Rosberg takes Aldo Costa creation to easy Monza win

Rosberg pours champagne on the Italian crowd below

Drivers don't win F1 titles, Chief Designers do. The man who made Michael Schumacher World Champion 7 times and Lewis Hamilton the past two years, Aldo Costa, will make either Nico Rosberg or Lewis Hamilton World Champion in 2016.

On Sunday Nico Rosberg drove one of Costa's creations to an easy win in the Italian GP at Monza – leading every lap and cruising to the finish.

With Hamilton bogging down off the start line from pole position, Rosberg swept past with ease to lead into turn one as his Mercedes teammate slipped back to sixth behind both Ferrari drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo.

The win is Rosberg’s seventh victory of the 2016 season, and 21st career win. He closes to two points behind Hamilton in the world championship. It was the first Italian GP win for Rosberg.

Lewis Hamilton drove the 2nd Costa car to and easy second, 15 seconds behind Rosberg and 5 seconds ahead of the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel. The Mercedes ran a 1-stop race strategy whereas the Ferraris made two stops.

After the race Hamilton was befuddled as to what went wrong at the start.

"I don't know what happened, l did everything as normal. I did the sequence exactly the same. I just got lots of wheel spin."

The first chicane at the start

"I could see Nico pulling away and l knew from quite an early stage that winning the race would not be possible. Second was the best l could do after the start l got," he continued.

"It was a pretty simple weekend compared to the last one, obviously the start decided the race then it was just about trying to get back up to second.

"Nico was pulling away and having a breezy roll up there, and he did a great job."

Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari finished fourth, followed by Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull in fifth place, Valtteri Bottas in the Williams-Mercedes was sixth, Max Verstappen in the second Red Bull finished seventh, Sergio Perez in the Force India-Mercedes was eighth, the second Williams of Felipe Massa finished ninth, and Nico Hulkenberg in the second Force India finished in the final points position in tenth.

QUOTES

Mercedes GP

Nico Rosberg (1st): "It means so much to me to win here at Monza. The crowd were unbelievable over the entire weekend and especially during the podium ceremony. This win is incredibly special for me and standing up there and singing with thousands of people gave me goosebumps. The race went perfectly for me and after a good start I was able manage the gap between myself and the car behind. Our car has been amazing this weekend and I extend a massive thank you to the whole team. I'm looking forward to Singapore, which was our weakest race last year. Hopefully we've learnt lessons from 2015 and we'll come back even stronger!"

Lewis Hamilton (2nd): "It's tough to take when you lose a race because of such a poor start. From there it was just about managing the tires during the first stint and I was delighted to get back up to second after the first stop. I kept pushing as hard as I could and came within 15 seconds of Nico when we crossed the line. I'm happy with my performance this weekend but after such an incredible qualifying day yesterday it was disappointing to be unable to capitalize. I'm sure we'll work on what happened at the start between now and Singapore."

Paddy Lowe: "Congratulations to Nico on his first win here at the Italian Grand Prix. It's an incredible experience to win here, at one of the most iconic venues on the Formula 1 calendar, and the crowd always comes out in force. It was a very controlled drive from Nico as it was difficult to manage the one-stop strategy and make the two tire sets hold out for the necessary number of laps. For Lewis, the start was clearly a bad one as he went from 1st to 6th before the first corner and that made it extremely difficult for him to compete for the win. He completed a perfect recovery drive to get back to 2nd though and, with his fighting spirit, he didn't give up on the win until it was clearly impossible. Clearly we need to analyze what happened to Lewis at the start and do better next time. After such a great qualifying lap yesterday we all share Lewis' disappointment that he lost position. It's fantastic to get the 1-2 here today and it's been a sensational performance all weekend from the drivers, race team and the team back at Brackley and Brixworth."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Toto Wolff, Technical Director: "First of all, a pretty perfect afternoon for the team in terms of the end result, with a 1-2 finish in front of an amazing Monza crowd this afternoon. The decisive moment was clearly the start: as Lewis dropped back to P6, Nico was able to take the lead and that set the pattern for their races. Nico did everything he needed to in just the right way: he managed the pace, kept the tires in great shape and delivered a perfect one-stop race. As for Lewis, it was a balancing act for him as soon as he went into recovery mode: he needed to make the stint lengths in order to stay on the one-stop strategy but also fight his way back through. He judged it to perfection and limited the damage in terms of the points situation. As for the start, we obviously changed the rules this year in order to make the process more manual and more variable, and we are seeing that play out. When you start from the front row, poor starts are more visible and good ones not so obvious, so we need to be careful jumping to conclusions. Lewis said on the radio that it was his fault but he also followed all his procedures in a good way – it's simply not an easy thing to get right and there are a lot of different factors at play. But there is no blame game: we will come together, analyze everything, learn our lessons and keep on improving so we don't find ourselves losing places off the line. But looking at the big picture, we have a perfectly balanced championship battle, with two points between Nico and Lewis after 14 races. The pendulum will keep swinging back and forth to the end of the season, I am sure; it will give us some more grey hairs but I think it will be a great fight for the fans to watch."

