Red Bull’s mission in Monza was ‘damage limitation’ as the team from Milton Keynes struggled to deal with the straight line speed of Mercedes and Red Bull.
Daniel Ricciardo finished behind Kimi Raikkonen in fifth whilst Max Verstappen had to settle for seventh.
“You hope for a podium every race but realistically, coming here, we thought Ferrari would have an edge on us,” said the Australian.
The highlight of the race was the 26-year-old’s breath-taking manoeuvre on Valtteri Bottas:
“I was pretty close to Bottas in the middle of the race and knew I could race hard from that position. It was a really enjoyable overtake. I have a three-hour drive home tonight and didn’t want to spend the whole journey regretting not trying it.”
Max Verstappen struggled to get off the line but the teenager managed to end up in the points:” I went into anti-stall at the start. I don’t know what happened there so I have to analyse that. After that it was just very difficult, because you have to push harder on the tyres to get past people and that compromises your strategy, but in the end our last stint was very positive.”
Team Principal Christian Horner was satisfied with his drivers’ performance and entering the second half of the season second in the drivers’ championship: “After a difficult start for Max, who got an anti-stall, he recovered extremely well to finish seventh, and Daniel finished well in P5 after an outstanding passing move on Valtteri Bottas. To be leaving Europe 11 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship heading to circuits that hopefully suit our strengths more than here, means this has been a positive weekend.”
Dominic Rust @DominicRust