The Italian Grand Prix saw Sebastian Vettel waltz to yet another race win at the Monza circuit. However, there were plenty of talking points throughout the 53-lap race with plenty for the driver's to discuss in their post-race quotes.
(c) Octane Photographic
It was a frantic first few laps before it all calmed down as drivers settled into a rhythm. We had Hamilton and Raikkonen charging through the field after earlier problems, Di Resta crashing out and plenty of great overtakes up and down the field. Check out my weekend review for a look at all the on-track action from the Italian Grand Prix weekend. Here's some driver reaction after the 12th round of the 2013 season: Vettel battles through problems to take win:
(c) Octane Photographic
"It’s fantastic to win this event again. I just managed to make turn one! I locked the front right and it just didn’t seem to come back. I had a big flat spot, which I felt straight away and I wasn’t sure if the tyre would survive, but fortunately I managed to make it round and have a strong first stint. I pushed straight away to get a bit of a gap, in case we had to stop early and change to a two-stop strategy. We had a gearbox issue and I had to short shift, which meant we dropped some time in the straights – but I tried to make it up in the corners. "It’s great to finish on the top step. The podium here is always very passionate. We are in Italy and when you walk around outside the track, you see Ferrari clothing and merchandise in all the shops starting from the smallest sizes upwards; it’s part of their DNA, which I understand. It was great for the Tifosi to have Fernando on the podium today. The season is going well and we’re pushing hard, but we take each race as it comes. We’re looking forward to Singapore next, which I want to finish; I think it’s the toughest race we have all year."
Alonso: Italian Grand Prix weekend close to "perfect:"
"Yes,
very
happy. I think
over the
weekend
we
took
the maximum
from
the
car.
The practices
were
OK
and
we
learnt
some
good
information
on Friday.
Saturday,
it
was
very
good,
both
cars
were in
the
top
five.
I think
the
last time was
Malaysia
this
year,
so
very,
very
long
time,
so
we
were
very,
very
happy.
Today,
being
in
the
podium
again,
it’s
a
fantastic
feeling
here
in
Monza.
The
fourth
year
that
I
drove
for
Ferrari,
the
four
times
that
I
was
in
the
podium
and
every
year
is
something
amazing,
something
unique
again,
to
be
there
in
that
moment.
And
we
did
the
maximum
and
nearly
a
perfect
weekend."
"Difficult" race for Hamilton after radio problem and puncture:
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"That was a difficult weekend for me but these things happen and you have to say that it's been a good year so far. I gave it my all out there today; the pace of the car was great but unfortunately we paid the price for not qualifying far enough up the field. My radio failed right at the start of the race and it's really tough when that happens as you rely on the advice and information from the team to manage your race. I didn't even know about the slow puncture until after the race so now it makes more sense why we had to make the extra stop. "I did have some fun this afternoon, particularly fighting with Kimi. It's just tough fighting so far down the field when our car was clearly really quick. We'll keep pushing together as a team and I know that we'll bounce back for Singapore. We'll be giving it everything to make up for this weekend with a stronger performance there."
Raikkonen admits not much more could have been done:
"When I lost the front wing I had to come in and change to a new one meaning an extra pit stop which we hadn’t planned. It’s not just the time in the pits, but you have to work your way through the field afterwards. We did a pretty good job of that and the car felt good, surprisingly good given where we were on Saturday. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do after the start to the race we had."
Button feels pace was good but limited by gear ratios:
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"I had a bad start when my clutch slipped, and I dropped a few places. That first stint was quite good fun, but, once I got stuck behind Daniel [Ricciardo], there was no way of getting past him. We didn’t get the gear ratios quite right today. Consequently, as our fuel loads decreased, and our cornering speeds should have increased, we were hampered by our rev-limiters, and that made it easier for the cars behind to overtake us and harder for us to overtake the cars ahead of us. "In clear air, our pace was pretty good – but, with such a short top gear, especially with DRS deployed, we were hitting the rev-limiter while other cars weren’t being rev-limited. Moreover, about 15 laps from the end, I locked up into the first corner and severely flat-spotted my front-right tyre – I couldn’t really see a lot after that, because of vibration, but I still managed to bring it home and score a world championship point for the team. "Finally, I just want to say a big ‘thank you’ to all the guys in the garage today. They had to really work hard to repair my car’s fuel system before the race, in record time, and they pulled out all the stops to get it all done. It was touch-and-go for a while, but they responded really well and did an incredible job. In a tight spot, they’re the best guys out there – and, once again, they were faultless today."
