Race quotes: STR, Renault, Sauber, McLaren

Fernando Alonso and Jolyon Palmer were involved in another ding-dong battle, both McLaren cars retired and Pascal Wehrlein was last of the finishers.

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat: “A bit of a complicated race. Our battle today was with Haas and Renault; nobody else was really in reach here, especially the Mercedes-powered teams. I managed to get past Hulkenberg, but after that I was stuck behind Magnussen for quite a long time… It’s really hard to follow other cars! I kept trying to get past him but he had clean air in front of him, so it was not possible… This is all we could do today and it’s now time to start thinking about Singapore, a track that suits us better. Once this said, it will still be a difficult fight to end up in the points!”.

Carlos Sainz: “Not where we wanted to finish, but today we struggled simply because we don’t have a good package to go racing here in Monza… It’s not just about lacking a bit of power but, because of that, we needed to take out a lot of downforce, which meant that in the corners we were very slow and on the straights we were only okay, but not fast enough. We just didn’t have the pace to score any points here – it’s a shame, because this means that I break a statistic that I liked this year: I can’t say that I’ve finished in the points every time I’ve finished a race any more. It was always going to be a very tough weekend, but now we move onto Singapore, where we should be more competitive and I look forward to fighting for points again!”

Renault

Nico Hulkenberg: “Unfortunately we weren’t able to make into the points here today as the race was a bit of a struggle. As we had anticipated, we lost out on top speed, meaning we couldn’t fight with the cars ahead. I was also struggling with the balance, so overall it was a tough race. That said, I don’t think we need to go crazy over today’s performance. We need to look ahead to Singapore and focus on the next Grand Prix.”

Jolyon Palmer: “Our strategy was promising and I was quite enjoying working up the order today. It wasn’t going to be our strongest race, but there was potential for a decent finish. Sadly, we had a transmission component failure which led to a precautionary stop. It’s a shame because I think the pace was looking quite strong with the Supersofts in the end.”

Sauber

Pascal Wehrlein: “I did my best today. We knew that this race would be difficult for us, but the whole team did a good job throughout the weekend. I am looking forward to Singapore now – it is a race that I particularly like and I hope that we will be more competitive there.”

Marcus Ericsson: “It was a good start to the race from the middle of the grid. I had some good fights, but when the race settled we struggled to keep up with the competitors in front. We knew that this type of track would be difficult for us. I picked up some damage at the beginning of the race. It was quite difficult to drive the car like that – so it was not the best race for me. We need to focus and come back stronger in Singapore in two weeks.”

McLaren

Fernando Alonso:

“Our bosses were here today and, unfortunately, we could not deliver a good result. It’s very disappointing to have a double DNF. I had problems with upshifting from the very early stages of the race, which at some points was costing me a lot of time – almost a second a lap. We tried to fix the issue by changing some settings, but the shifting never worked as it should have, and it hampered my race. Starting from the back of the grid was never going to be easy here. We made up a few places during the race, but there was little chance we could make it into the points today. Now we are looking forward to Singapore, which is a more suitable track for us.”

Stoffel Vandoorne: “We only knew on the lap that I retired that there was any sign of a problem, as I lost power. It’s a similar issue to yesterday, and it’s a shame because we changed the engine overnight for a brand new one today. To have another problem in a race which was going very well is obviously frustrating. Hopefully it will be better in Singapore. It’s pretty difficult to draw positives from a weekend like this. From my side, it had actually been a really positive weekend in terms of my driving and the performance I’ve put in – it’s been very strong. The last few races have been very strong for me, in fact. It’s just such a shame to finish with another retirement, and not have any reward for all of that. And we’ve had another issue today, but we have to move on. I guess it’s possible I’ll have another grid drop in Singapore, although we don’t yet know exactly what the issue was today, despite it looking like a similar problem. We’ll have to wait and see.”