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel (3rd): "Of course I am very happy for all the team. It is a very special race for us, to stand on the podium here in Monza, is just great. But for sure you are always aiming for the top step, so well done to our rivals, they have been in a league on their own in the race. Yet, we tried our optimum, this is the perfect result for us, the whole weekend has been very smooth, no issues with the car. We brought an engine update, so grazie anche to the guys at Maranello, for their support. I feel things are changing: it will still take a little bit, but we are heading the right way. And on a day like this, you realize that life is to enjoy, to get so much support is just unbelievable. I feel we have the best fans in the world, it is difficult to find the right words. This podium here, it's not the Adriatic sea, it is the sea of tifosi.. We had a rough season, we had high expectations, we have put ourselves on high pressure, we have also done mistakes, but the most important thing is that we stay a team, that we stay together. We have a lot of races ahead, we know we have a good car, unfortunately not yet quick enough for being able to say, here 'we have the best car', but I am sure that one day we will be."

Kimi Raikkonen (4th): "I think that today we were closer to our rivals than we expected after qualifying. Obviously we were on different tactics, but we did the correct things, the right choice with tires and the fastest race we could. We had a pretty good speed but we were not fast enough for gaining a better position. Fourth position is not exactly what we were looking for, but this is not the easiest circuit for us against the Mercedes, and we did our maximum. With Sebastian we were more or less driving behind each other and when you race against your teammate there's not much that you can do, we both know what the other guy is going to do. After the start it was a bit tricky, I got close after the first pit stop, but then he was able to pull away. In the last few weekends it seems that we are going in the right direction, now we have to keep trying and improving doing our maximum. Every race is a different story, a small mistake here and there from somebody might give us a chance, who knows…"

Arrivabene

Maurizio Arrivabene, Team Principal: "Today we did our best, especially at the start which was very good. We chose the fastest possible strategy for the race, trying to achieve the best possible result. It was a good race, but of course we would have liked to do much better, as a way to pay back our fantastic fans who never failed to give us their support and were always close to us, in particular here in our home race at Monza. The team worked well and unitedly, both here and in Maranello, and we've seen some positive signs. Now the focus has already shifted to the next round at Singapore."

Williams-Mercedes

Valtteri Bottas (6th): "I was personally expecting a bit more from today. I set myself a target of finishing on the podium, but we didn't quite have the pace which meant that I had to push the tire a little bit more in every stint just to secure my position on track. This meant that towards the end of the stint I was struggling a bit. The pure pace wasn't there today, but overall we leave Monza with a positive result for the team, taking back fourth place in the Constructors' Championship. This gives us a bit of confidence and shows that we can definitely keep hold of fourth if we keep doing the right things."

Felipe Massa (9th): "I think it was a good race apart from the fact that we didn't have the pace we expected to have with the option tires. My race started after I changed on to the supersoft tires and my pace was really good. If I could have got a bit more out of my tires then it could have been better but I'm pleased that we managed to get enough points to take fourth place back in the Constructors' Championship."

