Strategy saves Red Bull

With Valtteri Bottas, the Australian Daniel Ricciardo will have one of the drivers who most animated the peloton of the Italian Grand Prix on the Monza track this Sunday. The third in the Championship took advantage of his fresher tires at the end of the race to make a final comeback and pass his teammate Sebastian Vettel for 5rd place.

“The strategy really helped today. I was able to keep the tires fresh enough to benefit from those few extra laps at the end, says Ricciardo. Staying on track during the first stint when the others stopped and I had a decent pace allowed me to come back towards the end of the race. I was more comfortable with the hard tire and I was able to do some good overtaking (notably on Pérez and Vettel, in two similar maneuvers at the start of the second chicane, Editor’s note.), which kept me smiling. The start wasn't ideal, it's one of the longest areas between start and first braking and it's not a place where you want to have a bad takeoff, but I let out the clutch and I didn't get the traction I wanted. We will have to look at that. »

For his part, quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel recognized that beating the McLaren was all that was possible to obtain.

Find the report of the Italian Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents in Monza, in issue 1977 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow evening in digital version and from next Wednesday on newsstands.