McLaren leaves Monza disappointed

The McLaren MP4-29 were among the outsiders at the start of the Monza race yesterday. With a third row made up entirely of Woking single-seaters, hopes were high for Ron Dennis and Eric Boullier. Despite an excellent start to Kevin Magnussen, who took advantage of the missed flights of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and especially Valtteri Bottas (Williams) to place 2nd behind Nico Rosberg's Mercedes after the first chicane, the pace in the race was not enough to do better than an 8th place for Jenson Button.  “It wasn’t the result I expected, but the race was still fun, indicates the 2009 World Champion It’s just a shame that we didn’t have the right pace in the race. When you start fifth and sixth, you're not looking for just points, you want a little more than that. If we had had clear stints, I think we could have done a little better but, in traffic, it was easier for the cars around us to pass us than the other way around. »

Despite everything, the McLarens offered the public some great battles in the peloton. “I had an incredible battle with Checo Pérez. We took the first Lesmo wheel to wheel, which doesn't happen very often. It's a shame not to have been able to pass him, he was very strong when braking. I was really at the limit. »

Kevin Magnussen did not want to be satisfied with the small point scored after his penalty for forcing Valtteri Bottas to go off-track during the first braking during the race. “Obviously it was nice to be at the front for a while, and disappointing that we couldn't stay there, but like I say, I knew it wouldn't last. It’s also frustrating to have another penalty. We'll analyze and see what we can learn and see if we can do something different next time. »

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