The Complete 2007 Italian GP Review

On-track, it was an absolutely perfect weekend for McLaren. From Friday afternoon onwards, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton completely dominated proceedings, with Alonso always looking set for pole and victory.

To add to their satisfaction, Felipe Massa retired early, and although Kimi Raikkonen got up to second thanks to a canny strategy, Hamilton wasted no time in surging back past him with a superb out-braking move. The result virtually guaranteed that Ferrari cannot beat McLaren to this year's titles - court hearings permitting. And it all happened on Ferrari's home ground.

But off-track, the pressure kept mounting on McLaren. First the revelation that the new evidence that prompted next week's World Motor Sport Council hearing into the spy scandal was prompted by emails between McLaren's own drivers.

Then a niggling $50,000 fine for introducing a new lightweight gearbox in Hungary without an official crash test.

Then the Italian police arrived in the paddock to inform McLaren personnel that they were the subject of investigations.

This all came in addition to the continued speculation about relations between Alonso and Hamilton, and Alonso and the team, and whether the world champion would see out his McLaren contract.

A crushing one-two in their arch-rivals' backyard was the perfect way to raise McLaren's spirits ahead of a very important week.

"Winning one-twos are rare, and we enjoy all of them. To win in Italy, we can't hide our pleasure in that, but next week will be here very quickly and we can't sit back," said team CEO Martin Whitmarsh.

"The reality is when you're a team and you're striving to win, when you're doing it in adverse conditions that does bond the team together."

Hamilton declared before the weekend that the current situation made him absolutely determined to subjugate Ferrari at Monza.

"Beating Ferrari on their home ground has got to be a huge blow to their whole team," he said.

"For me it would be a great feeling to do that because of what they are putting our team through. I know my team, I know the people here and I think we are being unfairly treated. We'll do our talking on the track."

In that context, Hamilton's late-race pass on Raikkonen was another part of McLaren's response to their current political situation.

"I just wanted to do it for the team," Hamilton confirmed.

He added that the off-track furore made him even more dedicated to helping McLaren clinch both titles.

"It would be great to win the constructors' championship and the drivers' championship, just to show that even still with all those problems and issues nothing can bring us down and we are unstoppable," he said.

Alonso made it clear that he had slightly different priorities...

"It means a lot to become world champion, but, at least for me, it is not special if around the team there are problems," he said.

"For me, it doesn't matter because in the end it is good to be the drivers' world champion. The constructors', from a driver's point of view, is not really a big factor.

"We are leading quite comfortably the constructors' championship and if everything goes on like this we will achieve that and I will be happy for the team, but I still prefer to win the drivers'."

With the leading Ferrari driver now 18 points adrift of championship leader Hamilton and McLaren 23 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors' despite their Hungaroring penalty, in normal circumstances they would be all but assured of both titles.

But this year the situation is uniquely uncertain, with a potentially very severe penalty hanging over McLaren. By the time the teams reconvene in Spa, the outcome of the WMSC hearing could make the events of Monza irrelevant.

"I could have what I've worked for and what all the team have worked for, we could have it taken away from us," said Hamilton.

"And when you really think about that, you think 'wow' I could be out of a job next weekend and then what happens? It was just going so well and then you just get this big knife that cuts off your blood line."

Practice

Practice one - Friday am

The early evidence suggested Ferrari held the upper hand on their home ground, as Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa took first and second places on Friday morning, while McLaren had a more challenging session.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso had spins, with the world champion becoming very familiar with the new run-off at Roggia. He also lost time with a steering problem. They were third and fourth.

Williams' Nico Rosberg again showed excellent practice form with fifth, while Jenson Button had an "encouraging" run to sixth for Honda. Giancarlo Fisichella put one Renault in seventh place, but teammate Heikki Kovalainen had to alter his programme after flat-spotting his tyres on his first run and ended up 11th.

Practice two - Friday pm

McLaren turned the tables later in the day as Alonso dominated the afternoon session, ending up 0.8 seconds clear of second-placed Hamilton.

This time it was Massa who had a spin at Roggia, although he believed his sixth place - 1.3 seconds behind Alonso - was a consequence of focusing on long runs rather than a lack of pace.

Fisichella improved to third, 0.015 seconds ahead of BMW's Robert Kubica, with Rosberg fifth again.

Morning pacesetter Raikkonen had a dismal afternoon, with hydraulic problems consigning him to the Ferrari garage for most of the 90 minutes. He was eighth fastest.

The session was briefly red-flagged after a clutch failure brought Anthony Davidson's Super Aguri to a halt in an awkward position between the Lesmos. He was one of several drivers at the humble end of the pit lane who lost laps to mechanical problems, as a gearbox glitch hampered Spyker's Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi was halted by an electrical failure on his Toro Rosso.

