Mercedes AMG Petronas drivers, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, finished the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in sixth and ninth places Sunday.  Nico finished 6th after running a one-stop strategy (option/prime) and pitting on lap 26.  During that stop, the team delivered the race’s fastest pit lane time of 24.079 seconds.

Unfortunately, Lewis suffered a slow right-front puncture on his first set of prime tires that forced him to make an early stop on lap 13, forcing the team  to convert to a two-stop strategy with Lewis pitting again on lap 38 – fitting options each time. On the charging drive that followed, Hamilton set the fastest lap of the race in 1:25.849 on lap 51 on his way to finish 9th.  His afternoon was further complicated by a total radio failure that meant he relied on his pit board for communication

A tough afternoon saw the team drop to P3 in the Constructors’ Championship, three points behind Ferrari

Nico Rosberg

This hasn’t been one of our best weekends and it feels like everything was a little compromised from the outset. It’s a real shame as the pace of the car looked really good in the race but we weren’t able to take full advantage because of the issues from yesterday. It’s so important here to feel comfortable with the set-up and I wasn’t able to get the car as I wanted after losing the time in third practice. I tried everything to overtake Nico for the extra place today but he was very quick at the end and it didn’t work out. Now we’ll look forward to Singapore in a couple of weeks. I love street circuits so hopefully that will be a better weekend for us.

Lewis Hamilton

That was a difficult weekend for me but these things happen and you have to say that it’s been a good year so far. I gave it my all out there today; the pace of the car was great but unfortunately we paid the price for not qualifying far enough up the field. My radio failed right at the start of the race and it’s really tough when that happens as you rely on the advice and information from the team to manage your race. I didn’t even know about the slow puncture until after the race so now it makes more sense why we had to make the extra stop. I did have some fun this afternoon, particularly fighting with Kimi. It’s just tough fighting so far down the field when our car was clearly really quick. We’ll keep pushing together as a team and I know that we’ll bounce back for Singapore. We’ll be giving it everything to make up for this weekend with a stronger performance there

Ross Brawn

In the end, that was a frustrating race because we had a very quick car today. We can never be certain what Vettel’s ultimate pace could have been at the front of the field but we saw Fernando and Mark fighting hard for second place and our drivers were matching their pace all the time. Lewis’ slow puncture in his first stint obviously compromised his strategy by forcing us to make two stops. But he drove a fantastic fighting race, complicated by the radio failure, and got everything out of the car this afternoon to climb back to P9. With Nico, we have the frustration that he found himself stuck behind a slower car in terms of lap time that was too quick at the critical parts of the lap to be able to overtake. It’s a disappointing result and this weekend reminds us that we need to be on top of our game at all times if we want to maximise our potential. But this afternoon also suggested that we have a competitive car.

Toto Wolff

Our afternoon was compromised by our starting positions, which resulted from yesterday’s problems, and further difficulties in the race. Nico found himself stuck behind the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and although we were quicker over the lap, we didn’t have the speed to make a pass when it counted. Lewis’ slow puncture forced him to make an extra pit stop. After that, he showed everybody just how quick the car was and that gave a glimpse of what might have been this afternoon. But we can’t take comfort from what might have been. The result was P6 and P9, well beneath the standards we set ourselves. We now need to focus on delivering on the car’s potential in the next races.

A week ago at Spa, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso were all taken out at Turn One. This time around, at Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza, all three were on the podium after a thrilling Formula 1 Gran Premio Santander d’Italia 2012.

As for the Mercedes AMG Petronas team, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg opted for a two stop strategy and finished respectively in sixth and seventh places.

• Michael completed a two-stop strategy, running option/prime/prime, and stopping on laps 15 and 37
• Nico also stopped twice today, running option/prime/prime, and stopping on laps 14 and 38
• Fastest lap for Nico, on the final lap, was the fourth of his career and second of the season
• Sixth win in 13 races for Mercedes-Benz power, and third in a row, with four engines in the top ten

Michael Schumacher

It was a fun race today – although I must admit that, following our performance on Friday, I had secretly hoped we would be able to move up the field. But we had a tricky first stint. After that, everything went really well, we were on the pace and I think we showed a clear upwards trend today. I kind of ran out of laps this afternoon and, if the race had been a bit longer, I’d have been able to battle even further forward. Overall, though, we got everything out of it today. Now we need to keep this trend going – and everybody in the team is working hard on it.

Nico Rosberg

Seventh place is an improvement on my recent finishes so I’m satisfied with that today, although there may have been potential for more. I had no grip on my option tyres in the first stint, which were the same set that gave me problems in Q3. After the first stop, I had very good pace and was able to set a few fastest race laps and move up the field with some nice overtakes. It’s nice to have had a better finish to a race weekend and I’m looking forward to more of the same in Singapore in a couple of weeks.

Ross Brawn

Both our drivers put in strong, aggressive and controlled performances today. We knew that a one-stop strategy was not feasible for us this afternoon, so we went into the race planning to make two stops and knew the drivers would have to race hard to make it work against other cars who were one-stopping. The disappointment today was that both drivers really struggled on their first set of tyres – perhaps because of how we used them in qualifying, running more than one timed lap in Q3, or perhaps another factor, which is something we will have to analyse. We lost all our time in this phase of the race but, thereafter, the performance of both cars looked good. Nico’s fastest lap shows that our level of performance today was reasonable and both he and Michael were consistently among the fastest in the second half of the race. Sixth and seventh places are far from perfect but we can be positive about an exciting race, running the right strategy for our current situation and two great drives from Michael and Nico.

Norbert Haug

Fighting drives from Michael and Nico this afternoon with lots of nice overtaking moves. We didn’t have great pace in the opening stint, running the option tyres we had used in qualifying like everybody in the top ten, but it looked much better after the first stops. Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton and McLaren Mercedes on three wins in a row – two for Lewis, one for Jenson Button. Our Mercedes engine has taken six wins from 13 races this season, including one for our Silver Arrows team in China. After scoring the most points of any engine in 2009, 2010 and 2011, this confirms the Mercedes V8 as the most successful power plant so far in 2012 as well.