The complete 2010 Italian GP review

PRACTICE

Practice 1 - Friday AM

As expected, it was a McLaren that led the way in the first session, as Jenson Button set the pace.

Less predictably, a Red Bull pushed him hard. Despite suggestions - largely from the team itself - that this would be the title-chasing squad's worst weekend of the year, Sebastian Vettel got off to a bright start with second, 0.097 seconds behind Button and ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the other McLaren.

Robert Kubica (Renault) and Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) completed the top five.

The session saw Toro Rosso become the latest to run an F-duct, although Sebastien Buemi only used the device for a few laps, as the team had anticipated on the system's debut.

In trouble early were Heikki Kovalainen, Jarno Trulli, Bruno Senna and Rubens Barrichello, who all had technical troubles that limited their running.

Practice 2 - Friday PM

Vettel went one better in the afternoon and set the pace, as Ferrari showed its hand too and moved up from its low top 10 places from the morning to take second and third.

The McLarens were next up. Hamilton experimented with running without the F-duct, but felt there was little difference in lap time with or without the device. The lap times backed him up - Button was just 0.056s slower with the system still fitted.

Mark Webber stopped with a water pressure issue after 23 laps and was sixth. Jaime Alguersuari parked early too - while Hispania had a dismal session, as various gremlins meant Sakon Yamamoto and Bruno Senna completed only eight laps between them.

Saturday Practice

Hamilton kept the F-duct off for the weekend and started well by going fastest on Saturday morning.

Alonso had led the way going into the final minutes, but was pushed back to third as Hamilton and Vettel improved.

Massa had visited the Parabolica gravel on Friday and tried the Lesmo gravel this time, before taking fourth ahead of Button and Rosberg.

There were more issues for Webber - this time it was a small airbox fire that stranded him at the first chicane.

QUALIFYING

1. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 10-3

After ending Ferrari's pole drought, the Spaniard admitted he was surprised to be able to stay on top for once this year. Nonetheless, Alonso looked very strong right from the start of the weekend and he always looked like a candidate. As expected, the tifosi went crazy.

2. Jenson Button, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-8

The decision to use the F-duct for qualifying seemed to pay off handsomely for Button, who returned to the front row of the grid for the first time since last year's Turkish GP. Naturally, the Briton was very happy with his performance, despite missing out on a pole by a tenth.

3. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-10

Massa claimed he could have taken pole had it not been for the wrong tyre strategy, the Brazilian having to settle for a place on the second row. He was still pleased with his performance and was hopeful for a strong race given Ferrari's form.

4. Mark Webber, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-7

Although the Australian conceded the gap to the leading car was bigger than expected, he claimed his position was pretty much what he was anticipating. The best news for Webber was that he qualified both ahead of his team-mate Vettel and championship rival Hamilton.

5. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-5

Hamilton felt having opted to qualify without the F-duct was a mistake after he struggled to match the pace of the leading cars. Finishing over half a second behind team-mate Button, Hamilton was far from happy with his day, especially after finishing behind three of his championship rivals.

6. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-6

Vettel was baffled by his lack of speed in qualifying, especially compared to Friday, where he set the pace despite Red Bull expecting to struggle at Monza. As it was, that came on Saturday, and the German finished in his worst qualifying position since last year's Brazilian Grand Prix.

7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 11-2

Given the pace of the Mercedes, Rosberg believed he had extracted every last drop of performance to qualify in seventh place. The team was not expecting Monza to suit its car and it proved to be the case, so Rosberg's showing was again noteworthy.

8. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-8

Hulkenberg was in "harmony" during qualifying day, the German delighted with the performance of his Williams on his way to eighth. Understandably, the rookie was upbeat about his chances for Sunday's race.

9. Robert Kubica, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 12-1

Renault seemed to be unable to emulate the kind of performance it put on two weeks earlier at Spa, and Kubica admitted the best possible result would have been seventh place. But the fight with Rosberg and Williams was tight and the Pole had to settle for a place on the fifth row.

10. Rubens Barrichello, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-5

Unlike team-mate Hulkenberg, last year's winner at Monza was unable to find the right set-up for his car. Barrichello conceded he was hoping for a better position at one of his favourite tracks, but at least a top-10 start was a good omen for Sunday.

