Sauber believes first F1 win is just a small step away after second place at Monza

Sergio Perez delivered his third top-three finish of the season at Monza, with a strong charge to second place behind Lewis Hamilton.

And although the team was delighted with that result, it was another afternoon where Sauber came within a few seconds of pulling off its first win as a fully-independent team.

Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn thinks that the outfit will not need luck to lift itself one place higher.

"This race has told us that there is only a tiny bit missing and we can be there," she told AUTOSPORT. "The best part is that we are so often showing strong pace now - it has not just been one race - so really we think on our own merit we can get there."

Perez's performance at Monza came just a week after Sauber suffered huge disappointment in Belgium when both its cars were eliminated in a first corner pile-up after starting from the front two rows of the grid.

Kaltenborn said the Italian GP performance provided some tonic for what happened at Spa, especially because the team had not expected to be so competitive at Monza.

"After Spa, you try and forget what happened but it is somewhere in the back of your mind and then of course, coming here, we knew that this track is not really ideal for our car so it would be tough to get points.

"It was so important that we get points after what we lost in Spa. Friday looked pretty alright but qualifying was not out of this world.

"But we knew with the positions that we had we could go for points. But that it would become a podium we did not expect."