Circuit Autodromo Nazionale di Monza
Date 02.09.2018
Laps 53
Distance 306,720 km / 190,628 miles
No Driver Ferrari S/N Team Result
5 Sebastian Vettel SF71H Scuderia Ferrari 4.
           
7 Kimi Raikkonen SF71H Scuderia Ferrari 2.

 

Italian Grand Prix – Monza 2 September

Posted: 02.09.2018
Source: Ferrari

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.”

 

Italian Grand Prix – The podium was not enough

Posted: 02.09.2018
Source: Ferrari

Kimi second and Seb fights back to fourth in a race that was ruined at the start

Monza, 2 September –Kimi Raikkonen’s second place was not enough to make up for the disappointment in a race that could have delivered so much more for Scuderia Ferrari. The team was put on the back foot after a first lap collision left Vettel with a damaged car. That left Raikkonen  to fight on alone, but excessive blistering on the Monza pole man’s rear tyres meant in the end he had to give best to the winner, while his team-mate fought back well from the back of the pack. The wonderful Monza crowd deserved more.

FILM OF THE RACE. The two SF71Hs maintained position off the line, but at the Roggia, Hamilton tried to go round the outside of Seb, whose car was spun round with damage to the front wing. The Safety Car was called out and the Number 5 Ferrari pitted to switch onto the Soft tyres and fit a new nose. The stewards decided that neither driver was significantly to blame for the incident.

The race resumed on lap 4. Hamilton got a tow off Kimi and got past at the first braking zone, but the Ferrari man fought back immediately, retaking the lead at the second Variante. He then began to pull away and he and Seb, at the other end of the field, were lapping in the same times. Use of DRS was now authorised and Sebastian was up to 15th despite his set-up no longer being quite right and, having passed Hulkenberg, he had Ricciardo in his sights. He got alongside the Australian at the Parabolica and passed him down the straight.

At one third distance, the gap between the two two was stable around one second, while Seb slipstreamed past Stroll, at 360 km/h! He then fought his way past Perez to go eighth.

Kimi pitted at the end of lap 20, while Seb passed Sainz. The Finn was now running fourth on the Softs. Sebastian had a bit of blistering but still managed to overtake Ocon, while a few drops of rain fell on the track.

Hamilton pitted at the end of lap 28, with Kimi leading. The other Ferrari man was pushing to the  max, getting ready for a second tyre change. Another set of Supersofts went on and he set off in pursuit of tenth place. Out in front, was slowing things down to allow his team-mate to close on Kimi. But he too had to pit again with 16 laps remaining. Seb passed Perez and was now fifth. With 10 laps to go, Bottas went wide at the first chicane when he was nudged by Verstappen.

Kimi was struggling with his tyres and on lap 45, he had to give best at the first turn and concentrated on getting to the finish. Seb tried to close the gap to Verstappen, who would be given a 5 second penalty for his clash with Bottas. He managed it despite having a damaged car, while Kimi finally crossed the line in second place.

 

Italian Grand Prix – It’s a lock-out!

Posted: 01.09.2018
Source: Ferrari

Kimi grabs pole ahead of Seb with a ‘historic’ lap

Monza, September 1st – A cheering crowd saluted Scuderia Ferrari’s qualifying lock-out of the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix-our home race. Kimi Raikkonen secured his 18th career pole position at an average speed of 263.587Kph, which sets a new all-time record for Formula One cars, improving on Juan-Pablo Montoya’s previous record time from 2004. Seb Vettel came in second just 0.161 seconds slower than his team-mate. The SF71H has performed well throughout the weekend so far but the team is well aware that tomorrow is when the points are given out and will be working hard to secure the best possible result.

“The car has been good all weekend”, said Kimi “and we knew it would have been a close battle. All three sectors were obviously crucial; so far the difference between the top three had been very small, so it was a question of who would get it right and today it was me! It’s great to be on pole in our home Grand Prix in front of our tifosi. When we are driving we cannot hear them, but we could see them cheering and they gave us a lot of support. As a team we did a very good job, we couldn’t have done any better today. I’m very happy for this result but unfortunately this doesn’t guarantee anything for tomorrow. Half of the job has been done, but tomorrow is the most important day. For sure we have a good car and the best possible starting place. The race is long and many things can happen; we need to do a perfect job and hopefully tomorrow will be another good day”.

Seb commented: “I’m a bit disappointed as I couldn’t get pole today and made some mistakes, so that my lap was not that tidy, but locking out the front row with both cars is a great result for the whole team. For tomorrow I think we will have the right speed to race and hopefully we can have a good start, which is always important, especially here. The race is long, so that anything can happen, but we’ll work hard and do our best. The car is strong, so we should be fine. I am happy for the result, as much for our tifosi and hope to get the same result tomorrow”.

 

Italian Grand Prix – All-Ferrari front row

Posted: 01.09.2018
Source: Ferrari

Kimi on pole ahead of Seb

Monza, 1st September – Kimi Raikkonen took his eighteenth career pole in today’s qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, with a lap in 1’19”119, running on the Supersoft compound. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel was second quickest, also running the Supersoft tyres. All that’s left now is the race itself which starts at 15:10 tomorrow.

 

 

 

Italian Grand Prix – Ferrari first and third

Posted: 01.09.2018
Source: Ferrari

Final practice for Italian GP

Monza, 1 September – Sebastian Vettel was fastest in the final free practice session for the Italian Grand Prix with a time of 1’20”509. His Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen posted a 1’20”682, good enough for third fastest. Both drivers ran the same tyre programme, using the Supersoft tyres. The session was held in the dry, although, at the start, the track still had some damp patches after the morning rain shower. Qualifying gets underway at 15:00.