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: "I think that was pretty much the most we could achieve today. We stopped a little bit early with Valtteri but the strategy played out well. Ricciardo got us at the end but he had been quite a lot quicker throughout the race and was right up behind Valtteri, but we did what we could to race him. It would have been nice to have held on to fifth but we just didn't have the pace over the Red Bull. With Felipe, we went into the race planning a one-stop, but stopped earlier to cover Hulkenberg and then tried to keep Felipe out as long as possible to try and chase Perez at the end. The qualifying tire we put on for the final stint was better than we expected and with one more lap we may have been able to gain another position with Felipe. Overall, in terms of strategy, pitstops, and how we operated as a team we managed the race well and it is satisfying to reclaim fourth in the championship."

Red Bull-Tag Heuer

Daniel Ricciardo (5th): "You hope for a podium every race but realistically, coming here, we thought Ferrari would have an edge on us. We also thought Williams and Force India would be strong and we targeted fifth place. I just missed out yesterday in Qualifying but managed to make it happen today and for us to finish in fifth and seventh represents Championship damage limitation here at Monza. I was pretty close to (Valtteri) Bottas in the middle of the race and knew I could race hard from that position. It was a really enjoyable overtake (on Bottas). I have a three hour drive home tonight and didn't want to spend the whole journey regretting not trying it. He is a fair racer and had seen me in the mirrors so I knew he wouldn't turn in, so I had a go. It was great fun and felt nice to come from so far back and make it stick. We altered the strategy a bit which meant I had the supersofts on at that stage, so great work by the team to give me the chance to make the move. Our performance so far this season and the result we have achieved here makes me really excited heading into Singapore where I think we can challenge for the top spots."

Max Verstappen (7th): "I went into anti-stall at the start. I don't know what happened there so I have to analyze that. After that it was just very difficult, because you have to push harder on the tires to get past people and that compromises your strategy, but in the end our last stint was very positive. I think we did the best we could with the tires we had so we can be very happy about that. The car behaved very well today even though this track is not our favorite. We're definitely looking forward to Singapore and hopefully we can put in a strong performance there."

Christian Horner, Sporting Director: "We knew coming to Monza that this would be the most challenging circuit on the calendar for us. This weekend was all about trying to limit the damage and I think we've optimized our performance today with two very strong drives from our drivers. After a difficult start for Max, who got an anti-stall, he recovered extremely well to finish seventh, and Daniel finished well in P5 after an outstanding passing move on Valtteri Bottas. To be leaving Europe 11 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship heading to circuits that hopefully suit our strengths more than here, means this has been a positive weekend."

Force India-Mercedes

Sergio Perez (8th): "I didn't really enjoy myself out there today: it was a fairly lonely race for most of it, but at least it gave me a chance to look after my tires. I think we got the maximum result we could hope for because we didn't have the pace to achieve more. We tried an aggressive strategy, with a very early second stop, to try and cover Verstappen, but it turned out to be too early and in the end we had a lot of pressure from Massa. It was very important to keep in front of him and bring home as many points as we possibly could. We always knew it would be a challenging race and it's shown that we need to keep working hard. I think we can fight back strongly in Singapore because it's a very different kind of circuit compared to Monza and we've performed well on street circuits so far this year."

Nico Hulkenberg (10th): "My initial start off the line was okay, but Max [Verstappen] in front of me really bogged down so I had to react and turn around him. That really hurt my traction and I lost all the drive going forward, which is why I lost a few positions. Later in the lap, I was side-by-side through turn four with Felipe [Massa] and was on the outside line for turn five. Felipe jumped over the curb, gave me a little hit, and pushed me wide on the exit, allowing Fernando [Alonso] to get ahead. So it was not a great first lap. Then, in the first stint, it wasn't easy to overtake and I was stuck behind Fernando until the first pit stop. The second half of the race was actually quite lonely for me, but the damage was done by losing so much ground on lap one. So I'm slightly disappointed with the outcome because I believed we would be more competitive here. We need to learn the lessons, understand where we can improve and come out much stronger in Singapore."

