Vasseur: The tyres on Leclerc's car were overheating.

      Before the start of the Italian Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton mentioned that one of Ferrari’s tasks was to hold onto second place in the Constructors’ Championship, and Scuderia succeeded in this, scoring more points today than Mercedes. Charles Leclerc finished fourth, Lewis Hamilton sixth.

      “Of course, we were aiming for that, but our goal was also to get onto the podium,” commented Frédéric Vasseur, head of the Italian team, after the finish. “Charles drove a confident race, fought well in the opening laps, but the tyres on our car began to overheat. At the same time we weren’t that far off McLaren, but Max was just flying around the track, and you can congratulate him.

      Lewis started from 10th because of a penalty, but he was able to claw his way back — he did the first stint of the race in a very aggressive manner. Towards the end of the race we tried to take advantage of the benefit of having fresher tyres than those on George Russell’s Mercedes, but tyre degradation at this track is too low.

      He drove very well, and I’m very happy for him, because he had a difficult period in July, but now he’s showing good pace again. Overall this weekend went pretty well for him, he’s in a good mood, has the right approach to things, and I think this will help him in the remaining races of the season.”