Overall it was a tricky weekend in Monza both in qualifying and the race. In terms of position, we got the most out of today, there was a bad pit stop and we were also running down on power for most of the race but we just tried to do our own race. We could’ve executed a better strategy but in hindsight the two-stop was not optimal so it ended up being damage limitation until the end. There is a lot to analyse from this weekend. This is just how racing goes sometimes, we need to put our heads down and work as hard as we can to get back to where we want to be. I’ve given a lot of feedback on the car, so in the next two weeks before Baku we need to focus on turning things around and fixing some of the issues we’ve identified over the past few weekends.

Since lap one of FP1 this weekend has been tricky and unfortunately, we just never got there. In the beginning today the balance was looking better on the hard and we were able to look after the tyre, but very early on we started to struggle with degradation, and it became hard to manage. On the final stint on the mediums, we did a long stint, and given the pace on that tyre, it was quite difficult to maximise things. My fight with George was just on the limit and we had a nice battle but the tyre wouldn’t work for us. We struggled with pace but more than that it was the balance, so we must work to pull it all together a bit more, between low speed and high speed. I am very confident the Team here at track and back at home have the solution, we have produced great cars in the past and there is no reason why we cannot get back on track. We have no questions now, we know the problem. Given it is all related to balance, if we can find a fix then we can switch it around but for now, it’s head down until we find the answer.

Ultimately, we weren’t quick enough today, even without the penalties. We tried, and I was enjoying the wheel-to-wheel racing at the start, but I made contact with Nico in turn eight. I spoke to him after the race, I thought we had space, but felt the contact so didn’t give him enough room, and I apologised. It’s tough as you race hard but the smallest margins make a difference. The car felt ok after, and we pushed as hard as we could with what we had. I was trying to get the maximum out of the car from Friday afternoon to today. Personally, I feel a lot better this weekend, and we were close to scoring points.

I’m pretty frustrated today, it’s a shame as my race finished a few laps after the start due to a contact with Nico (Hulkenberg). I tried to leave as much space as possible, but it seemed he locked up, causing him to lose control and crash into me. Unfortunately, we had to retire the car as we got some damage on the floor. I felt it straight away and tried to continue, but the car was sliding around and I simply wasn’t able to drive it. We have Baku and Singapore next, our car should perform well there, so hopefully we’ll have good weekends ahead.