 

 

 

Italian Grand Prix – “The package is good”

Posted: 31.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

Seb and Kimi get through a mixed first day of practice

Monza, August 31 – The sun and heat of Thursday gave way to heavy clouds and bursts of rain for the first day of practice at the Autodromo di Monza. In the first session, Scuderia Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen braved the weather to post a total of 28 laps on the Intermediate tyres, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel only managed four laps, before a small issue with his spare gearbox put an end to his session. In the afternoon session, though, Seb set the best time ahead of Kimi on a dry track.

“Today it’s been a mixed day”, Seb commented “as the morning session didn’t go smoothly, but in the afternoon it got better. The balance of the car is not perfect yet, but I believe we can work on it for tomorrow as the car seems to be working well. This morning we had a little problem with the car; I wanted to run, but we had to check the gearbox first. However, it was good we could run in the afternoon. In P2 I slid off at Parabolica, but I managed to avoid touching the barrier, but I had just one slight nudge and came away with minor damage to the rear wing which had to be replaced. Apart from that, the car was fine. I am not entirely happy yet, but I know we can still improve because our car has big potential. I think we can do better tomorrow as the package is good, so we’ll see. We’ll keep doing our homework”.

“This morning” Kimi said “the session was held in the wet and we could only do a little running, but in the second practice, track conditions were back to normal. The conditions were the same for everybody, we cannot change the weather; I think that in the end we were quite lucky to have at least one session in the dry. Both compounds were ok, but obviously we did not do much mileage today. We are on yet another different track, so we obviously had some things to fine tune today, but it was not too bad for the first laps . Now we need to go through things and try to improve a bit for tomorrow”.

 

Italian Grand Prix – Wet P1 at Monza

Posted: 31.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

Kimi 2nd, only a few laps for Seb

Monza, 31 August – Just a few days on from Spa, the engines were fired up again at the Monza track. Unfortunately for the crowd, a heavy storm hit the track just before practice and the surface only began to dry out towards the end. Kimi Raikkonen set the second best time of 1’34”550, running on Intermediate tyres. Sebastian Vettel did a 1’37”867, stopping earlier than usual to allow the team to fit a spare gearbox while they carried out some checks. Second practice gets underway at 15:00.

 

 

 

Italian Grand Prix – “It’s Italy, it’s special”

Posted: 30.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

For Kimi and Seb Monza is a home grand prix

Monza, August 30 – Off the back of the Belgian Grand Prix, and one day after the great street show in the heart of Milan, comes Scuderia Ferrari’s home race. It’s hot at Monza, but conditions may change for the worse tomorrow. Anyway, for both Kimi and Sebastian, this is not a race like any other.

“I enjoy coming to Monza”, says Kimi “it’s a great circuit, a lot different from many others. It’s a challenging track even if on paper it’s only a few chicanes and a few corners; it’s not easy to be fast here. I have a lot of mixed memories from racing on this track; on some occasions we have been fast, but we never really got it together. There’s a lot of passion here from our tifosi, they give us a lot of support. Ferrari is Ferrari and our fans are loyal, in good and bad years, no matter the results we have. It’s Italy, it’s special, it’s our home grand prix. But the pressure we have here in Monza is the same that we have in other places. It doesn’t matter how the last race has gone, good or bad, it doesn’t guarantee anything for this weekend. We are in a different circuit and with different conditions; it will be a bit tricky over the weekend again here. It’s impossible for me to know now what will be the end result, it’s pure guesswork. The further you are up in qualifying the less you risk to end up with an issue. We ‘ll see how the weather will be tomorrow and how it goes . We’ll do our normal job and we’ll see what it brings”.

Seb adds: “In Spa we brought some updates, including the new engine and this track in Monza is somewhat similar to the one in Spa, but there are turns too, not just straights, that can make the difference. We need to find the right rhythm for this weekend. For sure, we don’t want just a podium. Winning is always great, but obviously winning here means much more to us as we are in Italy, the country where Ferrari was born. Our task is to make sure our car gets even better than in Spa. We know we have a very good engine, a great package, and we look ahead to the challenge. It’s great to get into the car and feel that it is possible to fight for first place. I believe 2016 and 2017 were fundamental for the development of the car and it’s so beautiful to see we have kept on with the pace. However, we want to get stronger and keep working hard”.

 

Italian Grand Prix – A meeting with history

Posted: 28.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

To Monza for a really special race

At the risk of stating the obvious, the Italian Grand Prix is a special race for Scuderia Ferrari. In amongst the bunch of records, even if one sticks just to the Formula 1 years, you can rummage around at random and always find something: from Alberto Ascari’s first win in 1951, to title clinching races for Niki Lauda and Jody Scheckter, to Michael Schumacher’s five victories, all with the Scuderia in the space of eleven years. That makes the German the driver most often seen on the top step of the Monza podium and what a podium it has become, with its walkway offering a unique vista to those on it and to the fans down below.

This is the 69th home race for Ferrari, only one of them not having been held at Monza, run instead at Imola in 1980 and it follows right on the back of the GP in Belgium. With a small squad dispatched to prepare for the Formula 1 Milan Festival event on Wednesday 29th, work at the Autodromo itself began at the start of the week. Spa and Monza are next to one another on the calendar and, in the collective imagination, they are seen as similar super-high speed tracks. In truth, there are several differences, because the Italian track does not feature the Ardennes-style flat out corners; in fact quite the contrary, it asks a lot more of the brakes while witnessing even higher speeds down the straight. If they have something in common, other than being two of the classics on the calendar, it’s the ever-present passion of the fans, which in Monza, it has to be said, is primarily red.

 

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