11. Adrian Sutil, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 11-2

Despite missing out on a top 10 slot at the track where he had started from the front row last year, Sutil was nonetheless encouraged by his performance. The Force India racer missed the Q3 cut by just a few hundredths of a second, and felt being able to start with fresh tyres from the clean side of the grid made up for that.

12. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-11

Schumacher said he had extracted the maximum from his car to qualify in 12th, the seven-time champion not completely happy with his car balance. He was over three tenths of a second slower than Rosberg in Q2, so he was understandably disappointed at the end of the day.

13. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-7

Another driver who claimed to have extracted the best from his car, Kobayashi was pleased with his day following another solid performance in qualifying. After a difficult Friday, the Sauber driver managed to turn things around and target another top 10 finish.

14. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 10-3

The Swiss driver was satisfied with his day's performance, as he felt he had extracted the maximum from the Toro Rosso package. He was left slightly frustrated to be outpaced by Kovalainen by such a small margin, but a points finish was still a possibility.

15. Vitaly Petrov, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-12

A difficult day for the Russian, with the Renault not proving as competitive as expected following a strong outing at Spa. Things got worse for Petrov after he impeded Glock when leaving the pits, something that cost him a five-place grid penalty.

16. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-10

After a bit of a struggle on Friday, Alguersuari was happier with his Toro Rosso car following some overnight changes. The Spaniard admitted he had finished more or less where he expected given the performance of his machine.

17. Pedro de la Rosa, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-6

The Spaniard was forced to use a Ferrari engine with plenty miles on it, and it didn't seem to be performing as strong as Kobayashi's. Apart from that, de la Rosa was not completely happy with the handling of the Sauber and thus finished some four tenths behind his team-mate.

18. Jarno Trulli, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-6

Lotus was upbeat about its performance in qualifying, with Trulli delighted with the way his car was working. The Italian again emerged as the top driver in one of the new teams, with the added bonus of outqualifying the Force India of Liuzzi.

19. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-7

Kovalainen was also very happy with how his qualifying had gone, the Finn hailing the car's handling during the grid-deciding session. On the weekend the team was celebrating its one-year anniversary, Lotus was left bullish about its race prospects.

20. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-11

Liuzzi managed just one flying lap before losing all drive for the second time on the day, having already succumbed to the problem in the final practice session. He was still hopeful for the race because of Force India's strong pace, but from 20th on the grid a points finish was difficult.

21. Timo Glock, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 12-1

Glock, who faced qualifying knowing he would be penalised for the team opening his gearbox, did not enjoy the best of days, his cause not helped by Petrov's impeding. During his final run he felt there was no grip on the rear of his car and was left disappointed with his showing.

22. Lucas di Grassi, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-12

The Brazilian was pleased with his day's performance despite finishing behind Glock. Di Grassi said he had compromised his set-up for the race, and claimed to have extracted the maximum from his car during his qualifying runs.

23. Bruno Senna, HRT
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-4

It was a troubled Friday for the Hispania team, with both Senna and Yamamoto losing valuable track time, the Brazilian not even managing to set a time in the afternoon. Saturday was better for him, but escaping the last row of the grid was tall order for a team which didn't have an aero package for Monza.

24. Sakon Yamamoto, HRT
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-4

Yamamoto had a difficult build-up to qualifying, being also hit by mechanical problems both on Friday and Saturday morning. As a result, the Japanese driver couldn't test the option tyres ahead of the grid-deciding session. Still, he finished not to far behind Senna.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

Pos  Driver         Team                    Q1        Q2        Q3
 1.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:22.646  1:22.297  1:21.962
 2.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:23.085  1:22.354  1:22.084
 3.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:22.421  1:22.610  1:22.293
 4.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:23.431  1:22.706  1:22.433
 5.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:22.830  1:22.394  1:22.623
 6.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:23.235  1:22.701  1:22.675
 7.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:23.529  1:23.055  1:23.027
 8.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:23.516  1:22.989  1:23.037
 9.  Kubica         Renault                 1:23.234  1:22.880  1:23.039
10.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:23.695  1:23.142  1:23.328
11.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:23.493  1:23.199
12.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:23.840  1:23.388
13.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:24.273  1:23.659
14.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:23.744  1:23.681
15.  Petrov         Renault                 1:24.086  1:23.819
16.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:24.083  1:23.919
17.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:24.442  1:24.044
18.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:25.540
19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:25.742
20.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:25.774
21.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:25.934
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         1:25.974
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:26.847
24.  Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth            1:27.020