Practice three - Saturday am

Alonso's domination continued into final practice, but the big story of Saturday morning was Raikkonen's enormous accident.

The Finn's Ferrari slewed right as he braked for the Ascari bends, and brushed the wall before plunging head-on into the tyres at high speed.

"I just locked the rear brakes, and unfortunately it turned right and not left," he said. "Once it turned right I could not do anything, so I just waited until it stopped. Once you are on the grass there is not much you can do."

The wreckage and the damage to the tyre wall halted the session for 21 minutes, but Ferrari were able to retrieve the intact V8 for Raikkonen's spare car, ensuring he would avoid an engine change penalty.

The session ended with Alonso fastest by 0.146 seconds from Hamilton. Massa was third, with Raikkonen's pre-accident time only good enough for 20th.

After a quiet start to a weekend where they had hoped to excel, BMW returned to their habitual position with Nick Heidfeld fourth and Kubica fifth ahead of Williams duo Rosberg and Alex Wurz.

Qualifying

Part one

Even by current standards, the field was closely packed in Q1 at Monza, with just 0.699 seconds covering fifth to 20th places.

Inevitably that meant the margin between reaching Q2 and an embarrassing elimination was extremely slight. Takuma Sato was within 0.01 seconds of making the cut, despite spinning away his second run at the Roggia, but ended up 17th. Ironically it was his Super Aguri teammate Anthony Davidson's last minute leap to 14th that shuffled Sato outside the top 16.

He would share row nine with Ralf Schumacher, as the German failed to progress beyond Q1 for the fifth time this season. Having lost most of his testing mileage to rain, struggled on Friday and spun on Saturday morning, Schumacher was not expecting much from qualifying. He lapped only 0.063 seconds slower than teammate Jarno Trulli, yet ended up 18th and out.

David Coulthard was the unluckiest man in Q1, spinning to a halt at the Rettifilio through no fault of his own and consequently being consigned to 20th on the grid.

"I think the gearbox might have jammed between gears - I saw a drop in hydraulic pressure and a lot of fluid at the back of the car," Coulthard said. "Unfortunate timing, of course."

After taking an attention-grabbing 12th in final practice, Sebastian Vettel impressed again as he reached Q2 for the first time since joining Toro Rosso. He was 12th in the session, while his hitherto faster teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi blamed traffic for his 19th place.

Spyker did not take the anticipated benefit from their new B-specification chassis, as Adrian Sutil found himself back in his habitual 21st position, three seconds off the pace.

"There is no real improvement," Sutil said. "I can't really say anything about it. We expected more, but the gap is really big. It's too big. It's not the best track to get a new car that probably has more downforce, because you don't use the downforce here really."

His teammate Sakon Yamamoto brought up the rear again, having wiped his front wings off on the Rettifilio barrier when he lost control under braking on his second run.

Part two

Rubens Barrichello looked like he might give Honda a rare trip into Q3 as he vaulted to eighth with his final run of Q2. But the Brazilian felt his position was still vulnerable, and that there was more time in the car as he had understeered a little in the Parabolica after getting too close to Alex Wurz's Williams.

So Barrichello tried for a second flying lap, only to go off the road at the Lesmos. He rejoined in a cloud of gravel, just as Giancarlo Fisichella appeared on the scene on his own flying lap. The Italian had to back off and was left in a furious 15th place.

"I was doing a good lap, enough to be in the top ten," Fisichella said.

"I think Barrichello already finished his lap, so he's gone off for nothing and he came back onto the circuit in the middle of Turn 7, which is a dangerous area. I'm really, really disappointed."

Barrichello, who ultimately fell to 12th, was unmoved.

"I was still trying on the second lap but obviously the tyres were a bit down already and I went in too fast. But I had to try," he said.

"What did he want me to do? To carry on in the gravel trap? He's experienced enough to just shut up."

While this unfolded, Jenson Button put the second Honda into the top ten with his last lap, edging an unsurprised Mark Webber down to 11th in the process.

"We knew it was going to be very tight to get into the top ten today, we haven't been quick enough in the test, practice or qualifying," Webber said.

"It's frustrating, I feel I did the best job I could today and the guys did a good job working on the car, but we're just not fast enough at the moment."

Also out in Q2 were Alex Wurz, who locked up on his best lap and was left to take 13th, Davidson, who was very pleased with 14th and Vettel in 16th.

Part three

After topping two of the three practice sessions, Fernando Alonso continued to stamp his authority on the Monza weekend by setting the fastest times in Q1 and Q2 as well.

