It was all over before the first corner for Brendon Hartley at the 2018 Italian Grand Prix. The Kiwi driver was caught between a ‘Sauber-McLaren’ sandwich soon after the start ending his race day.
“I was really looking forward to my first Monza GP,” commented Hartley. “I felt very strong all weekend and was very close to Pierre in Qualifying – even if that meant starting a few positions lower on the grid – I was confident of having a strong race.
“Unfortunately, right after the start, Ericsson (Sauber) moved a little bit to the left trying to pass me. It wasn’t that aggressive what he did, but it was enough to put an end to my day before Turn 1. It’s been a great race to watch from the outside, but of course I would have preferred to be on track and finish the race.”
Hartley’s Scuderia Toro Rosso team mate Pierre Gasly had a superb qualifying on Saturday but a quite different race, finishing down in 15th.
“Today was clearly not the day we wanted,” said Gasly. “At the beginning of the race, I was blocked in Turn 1 and 2 and lost a couple of places. Very soon I had an incident with Fernando and my floor got damaged on the right side, after that I had another collision with Daniel which compromised the rear.
“In these conditions, the car was sliding everywhere and the race was pretty much over for me, it was very difficult to go to the end. We knew it would have been a difficult race for us but the damage to the car made it even trickier, I did the maximum I could but we lost the pace shown during the weekend. I just need to forget about it and start focusing on Singapore, which is a track where we normally can do very well.”
Race results
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 53 1h16m54.484s
2 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 53 8.705s
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 53 14.066s
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 53 16.151s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 53 18.208s
6 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 53 56.320s
7 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 53 57.761s
8 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 53 58.678s
9 Carlos Sainz Renault 53 1m18.140s
10 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 52 1 Lap
11 Sergey Sirotkin Williams/Mercedes 52 1 Lap
12 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 52 1 Lap
13 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 52 1 Lap
14 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 52 1 Lap
15 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 52 1 Lap
16 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 52 1 Lap
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 52 1 Lap
– Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 23 Clutch
– Fernando Alonso McLaren/Renault 9 Electrical
– Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 0 Collision
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