Sebastian notched up his eighth win of 2011 last Sunday in Monza, but for teammate Mark Webber, his race was cut short after a collision with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa early in the race.
Vettel who battled early with local Ferrari hero Fernando Alonso in a thrilling battle finally overtook the Spainiard on Lap 5 and dominated the remaining of the race to run out a winner by 9.5 seconds over McLaren driver Jenson Button who had his own battle with Alonso who had to settle for 3rd place.
It was an emotional Sebastian Vettel who took the podium and the winner’s trophy at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, having repeated his 2008 feat with margin to spare.
“It was an emotional win today. " said Vettel after the race.
"This circuit means such a lot to me and is very special. I had my first win here, so when I crossed the line I remembered every single bit of it. The podium is absolutely unbelievable here; when you stand up there you feel blessed, as it doesn’t happen to many people. There are so many people underneath and you can see them all coming, even from Curva Grande – it’s just unbelievable."
"This circuit has been tough for us for the last two years and so… to come back this year and win! The car was amazing in qualifying yesterday and in the race today it was even better."
"The start was not that good, Fernando was suddenly there and I didn’t know where he was coming from – it took me a while to see we were three going into Turn 1. I kept second place and then after the restart, I was able to pass Alonso. He didn’t give me much room there, but it was just enough, so it was very enjoyable. It was a great race for us. As it’s 150 years for Italian Unity also, I think it makes it special for everyone here, so thank you to all the fans.”
Vettel crossed the line in a time of 1:20.46.172 for our first-ever Italian win, while Webber's afternoon finished on only lap 6.
Trying to overtake the Ferrari of Felipe Massa, he collided with the Brazilian at Turn 1 effectively ending his race when he was unable to make it back to the pits to change a damaged nose.
“I didn't get the best start, me and Jenson were together, so I lost a few spots there. I think also Sebastian didn’t either, so there were a few different starts going on. Fernando made a phenomenal one." said Webber
"Then there was the restart after the safety car; I got a good one that time and managed to pass Jenson straight away. Then, on the next lap, I was lining up Felipe, breaking around the outside for turn 1, trying to get the inside line for turn two. I probably wasn't quite far enough to get completely inside, but when I tried to come out of the move the kerbing on the inside is obviously pretty high; as soon as I touched that I unfortunately made contact with Felipe and that was that. I then tried to get back to the pits, trying to lose the minimum time possible, the car wasn't too bad for the first part of the lap, but at some stage the wing got caught underneath, so I couldn’t turn the car or brake. I went straight out of Parabolica and that was the end of my race.”
Significantly, it was the first DNF from either of the two Red Bull Racing drivers this season.
There was also chaos on the opening lap when Vitantonio Liuzzi sailed sideways through the pack hitting several drivers including Rosberg and Petrov. All were unhurt but out of race.
For Liuzzi's teammate Australian Daniel Ricciardo, in the fifth race of his career, things did also not go too well. His HRT car stalled on the grid and mechanics pushed the car back to the garage. It took about 18 minutes for the mechanics to repair the car before Ricciardo could rejoin the race. Ricciardo battled valiantly and crossed the finish line 14 laps behind the race winner, which prevented him from being acknowledge in the race results managed to see a positive side to the poor result.
“The race started as bad as it could, for some reason the car went into anti-stall, jammed in third gear and then the engine switched off. I couldn’t get restarted and had to get the car back into the box. The mechanics got it going again and I was back on track but the engine temperature rose and they called me back to check it and it took us a few more minutes until we could rejoin the race." said Ricciardo
"I went straight into a bit of traffic which made it hard to get a bit of rhythm. But at least in the second stint at the end of the race I was able to get in quite a few good laps and we got some data out of that. A little bit is better than nothing but I need to keep pushing for a better result in Singapore”.
The race result sees Sebastian extend his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship to 112 points from Fernando Alonso, with Mark Webber third.
Crossing the line behind Seb to complete the top 10 were Button, Alonso, Hamilton, Schumacher, Massa, Alguersuari, di Resta, Senna and Sébastien Buemi.
Race Results - Italian Grand Prix 2011
1st Sebastian Vettel 1hr20:46.172
2nd Jenson Button +9.5 secs
3rd Fernando Alonso +16.9 secs
4th Lewis Hamilton +17.4 secs
5th Michael Schumacher +32.6 secs
6th Felipe Massa 42.9 secs
7th Jaime Alguersuari +1 Lap
8th Paul di Resta +1 Lap
9th Bruno Senna +1 Lap
10th Sebastien Buemi +1 Lap
