(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)
Mercedes AMG F1 Team's Lewis Hamilton took pole position for tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the last European race of the season setting a time of 1m 24.109s to finish just 0.274s ahead of team mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg to claim his first pole position since the Spanish Grand Prix in May. Speaking following the session a clearly very happy Hamilton commented:
'It´s a great feeling to be on pole here at Monza and I´m really excited for the race tomorrow. It´s also a relief to have had a clean qualifying session, my first for quite a while! Big thanks to my guys in the garage, I´m very proud of the way they´ve worked this year and dealt with all our ups and downs, they´ve done a great job. It´s business as usual tomorrow, we´re free to race and I hope we get a strong result for the team, hopefully a one-two. The other Mercedes-powered cars are looking strong here as well so it should be an exciting race. I´m looking forward to it.'
'It´s a great feeling to be on pole here at Monza and I´m really excited for the race tomorrow. It´s also a relief to have had a clean qualifying session, my first for quite a while! Big thanks to my guys in the garage, I´m very proud of the way they´ve worked this year and dealt with all our ups and downs, they´ve done a great job. It´s business as usual tomorrow, we´re free to race and I hope we get a strong result for the team, hopefully a one-two. The other Mercedes-powered cars are looking strong here as well so it should be an exciting race. I´m looking forward to it.'
Championship leader Nico Rosberg was happy with his qualifying performance despite missing out on pole. The German commented:
'Thank you to the boys, they did a great job making my car ready for Qualifying. Also, overnight we improved the set-up a lot with the engineering support from Brackley, therefore I felt a lot better in the car today compared to yesterday. Today Lewis was quicker, but starting from second place is still a very good position to win here at Monza. I will need a good start and good race pace, but I´m quite confident to get it all right tomorrow. So I´m very much looking forward to the race. Monza has always a great atmosphere and it´s so great to drive this great track with our phenomenal Silver Arrow.'
Mercedes Executive Director (Business) Toto Wolff was happy to have such a strong performance from the team saying:
'That was a strong team performance today. When it came down to the final laps and the drivers had to lay it all on the line, Lewis delivered a special second sector while Nico had a small snap in the Ascari chicane. At this level, it’s small things like that which make the difference. Congratulations to the whole team after an intensive weekend and a special word, too, for our colleagues in Brixworth. It’s seriously impressive to see six Mercedes-Benz engines in the top six positions for qualifying at Monza.'
Mercedes Executive Director (Technical) Paddy Lowe commented:
'That was a strong team performance today. When it came down to the final laps and the drivers had to lay it all on the line, Lewis delivered a special second sector while Nico had a small snap in the Ascari chicane. At this level, it’s small things like that which make the difference. Congratulations to the whole team after an intensive weekend and a special word, too, for our colleagues in Brixworth. It’s seriously impressive to see six Mercedes-Benz engines in the top six positions for qualifying at Monza.'
The Williams Martini Racing Team had a fantastic day to finish as best of the rest behind the Mercedes duo with Valtteri Bottas starting the race from third place on the grid while team mate Felipe Massa will start the race from 4th place which is a great result for the Grove based outfit as they aim to overhaul Ferrari in the Constructors championship as the Italian team are just ten points ahead of Williams in third place.
McLaren's Kevin Magnussen did a great job and will start the race from 5th place while team mate Jenson Button will start the race from 6th place as the Woking based outfit have shown that they continue to make strides forward with the MP4-29.
Ferrari had a difficult session in front of their home crowd as Fernando Alonso will start the race from 7th place on the grid just ahead of reigning world championship Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel. Belgian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo will start the race 9th place in the second RB10. Speaking following the session Vettel commented:
'I think realistically anything from P5 to P10 was maybe possible, but it was very close. It’s a shame when you miss a couple of positions by just a few tenths or so, but we knew it would be like that going into today.
When the gaps are close you always think you could have gone quicker, but that was probably it in terms of what we could do today. We should be quicker than McLaren tomorrow, I’d say we’ll be about the same as Ferrari, while Williams and Mercedes will likely be a bit too quick for us, but we’ll look after ourselves and see what happens in the race.'