THE RACE

Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel's bullish declarations that they were still in the title hunt and that it could all turn around in just a single race made for some interesting news stories on pre-grand prix Thursday. But it sounded more like the straw-clutching defiance of the nearly-beaten than a realistic prediction of what the Monza race would bring.

And yet within half a lap of the start, points leader Lewis Hamilton was sat in the Lesmo gravel trap with a broken McLaren, his nearest rival Mark Webber was languishing in ninth, and it was title long shots Button and Alonso striding away out front.

Fifty-three laps later, Alonso would lead Button home and Vettel would create a lifeline for himself by getting up to fourth. So with five races left and 125 points on the table, the top five are within 24 points again - which means one win really could change everything. When McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh described the brewing title battle as "the best in history", he may have had a point.

It was surprising that Hamilton was the only casualty of a busy first lap. Alonso's start from pole was not great, and Button was having none of his squeezing attempt as the McLaren accelerated past the Ferrari off the line. Alonso then tried down the outside under braking for the Rettifilio, but there was no space.

"Fernando came over quite a bit at the start but I had enough room to squeeze up the inside into Turn 1," said Button, while Alonso felt his "start itself was good. I felt nothing wrong with it but Jenson had a much better start, so I tried to defend but it was too late."

A nudge at the apex took a chunk out of both the McLaren's diffuser and the Ferrari's nose, and left Alonso short of momentum out of the corner, meaning he had to work hard to fend off team-mate Felipe Massa down to the Roggia.

As he did so, Hamilton thought there might be a chance to sneak between the Ferraris. There wasn't. Hamilton stayed optimistically alongside Massa as they turned in, and contact at an unlucky angle broke the McLaren's right front suspension and sent it straight on at the next corner.

"I just tried to put my car up the inside and tried to get third at the second corner, and it was a little bit too much," said Hamilton, who immediately accepted full responsibility and felt he might even have blown his title bid: "It's not over, but it's days like this, and mistakes like I made today, that lose you world championships. I only have myself to blame."

The Red Bulls hadn't hit anything on the first lap, but they had gone backwards in pretty spectacular style. Webber not only started slowly, but seemed to be in the wrong place at both the first two chicanes, which left him ninth at the end of the lap - with Vettel only two places further ahead.

It couldn't have been set up any better for Button and Alonso. Massa was right with them, but was clearly not going to give Alonso too many headaches. Nico Rosberg had blasted through to fourth, but the Mercedes was about half a second per lap slower than the leaders.

So this was a straight head to head, and an absorbing if not thrilling one, with enough slides and heavy kerb attacks to prove that both Button and Alonso were utterly flat-out. The high-downforce McLaren always pulled clear around the Lesmos. The Ferrari's straightline pace always brought it back onto Button's tail in the third and first sectors. A string of new fastest laps by Button around lap 20 got his lead up to 1.5 seconds - but it never got any higher, as Alonso responded with some new benchmark laps of his own.

There weren't too many serious passing attempts, but Alonso confirmed that he wasn't relying on the pitstops, he wanted to pass on track if Button gave him the slightest opportunity.

"We attacked Jenson," said Alonso. "Some laps I had confidence that I was close enough to take the benefit of the extra speed. Our car was quicker on the straights today than Jenson, so I knew that out of Parabolica if I was close enough maybe I had the chance. I was pushing all the race to have this possibility but Jenson was driving superbly and it was not possible. He was not doing a single mistake the whole lap."

