Italy: The F1 Grand Prix Qualifying Seen from the Pits

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton – Pole position

Nico Rosberg – 2nd

Toto Wolff, Executive Director: « It was an excellent team performance today. In the final laps, when the drivers had to give it their all, Lewis set a very special second sector while Nico had a slight slip in the Ascari chicane. At this level, it’s the little things like this that make the difference. Congratulations to the entire team for this intensive weekend and a special mention to our colleagues in Brixworth. It’s very impressive to see these Mercedes-Benz engines in the top six positions in qualifying at Monza. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

Williams

Valtteri Bottas – 3rd

Felipe Massa – 4th

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance: « It’s the first step towards a great points total for the weekend. We are where we should be, but it’s not easy to meet these expectations, so everyone should be very happy. The teams of both cars and everyone supporting the team have worked very hard to achieve this result. The advantage provided by the power units is phenomenal here and we are confident about our race pace as well. Our goal is to surpass those ahead of us in the championship, and we have a good foundation for that. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

McLaren

Kevin Magnussen – 5th

Jenson Button – 6th

Eric Boullier, Race Director: « After suffering from a destabilizing brake problem this morning in FP3, for Kevin to have set a time sufficient to be fifth in Q3 was very impressive, underscoring his talent and character. Especially for a 21-year-old guy qualifying for only his thirteenth Grand Prix.

Jenson did an excellent job too and will line up tomorrow alongside Kevin on the third row, in sixth position. Okay, ultimately our goal is to do much better than fifth and sixth but it’s clear that the upward performance trajectory of our car is consistent and this movement of improvement is also very solid. Having both our cars ahead of the Red Bulls and Ferraris is a great feeling.

As I say, we are not resting on our laurels; we know we can still improve, but that’s what we will do. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone in Woking for working so hard to improve our car over the past few months. Today’s result is a direct consequence of the enormous amount of effort from a group of very passionate and dedicated people, and as I say, it’s not over.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 7th

Kimi Räikkönen – 12th [11th on the grid]

Pat Fry, Chassis Manager: « Compared to the morning session, we faced some additional challenges in qualifying, particularly with the car’s balance, especially in fast corners and braking, areas that are more difficult to manage on a track where you run with low downforce. I don’t think Fernando could have done more with his car. With the race pace we saw on Friday, hopefully tomorrow he can gain a few places and keep the Red Bulls behind him.

Unfortunately, with Kimi, we weren’t able to make it to Q3, which is really unfortunate after his smooth free practice sessions earlier in the season. Today, he struggled a lot with front locking and at the crucial moment in Q2, he lost time in Roggia.

With the two compounds, we have experienced a fairly linear degradation, so even with the high temperatures expected tomorrow, it shouldn’t influence our strategy. If we want to score as many points as possible with both cars in the race, it will be important to manage the reliability factor and try to get a good start.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – 8th

Daniel Ricciardo – 9th

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « It’s not a big surprise for us to have struggled a bit in qualifying. Getting into Q3 was an achievement in itself, and finishing 8th and 9th in qualifying, when there’s a Ferrari and almost all the Mercedes engines ahead, is not a big surprise. We are confident of having a better race pace for tomorrow, and strategy will be crucial. Hopefully, we’ll get a good start and have solid first corners. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

Force India

Sergio Pérez – 10th

Nico Hülkenberg – 14th [13th on the grid]

Translate: Vijay Mallya, Team Principal: « Checo’s tenth place is about what we expected today. It was a good job considering the hydraulic issue we experienced during the last free practice, which cost Checo a lot of track time this morning. We expected a bit more from Nico, but he couldn’t complete a clean lap when it mattered, and that places him right in the middle of the pack. It’s always difficult to overtake at Monza. So our job will be challenging tomorrow. On the other hand, we are encouraged by our race pace during practice. I hope we can demonstrate it tomorrow. »

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat – 11th [21st on the grid]

Jean-Eric Vergne – 13th [12th on the grid]

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Track Support Manager: « From the engine’s perspective, we pushed everything to the limit and extracted what we could. Daniil was very close to Ricciardo and drove well to qualify in 11th position, limiting the impact of the penalty he will receive tomorrow. It’s a shame that JEV couldn’t get closer to reach Q3, but we’ll see what happens in the race. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

Sauber

Adrian Sutil – 15th [14th on the grid]

Esteban Gutierrez – 16th [15th on the grid]

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Engine Engineering: « Apart from the hydraulic problem on Adrian’s car that cost us track time this morning, the day went pretty well. In qualifying, our drivers were always on the limit to extract the car’s potential. Esteban might argue that he made a mistake in the Ascari chicane, but it wouldn’t have changed the overall picture. We are more or less where we can be on a high-speed track like this. In the race, we just have to be ready in case something unexpected happens. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

Lotus

Pastor Maldonado – 17th [16th on the grid]

Romain Grosjean – 18th [17th on the grid]

Alan Permane, Track Operations Director: « We knew it would be tough here and it was. We faced a stressful moment to get Romain’s car out during this session after a coolant leak, and the team did a great job to ensure he could run. Unfortunately, on the track, we simply lacked pace, which was reflected in our qualifying position.

The two tire compounds are durable and there is not much difference in pace between them, so we do not expect a race with multiple stops. That said, our car could be better than some at staying in the tire performance window longer. The weather conditions were warmer on the track today and that could continue tomorrow, which would further improve our tire performance.

Our race pace relative to others should be better than what we showed in qualifying, however, we have no illusions, it will be a difficult race. We will be on the lookout for every opportunity to advance during the 53 laps.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – 20th [19th on the grid]

Max Chilton – 21st [20th on the grid]

John Booth, Team Director: « After the first stint in qualifying, both drivers were happy with the performance and balance of the cars. In the second stint, progressing normally, we would have fought with the Lotus, but by not improving we allowed Kobayashi to pass. Perhaps, with hindsight, we should have done three stints on medium tires, however, while it doesn’t seem we will have an extra set of tires for the race compared to our competitors, we will work hard on our strategy to try to make the best of it tomorrow. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi – 19th [18th on the grid]

Marcus Ericsson – 22nd [will start from the pits]

Cedrik Staudohar, Track Support Manager for Renault Sport F1: « Kamui achieved a very good lap today to start ahead of the Marussias. We encountered two or three problems this morning, so we had to change some settings to maintain reliability. It paid off, and we were able to extract the maximum performance from the power unit, which is positive on an engine circuit like Monza. Looking at the cars around us, we could have a very interesting race tomorrow. »

– Read the drivers’ statements