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "Overall I think getting two cars in the points means we've come away with a solid result. Both drivers have been chasing the set-up to try and find the sweet spot all weekend, so to come away with five points is a good return for all the team's efforts. As is often the case in Monza, the outcome of lap one tends to dictate your finishing position and while Checo moved up, Nico was caught up in the rough and tumble of the midfield. The battle for fourth in the championship is likely to ebb and flow over the course of the season, but I'm optimistic that some of the upcoming events will play to our strengths more than Monza."

Renault

Kevin Magnussen (17th): "My start was okay but there were incidents everywhere… I had a better start than the Saubers ahead of me, which meant going around them, then another car on the grid. After that, I was able to build-up the momentum into turn two but had to avoid a spinning car by going on the grass. From then on, it was a quiet race with just a bit of early action with one of the Manors. It's a shame that we didn't get a good result today but we still learn more about the car every weekend and this race was no exception."

Jolyon Palmer (DNF, Damage): "I had a really good start and made a lot of positions. I was alongside Nasr through turn one with no problem then he decided to run me off the road in turn two. I can't explain why he did that or imagine what he was thinking. I went as far off the track as I could without risking a spin from the gravel and he still made contact with me. There was no racing room and both our races ended way too early. For me I feel I'm driving better than ever and I'm hopeful that will show in Singapore."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: "After the promise of Spa, Monza proved to be our toughest challenge of the year. Jolyon made a fantastic start but was robbed of the potential to improve further by the actions of Felipe Nasr, who was punished for the incident. Kevin did what he could in a car which was clearly not suited to Monza. We knew this season would be tough and this weekend was particularly so. The positives are not easily seen on track but rather lie in all the hard work going on behind the scenes in Enstone and Viry and we know that in 2017 we will be far stronger. Our immediate focus is now on Singapore where we should show better performance than here."

Toro Rosso-Ferrari

Carlos Sainz (15th): "I think we tried everything we could today to make it into the points, but when you just don't have the pace, it's impossible. We had decided to go for a one-stop strategy and at one point it looked possible, but in the end I was losing too much time so we had to pit for a second time… Not the ideal race, but all I can say is that we extracted the maximum out of the car today and in the end a P15 was the most we could achieve. Here the car behaved better than last week in Spa, so this is something positive for us – the last three races have been very tricky, racing at very power-dependent circuits, and this has made it very difficult to fight… Hopefully in Singapore this situation changes a bit and we can get back to where we deserve to be."

Daniil Kvyat (DNF, Damage): "Not the race we wanted. We had an issue with the floor, which got damaged after Turn 1, as I was sandwiched by a few cars, and we therefore lost a lot of downforce… A part from this, the battery was also constantly overheating, so we decided to retire the car. We knew it was going to be difficult here, but it's a shame to have to end my race early… We just need to be patient and hopefully the next tracks will suit us better."

Franz Tost, Team Principal: "As we could expect after yesterday's qualifying, we had a difficult race… Nothing happened in front of us and, because of the fact that all the cars in front of us finished the race, we didn't get the chance to score any points today. We called Daniil in as, in addition to a damaged floor, there was also a problem with the battery, which was overheating. There was absolutely no chance to score any points so we decided to retire him to save mileage on the engine. Regarding Carlos, he drove in the best possible way under these conditions and finished in P15. After Spa and Monza, we now look forward to Singapore, where we hope to finish within the points again."

Sauber-Ferrari

Marcus Ericsson (16th): "It was a decent race. It is surely disappointing that we could not fight for points higher up in the mid-field. It feels like we have taken a step forward compared to the race weekends before the summer break, but we are not where we want to be yet. Monza is unique in terms of the track characteristics with it being a high-speed circuit. The track in Singapore requires much more downforce, so it will be interesting to see our potential there in regards to our package."

Felipe Nasr (DNF, Damage): "It was a disappointing early end of the race for me. Again I had quite a good start, moving up four positions. It is a shame we had to retire the car after the collision with Jolyon (Palmer), as the damage was not repairable. I hope we will have a trouble-free weekend in Singapore."