With the tyres holding up extremely well, the majority of the field waited until the final third of the race to make their stops, including the leaders. Button came in on lap 35, Alonso one lap later. The Ferrari rejoined fractionally ahead, but with the McLaren bearing down on it. Alonso reached the Rettifilio first, clung to the inside as Button scrambled to get around him, caught a sideways slide as he tried to get on the power too soon, and then accelerated away.

Button reckoned problems getting the harder tyre up to speed cost him the race - "when I exited the pits I had very little grip on the prime tyre - lots of shuddering which means the tyre isn't working" - but as far as Alonso was concerned, the change of lead was entirely down to the Ferrari pit crew, whose stop was 0.8s quicker than McLaren's.

"I think the lap was more or less okay, nothing special, but the pitstop was superb," said Alonso.

Once ahead, Alonso quickly broke away with some new fastest race laps to underline to Button that there would be no fightback. Bahrain had been slightly inherited, Germany had involved a touch of choreography, but Alonso's Italian win carried no question marks - it was a triumph for the fastest car and driver on the day, and it was exactly what Alonso, Ferrari and the crowd of tifosi soon spilling over the circuit desperately wanted and needed.

While Button and Massa followed Alonso home to complete the podium, the focus turned to how far up the Red Bulls could get, and therefore just how good a day this would be for the top two finishers' title bids, and how bad for Hamilton's.

Webber passed Michael Schumacher into the Rettifilio early on (and then fended him off at the Roggia as Schumacher yet again proved that while he seems to have lost a fair bit of speed, he's still incorrigibly combative when wheel-to-wheel), and then picked up seventh from Vettel when the sister Red Bull slowed on lap 20. Vettel's frustrated radio cries complained of an engine problem, but it turned out to be a binding brake. After a couple of laps 2s off the pace, the problem cleared and he was back up to speed.

In the end, things turned out pretty well for the German too, as Red Bull rolled the dice and left him out on soft tyres until lap 52 of 53. The unusual strategy paid off - Vettel had enough speed in clear air to vault the entire queue in front of him, and he rejoined ahead of Rosberg and beat the Mercedes to fourth.

"If it works you are the king, if it doesn't you are the idiot, but fortunately it worked out today," said Vettel, although Rosberg reckoned only a small late error under braking allowed the Red Bull get far enough ahead to rejoin ahead of him.

Webber made it through to sixth, but only after a few adventures. After passing Vettel, he spent the rest of the stint chasing Robert Kubica and Nico Hulkenberg, both of whom had gained ground at the start. Webber didn't manage to pass either of them in the pits, but when Hulkenberg rejoined from his stop right of front of Kubica, the Renault lost enough momentum to allow Webber to surge past down the outside into the Roggia.

As he did so, Hulkenberg was skittering over the chicane run-off and rejoining in front - which was to become a rather regular occurrence, much to Webber's chagrin. Once it became clear that no penalty would be forthcoming, the furious Australian produced another outside-line outbraking move to finally get past Hulkenberg.

Sixth gave Webber a five-point championship lead, but he was still extremely disgruntled, kicking himself over the first lap, and bewildered by the officials' lack of action over Hulkenberg.

"He spent every second lap going through the chicanes," said Webber. "The stewards did a hard job on him... they left him alone, so that was interesting."

Hulkenberg couldn't deny that he'd cut a few chicanes, but felt that as the stewards hadn't penalised him, everything must've been fine...

"I did cut the chicanes - I was trying hard, I was fighting and I was struggling a bit with my brake pedal," he said. "When you push, this can happen. I didn't get a penalty so I think it was okay, even though it was pushing the limits."

Kubica, Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello completed the points scorers, the Williams getting ahead of Sebastien Buemi's Toro Rosso in the pits to regain a top 10 spot having lost ground on the first lap.

Buemi was still quick enough to chase Barrichello home, with Tonio Liuzzi right on their tail as the Force India driver recovered well from his troubled qualifying. His team-mate Adrian Sutil took a trip through the gravel on lap one so decided to pit immediately for hard tyres and then run to the flag. It didn't pay off though, and he could only finish 16th behind Vitaly Petrov, Pedro de la Rosa and Jaime Alguersuari, the latter bemused to receive a drive-through for what he felt was some fairly benign corner cutting.

