Italian F1 Grand Prix 2012: Race Report - Superb victory for Lewis Hamilton

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• 180th victory for McLaren
• 76th victory for McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, Mobil 1 and Enkei
• 32nd victory for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
• 20th victory for Lewis
• 5th victory of the season for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
• 3rd successive victory for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – first hat-trick since GB/Germany/Hungary 2008

LEWIS HAMILTON
- MP4-27A-04
- Started: 1st
- Finished: 1st
- Fastest lap: 1m28.427s (+1.188s, 5th)
- Pitstops: One: lap 23 (2.55s) [Opt-Pri]
- Points: 142 (2nd)

“Winning at Monza is one of the greatest experiences of my Formula 1 career. I absolutely love this place: I’ve been coming to Italy to race since I was 13 years old and I just love the culture, the food and the people.

“Since I started in Formula 1, Monza has been one of the races I always wanted to win at – it’s such an incredible, historic circuit and all the great racing drivers have won here. To finally put my name on that list makes me feel extremely proud, but also very humble.

“Our car has been fantastic all weekend, and it was nice to have a relaxed grand prix with no troubles. I was out on my own for most of the race and just tried to manage the gap behind me. I was cruising at the end, but, once I heard that Sergio [Perez] had got past Fernando [Alonso], I had to push a little to keep the cushion over second place.

“The race was very unfortunate for Jenson – we were running first and second at the time and it would have been great for the team if we could have finished like that.

“This championship is proving to be so unpredictable – and I’m so grateful that we’ve got a good car and that we’re in the fight. We’ve got seven more races on the calendar. We should enjoy today, but this victory is just one step. Tomorrow, we’ll start all over again, for Singapore.”

JENSON BUTTON
- MP4-27A-02
- Started: 2nd
- Finished: Ret – fuel system problem
- Fastest lap: 1m28.926s (+1.687s, 13th)
- Pitstops: One: lap 22 (4.70s) [Opt-Pri]
- Points: 101 (6th)

“I had too much wheelspin at the start, and that dropped me to third and caused me to lose a lot of time behind Felipe [Massa]. But it was nice to get past him, put some clear air between us, and then start chasing down Lewis.

“I was never going to challenge him for the win, but it would have been great for the team if we could have finished first and second. But it wasn’t to be.

“I don’t entirely know what caused my car to stop – I’m told it was a fuel system problem that we’re still investigating. The engine cut out and I had to coast to a stop. These things happen.

“But, looking for the positives, I want to offer my congratulations to the whole team. We’ve proven over the past few races that we’re very strong in both qualifying trim and race trim. That consistency is really key, and we haven’t seen that form from any team all season, so that’s very encouraging indeed.”

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

“Lewis drove a perfect race here at Monza today, and duly took a well-deserved victory – his 20th grand prix win and McLaren’s 180th.

“In truth, he was in total control throughout all 53 laps, and was never really threatened.

“We should have scored a one-two finish, but Jenson was deprived of an easy second place by a fuel system problem. That’s frustrating for him and frustrating for us, but the important thing is that our car is a winner. We’ve now won three grands prix in a row, and both our drivers are on top form.

“Lewis has now closed up to second place in the drivers’ world championship, with seven grands prix still to run. It was his third victory of the season, and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes’ fifth. The momentum is with us, and the drivers’ world championship crown is well within Lewis’s grasp. In the constructors’ championship, too, we’re in good shape.

“Winning is what Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is all about. In Singapore in two weeks’ time, we’re planning to do some more of it.”

~ Official photos and report courtesy of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes ~

Copyright © 2012, mercedesgla. All rights reserved.

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Italian F1 Grand Prix 2012: Race Report - Michael Schumacher 6th, Nico Rosberg 7th

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Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg finished in sixth and seventh places today in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

• Michael completed a two-stop strategy, running option/prime/prime, and stopping on laps 15 and 37
• Nico also stopped twice today, running option/prime/prime, and stopping on laps 14 and 38
• Fastest lap for Nico, on the final lap, was the fourth of his career and second of the season
• Sixth win in 13 races for Mercedes-Benz power, and third in a row, with four engines in the top ten

Michael Schumacher
“It was a fun race today - although I must admit that, following our performance on Friday, I had secretly hoped we would be able to move up the field. But we had a tricky first stint. After that, everything went really well, we were on the pace and I think we showed a clear upwards trend today. I kind of ran out of laps this afternoon and, if the race had been a bit longer, I´d have been able to battle even further forward. Overall, though, we got everything out of it today. Now we need to keep this trend going - and everybody in the team is working hard on it.”

Nico Rosberg
“Seventh place is an improvement on my recent finishes so I’m satisfied with that today, although there may have been potential for more. I had no grip on my option tyres in the first stint, which were the same set that gave me problems in Q3. After the first stop, I had very good pace and was able to set a few fastest race laps and move up the field with some nice overtakes. It’s nice to have had a better finish to a race weekend and I’m looking forward to more of the same in Singapore in a couple of weeks.”