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "We had a difficult race, which was again unlucky for Felipe as he had to retire due to an accident. This incident was not his fault, so we do not understand why he was penalized. Marcus did his best and put in a good performance. This weekend should encourage us that we are able to finish races higher up if we could get the most out of qualifying."

McLaren-Honda

Jenson Button (12th): "There were a few mistakes on the first lap. I got a bad start, then, at the first Lesmo, one of the Saubers pushed me wide, then forced me off the circuit and into the gravel. I was last at the end of the first lap… After that, I couldn't have wished for anything better: I had a lot of fun out there and pulled off some good overtaking moves, including one around the outside of Parabolica – something that doesn't happen very often! I'm very happy with my performance. To come through and finish 12th isn't great, but it wasn't too bad considering the first lap. There'll always be ifs and buts: if I hadn't gone off on the first lap, I think we could have got into the points today. Singapore will definitely suit us better than here – this is our toughest circuit of the year, so to be that close to the top 10 wasn't too bad, really."

Fernando Alonso (14th): "We didn't do a perfect race today – we made some mistakes here and there, including having a problem in the first pit stop, when the green light didn't work. We lost a little bit of time there which probably compromised the stint. We didn't really have the pace to be in the points today, so finishing 11th or 14th didn't really make much of a difference. But at least we finished the race on a positive note, by setting the fastest lap. We fitted new tires for the last two laps and I just went out and maximized the grip. It doesn't make for much difference – it's only good for the stats – as we were basically never in the running for points today. This was a circuit where we always knew we wouldn't be competitive, but I think good times are coming our way from now on, as most of the remaining tracks on the calendar should better suit our car."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Eric Boullier, Racing Director: "We always knew that Monza was going to be one of the toughest races of the year for us from an overall car performance point of view, so the fact that we finished 12th and 14th today isn't a surprise. Having said that, both our cars ran flawlessly, reliable from lights to flag, and our race pace was reasonable throughout. Jenson and Fernando had a good dice at one point – hard but fair – and I'm sure their battle must have made for great viewing for TV viewers and grandstand spectators alike. It sometimes looked a little too close for complete comfort from our pit-wall, but McLaren always lets its drivers race, and rightly so. After all, our drivers are both super-experienced professionals and they know exactly what they're doing. Equally, we may be a very serious and focused organization, but we should never forget that we're also in the entertainment business. Talking of entertainment, we were happy to allow Fernando to make an extra pit-stop and take on a new set of Supersoft tires just before the end of the race, the result of which was that he was able to record the afternoon's fastest lap – the 22nd of his Formula 1 career. Next we go to Singapore, a diametrically different kind of racetrack. We're always aware of the danger of over-promising, so I won't do so; but it's likely that the twisty streets of Marina Bay will suit our car rather better than the wide-open curves and flat-out straights of the Autodromo di Monza have this afternoon. We'll be gunning for points, make no mistake about that."

Yusuke Hasegawa, Honda: "As we expected, this was a difficult race. We definitely saw improvement and stability in race pace from our qualifying, although we still weren't able to challenge the teams ahead of us. It was unfortunate that we couldn't finish in the points today, but we showed potential to do so. Both the drivers and the team did a great job, and I think we had a good race at a tough circuit, so I'm not unhappy. We're already looking forward to the next race where we hope we can have a better result."

Manor GP-Mercedes

Esteban Ocon (18th): "The objective was to take the checkered flag, but in a much stronger position. It was a long, tough Grand Prix from where I started. We were on the Medium tire for a very long stint – 32 laps – and none of the opportunities that we hoped might change the face of the race happened. At the end, on the Soft tire, we were really on the limit. So it's good to finish, especially after the problem for Pascal's car. That's two race distances with a lot of learnings about the tires and managing races, but now I'm ready to use that experience to fight for something more. I think we were capable of much better here, so it's a shame. The last two races have had their difficulties, but they were also my first two races in Formula 1. I achieved my dream in Spa, after a long road to get here, and when things did go our way this weekend, we saw that the car is improving, same for me. I'm disappointed today, but I'm looking forward to better things in the seven remaining races. It will come good for me soon."

