F1 - race # 14, Italian GP - AMAZING Monza, congratulations Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG Petronas ! - NAANII GLOBAL Luxury/Quality Family Lifestyle MAGAZINE 'en Vogue' - NAANII GLOBAL Quality & Luxury Family Lifestyle - MAGAZINE 'en Vogue'-

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MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS - interviews
Toto Wolff
This is what makes racing so special: the points are given out on Sunday, not Saturday, and today we were all privileged to enjoy a fantastic race-long between two champions. Lewis didn't put a foot wrong today - he put his car in the right place each time, was patient when he needed to be and took a fantastic win, his fifth here in Monza. But we must not forget Valtteri today: he drove a great race and deserved his podium finish this afternoon. For us, P1 and P3 is a fantastic result and a great reward for all the hard work the teams in Brixworth and Brackley have put in over the past weeks; last week, we struggled with the tyre management; today, it was the Ferrari that blistered the soft tyres. This afternoon, I think we had the fastest car on race pace - although we must be a little cautious because we didn't see Sebastian's pace without damage - but we were able to put pressure on Kimi all through the race. We got the strategy just right: with Kimi and Lewis at the first stop, we were ready to do the opposite of Ferrari - then extended the stint to have the biggest offset of tyre life when Kimi pitted. And with Valtteri, it was exactly the same: it was the right strategy to leave him on track, building the offset to Verstappen so he could attack in the final laps with fresher tyres. And that's exactly what he did to get his podium. Overall, it was a very good day for the team at every level. We have Singapore coming next, which has not been our strongest track in past years. But we will be turning over every stone in the next weeks to find even more performance and pushing flat out to build our lead in both championships

Lewis Hamilton
That was one tough race, but a really enjoyable one - I'm very, very happy.
This afternoon has shaken off to be one of the best. It's so close between Ferrari and us, this race was really down to who makes the least mistakes and who looks after their tyres the best. Valtteri did a great job extending his stint which enabled me to close up to Kimi. It was really great team work today, a great pit stop, great communication with the team. It was an intense first lap, we all got off to similar starts. When we went into Turn 4, I was a bit surprised that Sebastian chose the inside and did not go for the outside. That was my opportunity and I had to make sure that I was far enough alongside him. We touched for a brief moment and my car was slightly damaged afterwards, but fortunately I was able to continue and keep up with Kimi. Once I had closed the gap to Kimi on my second stint, I could see that his tyres were blistering, so I started to take care of my tyres and made sure that I didn't blister mine. When Valtteri then came in for his pit stop it was a bit harder to keep up with Kimi, but I knew that my tyres were in better shape. I had to push as hard as I could to close the gap, particularly through the Lesmos and Ascari. But this track is really just incredible, it's such a phenomenal circuit to drive with all it's high-speed corners and the fact that you can follow through the corners and the chicanes make it one of the best tracks in the world. It's always a real privilege to win in Italy. But we need to keep our heads down, work hard and make sure that we put up a good fight in Singapore.

Valtteri Bottas
It was a very successful day - both for me and for Lewis - and it feels good to be back on the podium. We knew the Ferraris were going to be quick today, so we wanted to give 100 per cent and put them under pressure. We knew we had to work together as a team today and that worked out very well for us. After what happened in the first lap with Sebastian, I knew that there was a good chance for me to get to the podium today. But it was still not an easy race; I did a very long first stint, trying to keep Kimi behind me on old tyres. I managed to still extract decent lap times out of the tyres so that Kimi never really got close enough to be able to overtake. Ultimately, this strategy helped both Lewis' and my race. After the long first stint I had the chance to take the fight to Max on fresh rubber and ended up on the podium. It was a really good team effort today and we managed to get more points than Ferrari even though we started behind them. But we know we have to keep pushing in order to be able to put them under pressure.



SCUDERIA FERRARI - interviews

Maurizio Arrivabene
Definitely not the result we were looking for to give to our fans, who supported us in fine style all weekend, for which I thank them on behalf of the entire team. After the collision at the second chicane, Kimi had to fight two opponents on his own, while Seb, in a badly damaged car, fought his way up the order. We know we have a very strong car, which was clearly demonstrated by the fact we monopolised the front row of the grid. Now, the important thing is to react as a team, in an orderly and determined fashion, without ever giving up. There is still a long way to go in the championship and we are already preparing for the next challenge in Singapore.

Kimi Raikkonen
Our car was really good today. The first set of tires was ok, while the second one didn't last as long as we had expected. There wasn't much we could do, we had to push all the time and there was no single moment in which we could take it easy and look after the tires. For sure we wanted a better result, but this is what we've got; we did our best but it was not enough. It's easy to say what we should have done in an ideal world, but we did what we thought was right and I think there was nothing wrong. Second position is not ideal, but we take it; I think that we were lucky to finish the race, on the rear left tyre there was no rubber left. In the next races it's going to be close pretty much everywhere. We keep doing our best and hopefully it will be enough for when we come to the last race.


Sebastian Vettel
At the beginning I tried to overtake Kimi in Turn 1 and 4, but I couldn't. He opened the brakes, which he had the right to do, so I moved aside and opened a gap to Lewis. Then I had room left and no chance anymore. So, when I touched Lewis, I span around and that was unfortunate, as my car got quite some damages. It could have gone differently, but obviously it wasn't the case. Unfortunately, our race was compromised and it was a shame, but then I tried to do my best and had a decent recovery from the back. All in all, it could have been even worse. It's disappointing of course, because we had the pace and we definitely could have won. There are many points to win back now in the championship, but we still have time to improve and we have the margin to recover. I am sorry for our tifosi because they just deserved a different result today.

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