Timo Glock fended off Heikki Kovalainen to give Virgin a victory in the new teams' battle - although Jarno Trulli had led most of the way until his Lotus lost second gear, and then eventually stopped altogether. Lucas di Grassi parked the second Virgin on the final lap with a suspension issue.

A Hispania crew member had to be taken to hospital after Sakon Yamamoto was signalled to leave his pitstop while the mechanic was still working on the car's radio behind the cockpit. Yamamoto continued to finish 20th. His team-mate Bruno Senna was an early retirement with a hydraulic problem, but lasted rather longer than Kamui Kobayashi - who started from the pitlane due to a pre-race gearbox problem but retired within half a lap when it turned out the glitch wasn't resolved after all.

RACE RESULTS

The Italian Grand Prix
Autodromo di Monza, Italy;
53 laps; 306.720km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h16:24.572
 2.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +     2.938
 3.  Massa         Ferrari                    +     4.223
 4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +    28.193
 5.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    29.942
 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    31.276
 7.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +    32.812
 8.  Kubica        Renault                    +    34.028
 9.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    44.948
10.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +  1:04.213
11.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:05.056
12.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +  1:06.106
13.  Petrov        Renault                    +  1:18.919
14.  De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
15.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
16.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
17.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps
18.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +    2 laps
19.  Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps
20.  Yamamoto      HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:24.139

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth               47
Senna         HRT-Cosworth                 12
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             1
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               1


World Championship standings, round 14:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             

 1.  Webber       187        1.  Red Bull-Renault          350
 2.  Hamilton     182        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          347
 3.  Alonso       166        3.  Ferrari                   290
 4.  Button       165        4.  Mercedes                  158
 5.  Vettel       163        5.  Renault                   127
 6.  Massa        124        6.  Force India-Mercedes       58
 7.  Rosberg      112        7.  Williams-Cosworth          47
 8.  Kubica       108        8.  Sauber-Ferrari             27
 9.  Schumacher    46        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10
10.  Sutil         45       
11.  Barrichello   31       
12.  Kobayashi     21       
13.  Petrov        19       
14.  Hulkenberg    16       
15.  Liuzzi        13       
16.  Buemi          7       
17.  De la Rosa     6       
18.  Alguersuari    3       
       
All timing unofficial

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

TEAM BY TEAM

McLaren

McLaren spent much of practice evaluating whether to stick with the F-duct or not. Button, who had been quickest on Friday morning, chose to do so while Saturday morning pacesetter Hamilton ditched it for the weekend.

It was Button who made the right choice based on qualifying results, as he took a second-best second while Hamilton was only fifth.

Button then took the lead at the start, although he would be jumped by Alonso in the pits after 36 laps of intense pressure. He still finished a useful second.

Hamilton only lasted half a lap before breaking his suspension in an ill-judged move on Massa for third.

Mercedes

Rosberg felt seventh on the grid was pretty much the best Mercedes could aim for at present, while Schumacher's qualifying pace remained absent as he took 12th on the grid.

Both made good starts to run fourth and eighth early on. Rosberg looked set for a lonely top five finish until Vettel's unorthodox strategy demoted him to fifth. Schumacher was overtaken by Webber in the opening laps and ran ninth thereafter.

Red Bull

Vettel was quickest on Friday afternoon and pleasantly surprised by how competitive the Red Bull seemed to be at what was expected to be its worst circuit. Webber lost mileage to a water leak in practice two and an airbox fire in practice three, but was also positive.

Despite his interrupted build-up, Webber qualified fourth - two places ahead of Vettel.

Both were shuffled down the order on lap one, leaving Vettel seventh and Webber ninth. The Australian soon passed Schumacher, then Vettel too when the German slowed with what he thought was a dying engine, but turned out to just be a briefly binding brake.

Staying out until lap 52 before pitting for a one-lap 'stint' on hard tyres then allowed Vettel to take a surprise fourth.

Webber ran a more conventional strategy and remained stuck in traffic. He passed Kubica when the Renault lost momentum as Hulkenberg rejoinied in its path, then eventually took the Williams for sixth - despite some chicane cutting antics from Hulkenberg that left Webber enraged.

