Wolff delighted with team's showing

Lewis Hamilton the race at Monza and Brackley team-mate Valtteri Bottas was third.

Team principal Wolff said: “Missing out on starting from the front of the grid was disappointing on Saturday but the points are scored on Sunday and it was our time to shine.

“It shows that the racing happens on Sunday, I am very proud of the work the team has done, all the engine guys and the chassis, from Spa to Monza.

“We have understood the car better, we have understood the tyres better. We have added some performance and even if Saturday didn’t show it because we couldn’t qualify on pole, I felt that we’ve done some good work over the last couple of days.

“I would have said that even if we hadn’t won. Nevertheless, we didn’t have the quickest car on Saturday, but on Sunday we did.

“We had a reliable car, we had a car that was good on the tyres. There was no blistering on our tyres, as there was on the Ferrari, and brilliant execution from both drivers and the team.”

Bottas lost a position at the start to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and the team had to do something different to get him ahead. They opted to keep him out for a long first stint, which put the Finn into the lead and also aided Hamilton’s charge to close down the gap to Kimi Räikkönen.

Wolff explained: “Valtteri’s strategy not only worked for Lewis, keeping Kimi behind, but it also worked for Valtteri. We needed to keep him out long to create the largest possible tyre offset at the end of the race, it was his best shot for the podium.”

The Brackley team now as a 25-point advantage in the constructors’ championship while Hamilton leads the drivers’ standings by 30 points from Sebastian Vettel.