Ross Brawn
“Both our drivers put in strong, aggressive and controlled performances today. We knew that a one-stop strategy was not feasible for us this afternoon, so we went into the race planning to make two stops and knew the drivers would have to race hard to make it work against other cars who were one-stopping. The disappointment today was that both drivers really struggled on their first set of tyres - perhaps because of how we used them in qualifying, running more than one timed lap in Q3, or perhaps another factor, which is something we will have to analyse. We lost all our time in this phase of the race but, thereafter, the performance of both cars looked good. Nico´s fastest lap shows that our level of performance today was reasonable and both he and Michael were consistently among the fastest in the second half of the race. Sixth and seventh places are far from perfect but we can be positive about an exciting race, running the right strategy for our current situation and two great drives from Michael and Nico.”

Norbert Haug
“Fighting drives from Michael and Nico this afternoon with lots of nice overtaking moves. We didn´t have great pace in the opening stint, running the option tyres we had used in qualifying like everybody in the top ten, but it looked much better after the first stops. Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton and McLaren Mercedes on three wins in a row - two for Lewis, one for Jenson Button. Our Mercedes engine has taken six wins from 13 races this season, including one for our Silver Arrows team in China. After scoring the most points of any engine in 2009, 2010 and 2011, this confirms the Mercedes V8 as the most successful power plant so far in 2012 as well.”

~ Official photos and report courtesy of MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS ~

Copyright © 2012, mercedesgla. All rights reserved.

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Italian F1 Grand Prix 2012: Qualifying Report - Vodafone McLaren Mercedes locks out the front row at Monza

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• 152nd pole for McLaren
• 73rd pole for McLaren, Mercedes-Benz and Mobil 1
• 27th pole for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
• 23rd pole for Lewis
• 5th pole of the season for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
• 3rd successive pole for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
• 3rd front-row lock-out of the season for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

LEWIS HAMILTON
- MP4-27A-04
- FP3: 1st, 1m24.578s, 18 laps
- Qualifying:
- Q1: 2nd, 1m24.211s (on Primes)
- Q2: 4th, 1m24.394s (on Options)
- Q3: 1st overall, 1m24.010s (on Options)

“This is a fabulous day for the whole team – they’ve done a fantastic job to get our car into this position, so I want to say a huge thanks to them. The whole Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team deserves this result.

“It’s going to be a fast, tough race tomorrow. Jenson and the Ferraris are very quick, but we’ve got a good car and a good set-up, and we’re in the best possible position to score maximum points tomorrow.

“This is a beautiful track; it’s so fast that you really need to respect it. Monza has such great history too, and, at some stage, I’d love to become part of that history. For the moment, though, I’m just looking for a strong, consistent race tomorrow, because I need to score some good points.

“Finally, I just want to pass on my best wishes and congratulations to my friend Alex Zanardi. Alex is not only one of the most courageous men I know, but he’s also one of the nicest, and his gold medal successes at the Paralympics over the past few days have been incredibly inspiring.”

JENSON BUTTON
- MP4-27A-02
- FP3: 6th, 1m25.036s (+0.458s), 22 laps
- Qualifying:
- Q1: 3rd, 1m24.672s (on Primes)
- Q2: 2nd, 1m24.255s (on Options)
- Q3: 2nd overall, 1m24.133s (on Options)

“It’s been a really good day for us. Congratulations to Lewis and the whole team – they’ve done a fabulous job to get us in this position and we’ve got to build on that tomorrow. Happily, we’re in the best position possible: the past few races have really shown the strength of our car.

“We didn’t consider trying to tow each other around as some of the others did – it’s a difficult thing to get right and if you get it wrong you end up being compromised elsewhere around the lap.

“I don’t think tomorrow’s race will be all about the start – you want to get a good run into Turn One, admittedly, but if you try to plan something too ambitious, it often doesn’t work. There haven’t been any first-corner incidents at the front of the grid for the last couple of years here, so Lewis and I will just be focusing on getting our two cars out of the first corner in front of all the others.”

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

“I’m extremely proud of the entire Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, all of whose members have worked incredibly hard to develop our car so well over the year. Today’s front-row lock-out is an appropriate reward for all their efforts.

“In fact, I’m told that we now hold the record for the highest number of front-row lock-outs in Formula 1 history, which is quite an achievement. So I want to say a big ‘well done’ not only to the men and women who have worked so hard to make our car quick here today, but also to the men and women who have worked equally hard, going back through 46 long years, ever since McLaren first entered a world championship grand prix in 1966.

“But tomorrow is what counts, and I’m glad to say that we got quite a lot of race prep work done yesterday, so we’re hoping to be in pretty good shape for the race.

“Returning to today, though, both Lewis and Jenson drove immaculately, capitalising on our car’s impressive pace in sectors one and two, and optimising its capabilities also in sector three, where it was slightly less competitive relative to our opposition. Doing that may have looked easy for them, but it wasn’. In fact they both had to keep their nerve towards the end of their fastest laps. Well done, boys.

“Tomorrow’s race will be fast and hard, too. Bring it on!”

~ Official photos and report courtesy of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes ~

Copyright © 2012, mercedesgla. All rights reserved.

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