Ferrari

Ferrari was near the front throughout practice then unleashed its full speed in qualifying, where Alonso gave his team its first pole in almost two years, and Massa took third despite his plan of doing three flying laps on one set of tyres not paying off.

Button passed Alonso at the start, but both Ferraris stayed on the McLaren's tail. Alonso got ahead in the pits and went to take a win in front of the tifosi, while Massa couldn't quite beat Button in his stop and finished third.

Hulkenberg revelled in his car's performance at Monza and took eighth on the grid, two places ahead of Barrichello.

The German burst through to sixth at the start and stayed there for most of the race, resisting pressure from both Red Bulls at different times. He lost a place to Vettel's long-stint strategy, but gained one by vaulting Kubica in the pits.

Hulkenberg then annoyed the chasing Webber by missing chicanes without penalty, and was eventually passed by the Australian, leaving him a still satisfied seventh.

Barrichello lost ground on the first lap but retook 10th by jumping Buemi in the pits, and then holding off the Toro Rosso and Liuzzi.

A frustrating weekend for Kubica: he felt he had underperformed in qualifying, where he took ninth, and then although he jumped to fifth at the start, he was back in eighth by the end.

One place was lost to Vettel's strategy, another to a slow pitstop that dropped him behind Hulkenberg, and then the last to a pass from Webber as Hulkenberg's emergence from the pits into his path cost Kubica momentum.

Petrov qualified 15th, but was demoted to 20th for blocking Glock in Q1. He held 10th for a spell by virtue of not pitting until lap 51, but dropped to 13th when he finally did come in.

There would be no repeat of Force India's brilliant 2009 Monza performance, as Sutil took 11th on the grid and a loss of power ended Liuzzi's qualifying session early and left him 20th.

They moved in opposite directions on race day. Liuzzi produced a bit of a charge to come through to 12th, right behind Barrichello and Buemi. Sutil was pushed into the gravel on lap one and decided to change strategy and make his pitstop immediately. But he ended up spending most of the afternoon trapped behind Alguersuari and could only finish 16th.

A fairly standard qualifying session for Toro Rosso saw Buemi, who gave the team's F-duct its first tentative run on Friday morning, 14th and Alguersuari 16th.

But the Swiss driver had a highly encouraging race and looked set for 10th until Barrichello got ahead in the pit sequence, which Buemi reckoned was due to traffic delays. He then chased the Williams to the flag while resisting Liuzzi.

Alguersuari ran 14th, was penalised for corner cutting - to his surprise - and finished 15th, fending off Sutil.

Trulli and Kovalainen beat the Virgins in qualifying, and got ahead of the troubled Liuzzi too, taking 18th and 19th.

Trulli then led the new teams pack in the race, until a worsening gearbox problem saw him lose places and eventually retire.

Kovalainen was passed by the Virgins on the first lap, repassed di Grassi, but couldn't do likewise to Glock, who he followed home to take 18th.

Various mechanical problems meant virtually no running for either Senna or Yamamoto on Friday, and unsurprisingly they were a fair way behind the field in qualifying.

Yamamoto got ahead at the start, and Senna only managed 12 laps before stopping with hydrualic failure. His team-mate reached the finish in 20th, but had a frightening pit incident when he was signalled to leave while a crew member was still working on his radio. The team member had to be taken to hospital.

Glock and di Grassi qualified 21st and 22nd, behind Lotus, but Glock emerged at the head of the group in the race - even though he had to take a five-place grid penalty for opening the gearbox to change the differential.

Glock passed both Hispanias, di Grassi and Kovalainen at the start and then benefited when Trulli was hobbled with gearbox problems.

Di Grassi also jumped Kovalainen on lap one but was repassed, and had a lonely race in 19th until a suspension problem forced him to park on the final lap.

Sauber already suspected in practice that this wouldn't be its finest weekend. Kobayashi qualified 13th but an ECU-inspired gearbox problem left him starting from the pits, and then he retired on lap one as the issue returned.

De la Rosa started 17th, got up to 12th at the start, was passed by Liuzzi on track and Petrov in the pits, and finished 14th.