Daniel Ricciardo also commented by saying:
'Even though we expected a tricky qualifying, I’m still disappointed.
Ninth is not something to get really excited about. Seb’s in front, but he’s only in 8th as well and as a team we would have loved to have been a bit closer to the top five. We knew we wouldn’t challenge for the front two rows, but we thought that maybe sixth could be possible. Fingers crossed we’ve got better race pace tomorrow and we’ll try and do something with that.'
Infiniti Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said that he was not surprised that the team struggled in qualifying today on a track which they expected would be tough due to the high speed characteristics of the the layout. Horner said:
'It’s no great surprise for us to be struggling a little in qualifying today. To make it through to Q3 was a result in itself and so to finish eighth and ninth in qualifying, when there’s one Ferrari and other than all Mercedes powered cars ahead, is not a huge surprise. We’re confident we’ve got better race pace for tomorrow and strategy will be crucial; hopefully we’ll have a good start and strong first few corners.'
'I think realistically anything from P5 to P10 was maybe possible, but it was very close. It’s a shame when you miss a couple of positions by just a few tenths or so, but we knew it would be like that going into today.
When the gaps are close you always think you could have gone quicker, but that was probably it in terms of what we could do today. We should be quicker than McLaren tomorrow, I’d say we’ll be about the same as Ferrari, while Williams and Mercedes will likely be a bit too quick for us, but we’ll look after ourselves and see what happens in the race.'
Daniel Ricciardo also commented by saying:
'Even though we expected a tricky qualifying, I’m still disappointed.
Ninth is not something to get really excited about. Seb’s in front, but he’s only in 8th as well and as a team we would have loved to have been a bit closer to the top five. We knew we wouldn’t challenge for the front two rows, but we thought that maybe sixth could be possible. Fingers crossed we’ve got better race pace tomorrow and we’ll try and do something with that.'
Infiniti Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said that he was not surprised that the team struggled in qualifying today on a track which they expected would be tough due to the high speed characteristics of the the layout. Horner said:
'It’s no great surprise for us to be struggling a little in qualifying today. To make it through to Q3 was a result in itself and so to finish eighth and ninth in qualifying, when there’s one Ferrari and other than all Mercedes powered cars ahead, is not a huge surprise. We’re confident we’ve got better race pace for tomorrow and strategy will be crucial; hopefully we’ll have a good start and strong first few corners.'
Sahara Force India F1 Team's Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten for the Silverstone based outfit. Commenting following the session the Mexican said:
'We can be happy about this result: P9 could have been possible, perhaps, but I feel we nearly maximised our potential and that's all we could have asked from this session. Looking at our performance yesterday, our race pace should be strong, but there are not that many options to choose from with the strategy. I feel we are in a good position to have a strong race tomorrow. Anything can happen on this track and I am confident we can pick up good points.'
'We can be happy about this result: P9 could have been possible, perhaps, but I feel we nearly maximised our potential and that's all we could have asked from this session. Looking at our performance yesterday, our race pace should be strong, but there are not that many options to choose from with the strategy. I feel we are in a good position to have a strong race tomorrow. Anything can happen on this track and I am confident we can pick up good points.'
Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat did a great job for the Italian team to qualify in eleventh place however the Russian rookie will start the race from 21st place after becoming the first driver to become the first driver this season to be handed an engine grid penalty.
Kimi Raikkonen had a very disappointing session and following a number of mistakes on his final run in Q2 the Finn will start the race from 11th place after being knocked out of Q2. Jean Eric Vergne will start the race from 12th place in the second Toro Rosso while Sahara Force India's Nico Hulkenberg will start the race from 13th place. Following the session, the German who has been extremely this season commented:
'My position today could have been better, but my final lap in Q2 was not on the pace. The main issue was the heavy traffic on my out lap going into the final corner, which really hurt my preparation. Everybody was backing up so I had to slow down and lost tyre temperature and pressure, and could not improve my time. Also, my first run in Q2 was not quite strong enough so we missed out on Q3. It was just a struggle today and the car has been feeling a bit loose. However, we can still race well. If I can make a good start and gain some positions on the first lap, we have every possibility of scoring some points.'
