can do.
“It wasn’t a disaster but for sure not what I want or what we want.”
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso believes the reliability has gone “backwards” in terms of performance. Motorsport.com has the details.
Fernando Alonso believes the McLaren team’s reliability has gone “backwards” in recent Formula 1 races following his retirement from the Italian Grand Prix.
Alonso pulled into the pits on the ninth lap at Monza after his electronics shut down while he was running in 10th position.
It was the Spaniard’s sixth retirement of the season, with five of those caused by reliability issues.
“I think it’s a shame because sometimes we were in the points, like we were in this grand prix, and the reliability of the team seems to have made a step backwards and we definitely need to improve that for the remainder of the season,” said Alonso.
Speaking about the issue, he said: “We had a problem in an electrical part or something because the car was misfiring in Turn 7 and 8, so I had no power in those corners.
“Suddenly the car switched off and I came into the pitlane.”
The two-time champion, who is retiring from Formula 1 at the end of the year, had also failed to finish in the previous race at Spa after being involved in the first-lap crash.
Alonso said the double DNF was especially painful as the team had decided not to replace his engine for a new one because the car had been more competitive than expected.
“It was two circuits where we didn’t know if we should penalise or not, changing the engine, starting last and expect not to be very competitive,” he said.
“But we were better than expected – we were already in the points on lap five or six, and that’s why we didn’t change the engine and in both races we had to retire very early.
“Now we’ll have to change the engine in the next races so on top of these two zeroes, there are more to come.”
The McLaren driver reckons the engine change will not come in the next race in Singapore, where overtaking is very hard.
“I hope not because in Singapore if you start last, you finish last, so we’ll have to stretch it as much as possible.”
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen blames Valtteri Bottas for “unfair” penalty that cost him the chance of scoring a podium result at Monza. Motorsport.com has the full story.
Max Verstappen has blamed Valtteri Bottas for their coming together that earned the Red Bull driver what he deemed to be an unfair penalty in Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix.
Bottas had trailed Verstappen for third place throughout the opening stint, and the Dutchman was warned for gaining an advantage by cutting across Turn 1 under pressure from his rival early on.
Mercedes then opted to leave Bottas out to hold up race leader Kimi Raikkonen and allow eventual winner Lewis Hamilton to close in before Bottas finally pitted from the lead on lap 36 of 53.
Bottas then returned to the track within four seconds of Verstappen in third. He attempted to pass the Red Bull driver at Turn 1 and Verstappen moved back across to the left before turning into the right-hander, making contact with Bottas and forcing him down the escape road.
Verstappen was given a five-second time penalty, which he reacted to furiously on the radio, and he dropped from third to fifth behind Bottas and Sebastian Vettel in the final order.
“I gave him [Bottas] plenty of space and if he then drives against my wheel, I can’t do anything about that. But in the end I got a penalty for it,” said Verstappen to Ziggo Sport.
“When he first tried to overtake me I went a bit wide, maybe that’s why they gave it [the penalty] to me. But even then I think it’s not fair because they gave it straight away.
“You are allowed to go back to the left under braking, as long as you leave enough room for one car. And that’s what I did.
“After I got that penalty, I knew for sure that I wouldn’t let him pass. If you already have that penalty anyway, then you know you will become fifth so then you have nothing left to lose.
“If Bottas passes you then you lose another two or three seconds within the following two laps.”
Bottas added that Verstappen deserved his penalty.
“I think there was a couple of proper overtaking opportunities for me and the first one, I went inside and he just cut the chicane to stay ahead of me.
“The second time – I think there is a very clear rule that once you defend you choose your line and if another car is there you need to leave a car’s width and obviously he didn’t, I was there, so we touched and he got a penalty for that.
“I think it’s a very simple and clear rule, so he got a penalty for that.”
This was another disappointing race for Daniel Ricciardo, who was forced to retire from the Italian Grand Prix. The engine was not to blame. Motorsport.com has the details.
Red Bull and Renault say Daniel Ricciardo’s retirement from the Italian Grand Prix was caused by a suspected problem with his car’s clutch, rather than an engine failure.
Ricciardo had just passed Sergey Sirotkin’s Williams for 11th place, having worked his way up from a back-row start at Monza, when he was forced to pull off the circuit with smoke pouring out of his Red Bull.
