Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari is 'quite far away' from Mercedes at the Italian Grand Prix and that the squad is simply focused on unlocking more pace in its SF15-T. Vettel was third quickest during Friday practice at Monza but his best time was three-quarters of a second adrift of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton. "It was a solid day for us, we had no issues with the car and we’ve got quite a lot of running which is always positive," said Vettel. "The qualifying here will be […]

Nico Hulkenberg is confident that Force India can improve further despite posting encouraging pace during Friday practice for the Italian Grand Prix. Hulkenberg and team-mate Sergio Perez claimed fourth and five in both sessions at Monza, with the former ahead in the morning and the latter edging in front during the afternoon running. "That’s not bad at all," said Hulkenberg. "The car had quite good pace today and we collected a lot of information about the tyres on the long runs. "We lost a little […]

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes dominated the early running for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at the high-speed Monza circuit. Mercedes used its seven remaining engine tokens in the build-up to the event and they were put to good use, as Hamilton clocked a time of 1:24.670. Hamilton’s lap proved to be 0.463s quicker than team-mate Nico Rosberg, as he moved ahead after the pair initially lowered each other’s benchmark time. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was the only non-Mercedes driver to get within two seconds of the […]

We rate the drivers for their performance in the 2014 edition of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | Grid: 8th| Race: 6th | 8/10 Vettel beat Ricciardo by three-tenths in Q3 but he was more disappointed by the deficit of just over a tenth of a second to fifth-placed Kevin Magnussen. Considering the package, it was a fine effort from the outgoing champion. In the race he was part of the main group but an early stop […]

Every race is important in the context of the world championship, but losing more points to Nico Rosberg was an unthinkable proposition for Lewis Hamilton. So when his start procedure went wrong due to a fault with the button, he must have wondered what he’d needed to do to have a clean weekend. In the highly technical world of Formula 1, Hamilton pondered how to deal with the issue and in the end decided the best thing to do was to ‘floor it’, as if […]

When Lewis Hamilton passed championship leader Nico Rosberg to take the win at Monza on Sunday, not everyone was convinced. F1 legend Sir Jackie Stewart is one such conspiracy theorist. "I thought 'Hello, what's going on here?'" admitted the triple world champion, referring to the moment when Rosberg ran into the escape zone at the circuit's first corner, letting Hamilton into a lead that would not be challenged. "He could have at least made an effort to get round the corner but he didn't," said […]

Fernando Alonso suffered a race-ending mechanical failure for the first time since the Malaysian Grand Prix four years ago as his Ferrari F14T was halted by an Energy Recovery Systems (ERS) problem in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Alonso was running in the lower part of the top 10 when smoke started trailing from his Ferrari, forcing him to park at the Rettifilo chicane and ending his run of scoring points in every race this season. "After a long run of trouble-free races, it’s […]

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says that his squad's fifth and sixth place finish at the Italian Grand Prix was the maximum result possible. At a circuit where Mercedes-powered cars dominated, Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel finished fifth and sixth respectively, with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in ninth being the only other non-Mercedes driver to score a point. "I think fifth and sixth was the absolute optimum today," he said. "We picked two different strategies, an aggressive one with Sebastian to undercut the McLaren, which […]

Esteban Gutierrez has had 20 seconds added to his race time after a late clash with Lotus driver Romain Grosjean. Gutierrez and Grosjean were battling over 16th position when the Mexican driver moved across on his rival on the main straight. The duo made minor contact, with Gutierrez sustaining a puncture, dropping him to 19th. His penalty demotes him behind Marcus Ericsson to 20th. "The contact which Esteban had with a competitor was unnecessary," said Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn. The stewards accepted that Gutierrez […]

Sergio Perez and Jenson Button expressed their satisfaction after the pair conducted a race-long battle for position at the Italian Grand Prix. Perez and Button traded places several times, with the Mexican eventually prevailing to collect seventh position for Force India. "The race was a lot of fun," he said. "We were always fighting somebody and always pushing hard. It was great racing and it’s good to score important points for the championship. "The most important part of the race was the fight I had […]

Lotus deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi praised the efforts of Pastor Maldonado during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Lotus struggled for pace at Monza and while Maldonado came home in a lowly 14th place, Gastaldi was quick to heap praise on his Venezuelan charge. "We saw a very strong race today from Pastor who didn’t put a foot wrong and extracted the maximum from our current package," he said. "14th isn’t where we want to finish but today’s race did give us some signs […]

Daniel Ricciardo says that extending the life of his Option tyres enabled him to salvage fifth place from the Italian Grand Prix. Ricciardo started from ninth but slipped to 13th at the start, from where he battled back, including a late move on Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel. "The strategy helped today, it kept the tyres fresh enough to go those extra few laps at the end," he said. "I saw the cars in front of me pit and the pace was still good enough, […]