Pascal Wehrlein (DNF, Oil Pressure): "Pretty disappointed, of course. When I heard my engineer telling me to "Stop the car. Stop the car", I couldn't believe it. I had to check what I was hearing. Of course, it was for good reason, to protect the car, so I knew what I had to do – I just didn't want to believe it, I guess. The team is making really positive steps with the car, though the positive signs must make today's retirement all the more tough to take. Splitting two McLarens in qualifying, the expectation that you can fight for Q2, if not higher, and fending off the competition in qualifying and in the race. Today's situation is difficult to take, knowing what is possible from the car and having pushed so hard all weekend again. But I know the team will want to sort the problems out as quickly as possible; it's disappointing for everyone and we can't afford for a good result to get away from us again if we are to protect our position in the championship. We'll come back fighting in Singapore, a race I'm really excited about. I hope we can make it happen for us there."

Dave Ryan, Racing Director: "A tough day at the races, and not one we want to repeat any time soon. We came to Monza with high expectations and as demonstrated by Pascal's qualifying performance it's fair to say that this was justified. However, we were let down by reliability on both cars at various times over the event and as a result suffered the consequences. Both Pascal and Esteban have been brilliant all weekend and are obviously frustrated that we have let an opportunity pass us by, but at the same time they appreciate it is a team sport, collectively we are Manor Racing, and on that basis we move on, lessons learned and looking forward to the next race in Singapore."

Haas-Ferrari

Romain Grosjean (11th): "To be fair, I think we were just lacking a little bit of speed in the race to make the points. We tried a very aggressive one-stop strategy. I had a bit of graining on the softs in the first stint through those last few laps. That cost us a few seconds, but I don't think I could have gotten the 12 seconds needed to get to P10 in the end. That was about the maximum today. We just need to learn what we can do better for the next race. I'm now looking ahead to Singapore. It's one of the best races of the season."

Esteban Gutierrez (13th): "It was a very disappointing start to the race losing a lot of positions. It was very tough to recover, but I did my best. I struggled in the first stint with the overall pace, starting with the scrubbed tires from qualifying and fighting with people which were on new tires. It wasn't very easy, but we kept ourselves together and pushed really hard to recover everything we could, but what we lost in the beginning was too much to get back to where we started. Now we'll look ahead to Singapore and we'll be focusing on that to come back stronger."

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: "Here we go again with an 11th- and a 13th-place finish. I think once we got going, it was a pretty good race. If you take off the first 20 seconds of it, we could have been in a different position with Esteban. He missed the start, and that put him back, but he recovered to finish 13th. Romain came from 17th to 11th with a good strategy and good driving and, overall, it was a good effort. Unfortunately, none of the big boys dropped out, so we ended up 11th again. We showed that we have some speed at this kind of track. Hopefully, we can bring that forward to some of the upcoming tracks we visit. Being ahead and fighting with McLaren is something we can be proud of. McLaren is a team that's been around a long time, and we're the newcomers. Fighting with them and racing with drivers of the caliber of Button and Alonso makes us proud. But, we still haven't got any points from today."

Results

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/BEHIND
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	53	1:17:28.089
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	53	+15.070s
3	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	53	+20.990s
4	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	53	+27.561s
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	53	+45.295s
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Mercedes	53	+51.015s
7	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	53	+54.236s
8	11	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	53	+64.954s
9	19	Felipe Massa	Williams Mercedes	53	+65.617s
10	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India Mercedes	53	+78.656s
11	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	52	+1 lap
12	22	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda	52	+1 lap
13	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas Ferrari	52	+1 lap
14	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda	52	+1 lap
15	55	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso Ferrari	52	+1 lap
16	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	52	+1 lap
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	52	+1 lap
18	31	Esteban Ocon	MRT Mercedes	51	+2 laps
NC	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso Ferrari	36	DNF
NC	94	Pascal Wehrlein	MRT Mercedes	26	DNF
NC	30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	7	DNF
NC	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber Ferrari	6	DNF

Fastest lap Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 25.340s