(Renault Sport F1)
The Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo di Monza Italia was expected to be a tough track for the Renault powered team's however at the conclusion of the 53 lap race it was the Renault powered Infiniti Red Bull Racing team who ended the day as best of the rest behind the Mercedes AMG F1 Team and the Williams Martini Racing Team as Daniel Ricciardo and reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel finished the race in 5th and 6th place respectively.
Starting the race from eighth and ninth on the grid it was Sebastian Vettel who had a better start of the pair and as he was the lead driver he had the choice of when he wanted to make his one and only pit stop. The Milton Keynes based outfit were the first team to pit with Sebastian Vettel.
The German held fourth place behind the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg and the Williams Martini Racing car of Felipe Massa but was very quickly reeled in and overtaken by Valtteri Bottas in the second Williams and then his Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo who pulled off some fantastic overtaking moves in the latter stages of the race to finish the race in fifth place and to move 60 points clear of his team mate.
It was a disappointing race for the Toro Rosso team who just missed out on a points scoring finish with Daniil Kvyat after a brake duct failure late on in the race meant he had to take evasive action to avoid running into the back of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. The Russian finished the race in eleventh place just ahead of Sahara Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and his Toro Rosso team mate Jean Eric Vergne who finished the race in 13th place just ahead of the Renault powered Lotus of Pastor Maldonado.
Romain Grosjean finished the race in 16th place in the second Lotus while Kamui Kobayashi finished the race as best of the new teams in 17th place with his Caterham F1 Team mate Marcus Ericsson rounding out the order in 20th place.
Speaking following today's race Renault Sport F1 Head of Track Operations Remi Taffin commented:
'We got all eight cars to the chequered flag, which was the minimum requirement for the race. Fifth and sixth as the highest finishes is not necessarily what we aim for, but when we consider the relative pace of the other cars it is on a par with our expectations for this race.
Over one lap we were down, but we saw that the straightline speed was enough to overtake, as Daniel showed with his moves in the latter stages of the race.
Monza is a bit of a one-off and we will not encounter the same high-speed, low downforce configuration again this year. We do know however that we have made good strides in energy management and top speed and putting these together and keeping momentum should see us return to the front, or close to the front, in the future races.'
© Ben Johnston 2014
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