e5854588082a350c5bd23ca3497d621a1ee57a62

Brawn: Monza was F1 at its best

14:05, 04 Sep 2018

byBobby Vincent

Formula One's managing director Ross Brawn says that the fight between Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix was "the best of Formula One".

Raikkonen started the race at Monza in pole position, with Sebastian Vettel behind him and Lewis Hamilton in third place.

The day started disastrously for Vettel, who crashed with his rival Hamilton, leaving him in P15 and then it was Kimi vs Lewis.

Lewis eventually defeated Kimi, with the help of his team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who was holding the Finnish driver up as much as he could so Hamilton could overtake him.

"Events at the Monza circuit this weekend were a great advertisement for Formula 1," Brawn told Crash.net. "Sunday's race was very exciting and closely fought with the winner only emerging once Lewis Hamilton had passed Kimi Raikkonen for a final time.

"The duel between Lewis and Kimi in Monza showed Formula One at its best, highlighting the talent of the drivers, the performance of the cars, tyre management and team-work between the drivers.

"During the weekend, the advantage swung back and forth between the two top teams. On Saturday, Ferrari had the upper hand, but Hamilton was there to huunt them down, forcing his way past one of them on the opening lap and the other towards the end.

"It was a great way to bring the curtain down on the European season and hopefully we will enjoy similarly spectacular races in the final third of the championship, as we tackle seven races on three continents in less than three months."