Sahara Force India Formula One Team principal Dr Vijay Mallya commented:
'Tenth place for Checo is about what we were expecting today. It was a good effort considering the hydraulic issue we had during final practice, which cost Checo half an hour of track time this morning. With Nico we expected a bit more, but he didn’t hook up a clean lap when it mattered and that puts him right in the middle of the pack. It’s always tough to overtake at Monza, so we have our work cut out tomorrow. On the other hand we were encouraged by our long-run pace during practice so I hope that we can show that tomorrow.'
'My position today could have been better, but my final lap in Q2 was not on the pace. The main issue was the heavy traffic on my out lap going into the final corner, which really hurt my preparation. Everybody was backing up so I had to slow down and lost tyre temperature and pressure, and could not improve my time. Also, my first run in Q2 was not quite strong enough so we missed out on Q3. It was just a struggle today and the car has been feeling a bit loose. However, we can still race well. If I can make a good start and gain some positions on the first lap, we have every possibility of scoring some points.'
Sahara Force India Formula One Team principal Dr Vijay Mallya commented:
'Tenth place for Checo is about what we were expecting today. It was a good effort considering the hydraulic issue we had during final practice, which cost Checo half an hour of track time this morning. With Nico we expected a bit more, but he didn’t hook up a clean lap when it mattered and that puts him right in the middle of the pack. It’s always tough to overtake at Monza, so we have our work cut out tomorrow. On the other hand we were encouraged by our long-run pace during practice so I hope that we can show that tomorrow.'
The Sauber F1 Team duo of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez will start the race from 14th and 15th place respectively.
The Lotus F1 Team pairing of Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean will start the race from 16th and 17th place after another difficult day at the office for the Enstone based outfit. Speaking following the session Romain Grosjean commented:
'It wasn’t a perfect day today. We always knew that the track layout would not suit us that well plus we had issues this morning with the intercooler and we changed it during the lunchtime break. It took some time to finish the work and so we started our qualifying session a bit late after a coolant leak.
We knew that the results would be tough but I was really proud and happy to see that every single mechanic came over to help get my car ready after Pastor’s car left the garage. This was a testament to the very strong team spirit from Enstone, even when the chips are against us. Tomorrow, as always, we will do our best in the race to battle hard to make up places.'
'It wasn’t a perfect day today. We always knew that the track layout would not suit us that well plus we had issues this morning with the intercooler and we changed it during the lunchtime break. It took some time to finish the work and so we started our qualifying session a bit late after a coolant leak.
We knew that the results would be tough but I was really proud and happy to see that every single mechanic came over to help get my car ready after Pastor’s car left the garage. This was a testament to the very strong team spirit from Enstone, even when the chips are against us. Tomorrow, as always, we will do our best in the race to battle hard to make up places.'
Pastor Maldonado, who out qualified his team mate commented on the day's running by saying:
'We knew that qualifying was going to be challenging for us especially with our lack of straight line speed. Tomorrow is race day and things could be better. We chose a tiny rear wing for Monza and normally there should be an improvement for the race itself on pace; equally we have good control on tyre degradation. Hopefully we will be able to fight for better positions on Sunday.'
The Caterham F1 Team's Kamui Kobayashi who is back in the car this weekend after sitting out the Belgian Grand Prix last time out will start the race 18th place just ahead of the Marussia F1 Team's Jules Bianchi in 19th place who managed to out-qualify team mate Max Chilton while Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat will start the race from 21st place while Marcus Ericsson rounded out the grid in 22nd place.
The Italian Grand Prix gets underway at 1PM (UK Time) and is LIVE on BBC1 HD and SKY SPORTS F1 HD
© Ben Johnston 2014
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