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Italy 2011 - Post race interviews - Selected quotes from the drivers after the Italian Grand Prix

Published by Christine

Key quotes from F1 personnel immediately following the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.

Christian Horner - Red Bull

"It's been an unbelievable day for Seb. A fantastic race. Anybody who thinks he can't overtake, I think he completely disproved that today. Unbelievable for us to win in Monza. We completely didn't expect that result but it was a really dominant drive."

Lewis Hamilton - McLaren

"It was a good race. I got some points and I finished so I can't really complain. On the restart, Michael was on the outside of me so I was looking at him in my mirrors and before I knew it, the guys had gone. I missed an opportunity to slipstream Sebastian, they caught me napping. But once I finally got past, I was able to chase down, and I had fun chasing down Fernando.

"I'm looking forward to the next couple of races, where we go away overseas. It's going to be exciting. We still have six races left, we'll continue to push, and I hope we get some more wins for the team.

"We weren't focusing on anyone, that was as fast as we could go. Just lost a little bit on the straights, that's why I couldn't pass Michael, but otherwise it was pretty good."

Michael Schumacher - Mercedes GP

"It was a fun afternoon. I felt I did exactly what I was supposed to do. As far as I understand there was no request for me to see the stewards, so I guess all is in order.

"Honestly, I think the start was tremendous and that's where we picked up the positions, but it was a kind of dream to stay, but the dream becomes reality when you start racing these guys. If you look even with only 20 laps to go, Lewis was able to pull a gap of 15 seconds, so you see that the speed of the car is quick enough that we can't really keep them behind us.

"It's the nature of the track, in Spa and here, that helped us. The major point why we look certainly better, but definitely we keep on improving and hopefully we will improve further for the next couple of races. We need to close up to the bunch up in front because it's certainly more fun than where we have been."

Ross Brawn - Mercedes GP

"Obviously deeply disappointed with the start because as you know, we had a different approach with Nico, and it would have been very interesting to see what could have happened with that today. So, that was very frustrating, and then I think Michael drove a fantastic race. We know we haven't got the fastest car but he had a really strong race and the last couple of races we've seen all the things we know about Michael Schumacher.

"The FIA were watching it and asked us to be a bit more careful. It's all a balance between racing and not overstepping the mark. Charlie just asked us to leave a bit more room for Lewis which we did. Great racing, fantastic for Formula One, really exciting.

"We were talking on the radio about something and he hit the limiter, had a slow gear change. He missed the gear change, that's all it was. It would have been interesting to see how much longer that would have gone on but a little slip from Michael let Lewis through."

Stefano Domenicali - Ferrari

"As you can imagine, not easy considering what happened in Belgium. But you know, today, I think Red Bull were stronger. Congratulations to them, they did a fantastic job. McLaren were strong, but we were able to be there in front of them, at least in front of Lewis. Difficult race and I'm sorry for Felipe because without that touch with Mark he could have been there also for his racing action."

Felipe Massa - Ferrari

"I was in front of Webber in the second corner, he tried to pass me on the outside and he couldn't. I brake later, I was doing the corner and I was in front of him. He touched me and I spun. Nothing really to say about that, just that, you know, he pushed me out, and it was really unfortunate because I lost all the possibilities I had on my race.

"It's really unlucky, we didn't start and finish in the right position. I'm not very happy because of that. We need to concentrate and work hard in Singapore to start and finish in the right position which is not what's happening in many races this year."

Bruno Senna - Renault F1

"It was a good race. Of course being in the wrong place at the wrong time in the first corner didn't help my efforts much, because wasted another good qualifying. In fairness, we had a good car and the team did a more racy strategy going for a long stint on the options and that was that. We were fighting for positions right from the back, and going to the points, so that's a very great feeling."

Paul di Resta - Force India

"My launch wasn't very good but the guys around me didn't get it either. It was a bit strange really because the pre-launch was good but going into turn one I could just see a Williams lunging up the inside of me. I went to the outside as far as I could but there was no way to avoid it, and I had to bump across the chicane. But really, from there, we lost a few positions, just unlucky at race starts, it was a bit of a tangle, and I had to back out.

"We went aggressive on the tyre strategy, I think we extracted as much as we could from what we had. Ultimate lap time just wasn't there. You could see Jaime Alguersuari was a bit quicker, but we'll take those four points, it does us a good steed for the constructor's championship now we've overtaken Sauber."

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All content in the series Italy 2011