Alonso hails 'perfect' weekend in Italy

Alonso had topped most sessions during the weekend and, starting from pole position, took a dominant victory, the 19th of his career, to move just three points behind teammate Lewis Hamilton in the standings.

The Briton had no response to Alonso's pace today and had to settle for second place.

Alonso admitted the only worrying moment was the start, when Hamilton cut the chicane after making contact with Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

"A perfect weekend for me," said Alonso. "Sometimes everything seems to go in the right direction and you feel good. In Monza I always had problems here so to win here for the first time is very special."

"Everything was okay, maybe just the start was not fantastic. I looked in the mirror immediately and saw Massa behind me and for a moment I thought I would have to defend myself in the first corner.

"I braked late and in the second corner I saw Lewis on left part and I was a bit worried that maybe we could touch each other."

The two-time champion said the victory had been special, and not only because of McLaren's difficult weekend off the track.

"All the wins are special but in the last two or three year there are some circuits where I won more than one time or won one time," he said. "And here is one I never won before so I wanted to achieve that, try to get at least one win in all the circuits.

"So to win in Monza for the first time with all the people here, maybe they are Ferrari fans, but on top of that they are F1 fans and the people here love F1. It is great to win here."