Alonso dominates the Italian GP
Fernando Alonso reduced Lewis Hamilton's world championship lead to three points by taking a dominant victory in the Italian Grand Prix
But Hamilton prevented his teammate from making further inroads by putting a bold pass on Kimi Raikkonen for second place after the Ferrari had got between the McLarens during the pit stops.
Raikkonen's third place leaves him 18 points adrift of Hamilton with four rounds to go, and with Felipe Massa retiring early with his first mechanical failure of the year, Ferrari's title hopes look increasingly distant.
While Alonso calmly led away at the start, Hamilton lost ground off the grid and was passed by Massa. The Briton went around the outside of the Ferrari into the first chicane, making slight wheel to wheel contact and cutting the apex of the left-hander in the process. The officials decided not to penalise Hamilton, who resisted Massa's vigorous attempts to regain second further around the opening lap.
The safety car then emerged for five laps after David Coulthard's front wing - weakened in contact with Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault - collapsed in the middle of the Curva Grande and sent the Red Bull into the barriers at high speed. Coulthard was unhurt in the accident.
After the restart Hamilton was able to get away from Massa, who retired soon afterwards after reporting a mechanical problem with the rear of his Ferrari.
Hamilton stayed close to Alonso through the first stint, but pitted two laps sooner, allowing Alonso to establish a more comfortable lead in the middle of the race.
While McLaren had opted for a two-stop strategy, Raikkonen was only pitting once, and he was able to lead after the McLarens' stops.
He then maintained a sufficiently fast pace in his heavy Ferrari to keep McLaren under pressure, and when Hamilton made his final stop on lap 40, he rejoined behind Raikkonen in third place.
With Alonso far enough ahead to retain his lead even after his stop, it looked like Hamilton's championship lead might dwindle to a single point.
But just as Alonso was making his final pit visit, Hamilton was diving down the inside of Raikkonen into the first chicane and retaking second place. He then accelerated away to complete a commanding McLaren one-two.
BMW took fourth and fifth with Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, despite the Pole losing a lot of time when his car fell from its jacks at his first pitstop. He finally reclaimed fifth place by driving around the outside of Nico Rosberg at the first chicane in the closing stages.
Rosberg beat the two-stopping Heikki Kovalainen and fellow one-stopper Jenson Button to sixth. The German and the Briton had engaged in a spirited battle in the opening stint, running absolutely side by side through the first chicane before Rosberg secured the position with an outside line dive at the Roggia.
Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello completed the top ten, ahead of the slow-starting Jarno Trulli.
PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS The Italian Grand Prix Autodromo di Monza, Italy; 53 laps; 306.720km; Weather: Sunny. Classified: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Alonso McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1h18:37.806 2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 6.062 3. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 27.325 4. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 56.562 5. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 1:00.558 6. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 1:05.810 7. Kovalainen Renault (B) + 1:06.751 8. Button Honda (B) + 1:12.168 9. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1:15.879 10. Barrichello Honda (B) + 1:16.958 11. Trulli Toyota (B) + 1:17.736 12. Fisichella Renault (B) + 1 lap 13. Wurz Williams-Toyota (B) + 1 lap 14. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) + 1 lap 15. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) + 1 lap 16. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) + 1 lap 17. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap 18. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap 19. Sutil Spyker-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap 20. Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:22.871 Not classified/retirements: Driver Team On lap Massa Ferrari (B) 11 Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 3 World Championship standings, round 13: Drivers: Constructors: 1. Hamilton 92 1. McLaren-Mercedes 166 2. Alonso 89 2. Ferrari 143 3. Raikkonen 74 3. BMW Sauber 86 4. Massa 69 4. Renault 38 5. Heidfeld 52 5. Williams-Toyota 25 6. Kubica 33 6. Red Bull-Renault 16 7. Kovalainen 21 7. Toyota 12 8. Fisichella 17 8. Super Aguri-Honda 4 9. Wurz 13 9. Honda 2 10. Rosberg 12 11. Webber 8 12. Coulthard 8 13. Trulli 7 14. R.Schumacher 5 15. Sato 4 16. Button 2 17. Vettel 1 All timing unofficial
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments