Lewis Hamilton recovered from a poor start to make it a Mercedes 1-2, with Sebastian Vettel delighting the Ferrari fans in third. Here's what some of the F1 2016 grid had to say after the race. Nico Rosberg
"It means so much to me to win here at Monza. The crowd were unbelievable over the entire weekend and especially during the podium ceremony. This win is incredibly special for me and standing up there and singing with thousands of people gave me goosebumps.
"The race went perfectly for me and after a good start I was able manage the gap between myself and the car behind. Our car has been amazing this weekend and I extend a massive thank you to the whole team. I'm looking forward to Singapore, which was our weakest race last year. Hopefully we've learnt lessons from 2015 and we'll come back even stronger."
Sebastian Vettel
"Of course I am very happy for all the team. It is a very special race for us, to stand on the podium here in Monza, is just great. But for sure you are always aiming for the top step, so well done to our rivals, they have been in a league on their own in the race. Yet, we tried our optimum, this is the perfect result for us, the whole weekend has been very smooth, no issues with the car. We brought an engine update, so grazie anche to the guys at Maranello, for their support. I feel things are changing: it will still take a little bit, but we are heading the right way.
"And on a day like this, you realize that life is to enjoy, to get so much support is just unbelievalble. I feel we have the best fans in the world, it is difficult to find the right words. This podium here, it’s not the Adriatic sea, it is the sea of tifosi.. We had a rough season, we had high expectations, we have put ourselves on high pressure, we have also done mistakes, but the most important thing is that we stay a team, that we stay together. We have a lot of races ahead, we know we have a good car, unfortunately not yet quick enough for being able to say, here ‘we have the best car’, but I am sure that one day we will be."
Valtteri Bottas
"I was personally expecting a bit more from today. I set myself a target of finishing on the podium, but we didn’t quite have the pace which meant that I had to push the tyre a little bit more in every stint just to secure my position on track. This meant that towards the end of the stint I was struggling a bit.
"The pure pace wasn’t there today, but overall we leave Monza with a positive result for the team, taking back fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.This gives us a bit of confidence and shows that we can definitely keep hold of fourth if we keep doing the right things."
"You hope for a podium every race but realistically, coming here, we thought Ferrari would have an edge on us. We also thought Williams and Force India would be strong and we targeted fifth place. I just missed out yesterday in Qualifying but managed to make it happen today and for us to finish in fifth and seventh represents Championship damage limitation here at Monza. I was pretty close to (Valtteri) Bottas in the middle of the race and knew I could race hard from that position. It was a really enjoyable overtake (on Bottas).
"I have a three hour drive home tonight and didn’t want to spend the whole journey regretting not trying it. He is a fair racer and had seen me in the mirrors so I knew he wouldn’t turn in, so I had a go. It was great fun and felt nice to come from so far back and make it stick. We altered the strategy a bit which meant I had the supersofts on at that stage, so great work by the team to give me the chance to make the move. Our performance so far this season and the result we have achieved here makes me really excited heading into Singapore where I think we can challenge for the top spots."
Sergio Perez
"I didn’t really enjoy myself out there today: it was a fairly lonely race for most of it, but at least it gave me a chance to look after my tyres. I think we got the maximum result we could hope for because we didn’t have the pace to achieve more. We tried an aggressive strategy, with a very early second stop, to try and cover Verstappen, but it turned out to be too early and in the end we had a lot of pressure from Massa.
"It was very important to keep in front of him and bring home as many points as we possibly could. We always knew it would be a challenging race and it’s shown that we need to keep working hard. I think we can fight back strongly in Singapore because it’s a very different kind of circuit compared to Monza and we’ve performed well on street circuits so far this year."
Kevin Magnussen
"My start was okay but there were incidents everywhere… I had a better start than the Saubers ahead of me, which meant going around them, then another car on the grid. After that, I was able to build-up the momentum into turn two but had to avoid a spinning car by going on the grass.
"From then on, it was a quiet race with just a bit of early action with one of the Manors. It’s a shame that we didn’t get a good result today but we still learn more about the car every weekend and this race was no exception."
Carlos Sainz Jr.
"I think we tried everything we could today to make it into the points, but when you just don’t have the pace, it’s impossible. We had decided to go for a one-stop strategy and at one point it looked possible, but in the end I was losing too much time so we had to pit for a second time… Not the ideal race, but all I can say is that we extracted the maximum out of the car today and in the end a P15 was the most we could achieve.
"Here the car behaved better than last week in Spa, so this is something positive for us – the last three races have been very tricky, racing at very power-dependent circuits, and this has made it very difficult to fight… Hopefully in Singapore this situation changes a bit and we can get back to where we deserve to be."
"It was a disappointing early end of the race for me. Again I had quite a good start, moving up four positions. It is a shame we had to retire the car after the collision with Jolyon (Palmer), as the damage was not repairable. I hope we will have a trouble-free weekend in Singapore."
Fernando Alonso
“We didn’t do a perfect race today – we made some mistakes here and there, including having a problem in the first pit stop, when the green light didn’t work. We lost a little bit of time there which probably compromised the stint. We didn’t really have the pace to be in the points today, so finishing 11th or 14th didn’t really make much of a difference. But at least we finished the race on a positive note, by setting the fastest lap.
"We fitted new tyres for the last two laps and I just went out and maximised the grip. It doesn’t make for much difference – it’s only good for the stats – as we were basically never in the running for points today. This was a circuit where we always knew we wouldn’t be competitive, but I think good times are coming our way from now on, as most of the remaining tracks on the calendar should better suit our car."
Esteban Ocon
"The objective was to take the chequered flag, but in a much stronger position. It was a long, tough Grand Prix from where I started. We were on the Medium tyre for a very long stint – 32 laps - and none of the opportunities that we hoped might change the face of the race happened.
"At the end, on the soft tyre, we were really on the limit. So it’s good to finish, especially after the problem for Pascal’s car. That’s two race distances with a lot of learnings about the tyres and managing races, but now I’m ready to use that experience to fight for something more. I think we were capable of much better here, so it’s a shame."
Romain Grosjean
"To be fair, I think we were just lacking a little bit of speed in the race to make the points. We tried a very aggressive one-stop strategy. I had a bit of graining on the softs in the first stint through those last few laps. That cost us a few seconds, but I don’t think I could have gotten the 12 seconds needed to get to P10 in the end. That was about the maximum today. We just need to learn what we can do better for the next race. I’m now looking ahead to Singapore. It’s one of the best races of the season."
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