"Weekend to forget" for Di Resta and Force India:
"It has been one of those weekends to forget, starting with the brake failure yesterday and the early retirement today. I just got caught out going into the second chicane because the cars ahead of me got backed up – I guess they were reacting to the tussle going on ahead of them. I locked both fronts trying to stop the car and ended up hitting Grosjean. Unfortunately it was too late to take avoiding action. Now we need to look forward to Singapore and put this one behind us."
Ricciardo pleased with seventh place:
(c) Octane Photographic
"I am pleased with that! After qualifying well yesterday, it was nice to maintain that position at the end of
today. In recent races where we have managed to qualify in the top ten, we didn’t have the pace to stay
there in the race, but today we did. I think I got the most out of the car, managing to keep the guys
behind me and the low downforce set
–
up certainly helped us down the straights. The others got close to
me in the second sector, but I was able to pull away once we got to the high speed sections,
which we
knew from yesterday would be our strong point. We must keep pushing hard on the car development for
the next few races, because hopefully, a top five finish is not too far away."
Fifth place the best result possible - Hulkenberg:
"It’s a great result and, after yesterday, another great performance by the team today. I am very happy and fifth was the ideal result. Despite starting third, it was always clear keeping the Ferrari and Red Bulls behind was not realistic. I lost two places right at the start, but then the pace was good and, especially towards the end, I was able to catch up quite a bit again. I kept the Mercedes behind with Nico leaving no room for me making any mistakes. It’s a very nice result for the team, and finally we have some points again. I hope this will give us some momentum, so we can carry this form on to the next couple of races."
Bottas - car lacked race pace to challenge:
(c) Octane Photographic
"I maintained my position at the start but from the first few laps I couldn't really challenge any of the cars ahead as we just didn't have the race pace today. It was good that we were able to do our planned one-stop, but most of the others did this as well. I'm now looking forward to Singapore; it's a new track for me so I hope we can do better there."
Chilton encouraged by pace in comparison to Bianchi
"Another tough race today and one which underlined the balance problems we’ve been experiencing all weekend. The start was okay but we weren’t able to keep pace with the competition today. What I was encouraged by was my pace versus my team-mate – there was nothing between us for the first 25 laps but every time I got close enough to overtake I lost downforce, so I couldn’t do anything to improve.
"I kept with him throughout the rest of the race, despite experiencing the toughest blue flag phase of the season, when it was really hard to make sure I gave the space needed at the right time and not suffer a huge loss of time myself. Time now to say goodbye to the European phase of my debut season for what will be a very challenging run of long-haul races I think."
Poor start and pit delay halts van der Garde's challenge:
(c) Octane Photographic
"After good starts for most of the season I have to say this wasn’t one of my best, but I overtook the Marussia halfway through lap one and was up with Charles until he pitted for the first time. I came in a lap later and with a new set of hard tyres the car felt good – my pace was on target and I was easily able to pull away from the cars behind and push on to Charles.
"We were running a two stop strategy and I came in for the second stop when I was given the command to box. There was a communication mistake on the pitwall and when I came in the guys weren’t ready for me which obviously cost me a lot of time and I came out behind Bianchi, but I passed him pretty quickly and set about trying to catch my teammate. It’s a shame as my pace in the second stint was really good and I’d have had a chance to pass Charles, but sometimes these things happen – that’s racing."
Low tyre degradation creates "straightforward" race - Pirelli:
"With some light rain 30 minutes before the race, some of the cars went onto the grid with the Green intermediates but as the rain subsided we saw the majority of drivers start the race on the mediums. This was a straight-forward one-stop race with no degradation and many cars set their fastest laps towards the end of the race.
"Any strategy would have been dependant – as always – on a number of factors, but as the rain held off, Vettel’s decision to start on the mediums with one stop to change to the hards proved a winning combination. Monza is a big test for the tyres with the surface temperature of the tyres heating up to 130 degrees Celsius as the cars exit La Roggia but the tyres coped well with the demands for the whole weekend."
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