Sebastian Vettel says his ability to pressure Lewis Hamilton throughout the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend at a circuit which plays to the strengths of Mercedes gives Scuderia Ferrari renewed belief to fight its manufacturer rival at its home race. The German driver adds that he and the Maranello team learnt key things from chasing Hamilton at Spa which he hopes to exploit on the Italian manufacturer’s home soil for a first win at Monza since Fernando Alonso’s triumph in 2010:
“I stayed with Hamilton the whole race [in Spa], I was battling the whole race with him, maybe not wheel to wheel, but it was really close and intense from a driving point of view. But obviously he had the upper hand in the end so there can only be one on the top step of the podium. I think there are some things that I learned from Spa, that I think we learned as a team and I learned as a driver, things I would maybe do a bit differently, but at the time it felt like the right thing to do. With hindsight you are always a bit more clever. Here I think it’s a different track, generally it’s possible to overtake, so we will see where we are in the race. Going into this weekend, I think we need to be fair and say that the track layout suits Mercedes, but the performance that we showed last week gives us hope. We try to do our best.” – Sebastian Vettel explained.
Scuderia Ferrari Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen is expecting it to be a busy weekend for him and everyone within the Scuderia Ferrari team as they attack their home Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, in front of their beloved Tifosi fans. The Finn finished fourth last weekend at Spa-Francorchamps but remains determined to take his first victory since his return to Ferrari in 2014, and has finished inside the top five in each of the past four races, a run he wants to continue at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
Kimi insists it remains his goal to bring both championships to Scuderia Ferrari, feeling that the front of the field are where the Maranello-based team deserve to be: “It is our home Grand Prix and it’s great to be here with all our Tifosi supporting us. As every weekend we will try to fight for the win; hopefully we can give them a good result. It’s obviously quite a busy weekend but the atmosphere is great. In the next days the weather conditions are supposed to be a bit tricky. We’ll keep on doing 100%, the best that we can and then see where we end up. I am very happy to be part of the Ferrari team, we won a Drivers’ championship and two Constructors titles together and it’s been great. We are all here to get Ferrari back to where it belongs.” – Kimi Raikkonen said, as reported by the Italian media.
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