The Australian driver had Renault’s new Spec C engine fitted ahead of the weekend, which the French manufacturer said would be worth three tenths of a second in laptime but carried a reliability risk.
Although Ricciardo’s failure looked initially like an engine problem, Renault said subsequent inspections indicated this was not the case.
“We can confirm, after studying the PU on Daniel Ricciardo’s car, that his retirement was not linked to the engine,” a Renault statement said. “It was rather a clutch issue.”
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner added: “We are still not entirely sure on the cause but it is a suspected clutch issue.”
Ricciardo is hoping for a turn in fortunes at the next race in Singapore, after recording his fourth retirement in the last six races.
“It’s been another frustrating race for me,” he said. “I passed Stroll [Sirotkin] 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.”
The Renault Formula 1 team has protested the Haas of Romain Grosjean following the Italian Grand Prix.
Grosjean finished sixth at Monza, a result that elevated Haas above Renault into fourth in the constructors’ championship.
Renault scored two points for Carlos Sainz’s ninth-place finish, but slipped behind its American rival, having been comfortably clear a few races ago.
The FIA has summoned a team representative from both teams because of a “protest by Renault Sport Formula One Team against car 8 [Grosjean]”.
A Renault statement read: “We confirm that Renault Sport Formula One Team has submitted a request to the Stewards of the Event for clarification on the legality of the Haas F1 Team VF-18.
“We have no further comment on this matter until the Stewards have arrived at a decision.”
F1 race director Charlie Whiting told media that the protest was over “a small detail on the leading edge of the floor” of the VF-18.
Haas came under fire earlier this season for its links to Ferrari and the design of its 2018 challenger, with McLaren and Force India suggesting the FIA should investigate.
However, no formal concern was ever lodged.
Haas team boss Gunther Steiner says the protest caught his outfit “by surprise”.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com what it was for.
“I saw the protest. It’s fine, we’ll go and listen to it and then we see what we do.
“I don’t know what they want. It has taken [us] by surprise.”
Source: Motorsport.com
UPDATE: Grosjean disqualified from Italian Grand Prix, Haas to appeal. As reported by Formula1.com.
Romain Grosjean has been disqualified from the Italian Grand Prix after the floor of his Haas Formula 1 car was deemed to not be in compliance with the rules…
Grosjean delivered one of his best performances of the season to finish sixth at Monza, with the result helping Haas leapfrog Renault into fourth in the constructors’ championship.
But soon after the race, Renault lodged a protest over the legality of the Haas, which centred around the floor, and following a hearing, the stewards released a lengthy statement explaining their decision.
They said Haas had breached article 3.7.1 d of the Technical Regulations, which focuses on the radius of the leading corners of the floor’s reference plane.
Back in July, governing body the FIA issued a Technical Directive clarifying the regulation and stipulated that teams must bring their cars into conformity before the Italian Grand Prix.
It emerged during the hearing that Haas emailed the FIA, as is common in these matters, with details of their new solution but because of the limited time, given the summer break and two-week shutdown, they had asked for some flexibility in the matter.
They said they would “endeavour to introduce this upgrade for the Singapore GP but will be somewhat at the mercy of our suppliers”.
The FIA did not respond to the latter point, with Haas telling the stewards at the hearing that it was their understanding that “a lack of response on the matter of timing that their solution and timing were accepted”.
But the stewards said in their statement: “While the Stewards are also sympathetic to the difficulties of producing these parts, the Stewards noted that at least one other competitor was able to comply in the time provided.
“Further, it was made clear to the competitor from the outset that the FIA Technical Department did not consider their car to be in compliance, and further that they left themselves open to the circumstances they now find. It was therefore the obligation of the competitor to be in compliance, which they did not do.”
As a result, Grosjean was excluded from the results but Haas have notified the FIA of their intention to appeal.
“We do not agree with the Stewards’ decision to penalise our race team and we feel strongly that our sixth-place finish in the Italian Grand Prix should stand,” said Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner. “We are appealing the Stewards’ decision.”
If the decision stands, Grosjean and Haas will lose their eight points, dropping them back into fifth, behind Renault in the constructors’ championship.