He then produced a 1:21.997 on his first Q3 flying lap, which was a comfortable 0.363 seconds faster than Lewis Hamilton's initial effort. When Hamilton only managed to improve to 1:22.034 on his next run, Alonso eased off in the knowledge that his first pole since Monaco was secure.

"I think I've been doing some good qualifying, but always in Q3, the very important laps at the end when you put on new tyres, I always had some problems," he said.

"Today, I was 100 per cent happy with the laps and with everything. I have had a lot of second places this year so to be on pole again is much better."

Hamilton admitted that he wasn't quite as comfortable with his car as his teammate this weekend.

"The set-up wasn't perfect and that's just the way it goes," he said. "Sometimes you get it spot-on, sometimes you don't. It was extremely close and Fernando did a great job with his lap."

McLaren's advantage in qualifying was even bigger than it had been in practice, with third-placed Felipe Massa 0.552 seconds behind Alonso, and Kimi Raikkonen 0.634 seconds slower still and pushed down to fifth place by Nick Heidfeld.

"For sure McLaren are pretty quick here," Massa admitted. "It was very difficult to follow them in the sessions, especially in qualifying.

"I think my lap was reasonable but it was missing a little bit in order to be with them. Hopefully tomorrow we can have some surprises, do something different (with strategy), whatever."

Ferrari's apparent inferiority prompted a raised eyebrow from Hamilton.

"I'm a bit surprised by the big gap that we have to Ferrari," he said. "I don't think they're actually half a second slower than us. I think they're on some different strategy."

Robert Kubica completed the top six in the second BMW - 0.272 seconds slower than teammate Heidfeld but with a 0.656 second gap back to Heikki Kovalainen in seventh.

Nico Rosberg, Trulli and Button filled the remaining top ten positions, all lapping sufficiently far off the pace to suggest that they were carrying heavy fuel loads and focusing on the optimum plan for the race.

Qualifying results

The Race

As the cars lined up for the start, Lewis Hamilton angled his McLaren-Mercedes distinctly to the left - either signalling his intention to pounce on his pole-sitting teammate Fernando Alonso at the moment the lights went out, or to ensure he was off the dirty side of the grid as soon as possible.

But while Alonso pulled away into a clear lead, Hamilton was immediately fighting a rearguard action, as Felipe Massa squeezed through a narrowing gap to take second before the McLaren could pull across onto the racing line.

Everyone else starting on the dustier right hand side of the grid was having similar problems, allowing Kimi Raikkonen to immediately snatch fourth from Nick Heidfeld, and then to have a look at Hamilton into the Rettifilio as well.

However Hamilton was too busy thinking about reclaiming second to worry about Raikkonen. He braked late down the outside and edged back ahead of Massa.

"He had a better line, and Alonso braked just in front of me," said the Brazilian.

As Hamilton completed the move, slight contact between the Ferrari's left-front and the McLaren's right-rear sent him into a brief slide. He controlled it but decided he could not now make the second part of the corner and cut across the apex kerbing, almost passing Alonso for the lead in the process.

"I obviously didn't the best getaway being on the dirty side of the grid, and saw Felipe shoot past," said Hamilton. "But I outbraked both of them, Fernando and Felipe, and I was very close to taking Fernando as well but Felipe clipped me and sent me over the second part of the chicane, so I lost that opportunity."

Hamilton's sudden appearance next to him alarmed Alonso slightly - "I was a little bit worried that maybe we could touch each other" - but the world champion was able to accelerate into a clear lead as Hamilton's awkward exit from the chicane allowed Massa another run at him into the Roggia. He defended robustly there, then had to do the same at both Lesmos before finally escaping from the Ferrari.

Behind them, Raikkonen rebuffed Heidfeld's attempt to reclaim fourth into the first corner. The BMW consequently got a slow exit from the chicane, allowing Heikki Kovalainen - who had taken advantage of being on the clean side of the grid to cruise past Robert Kubica for sixth - to pull alongside, only to be squeezed onto the grass at the Curva Grande. As Kovalainen lost momentum, Kubica swept back in front.

Further back, both Williams tried outside line moves into the Roggia, braked too late, flew across the new asphalt run-off and rejoined clearly ahead of the drivers they had been battling with - Nico Rosberg taking eighth from Jenson Button and Alex Wurz taking 11th from the slow-starting Jarno Trulli. Both would eventually have to relinquish the places again to avoid being penalised.

Meanwhile Sebastian Vettel's excellent Saturday performance was negated as he ran into the back of Anthony Davidson and broke his front wing.

He was able to get back to the pits for repairs, unlike David Coulthard when he sustained similar damage a lap later. The Scot had charged from 20th to 15th on the first lap, but then tagged Giancarlo Fisichella in the middle of the Rettifilio. This damaged his front wing, which folded under the car as he turned in for the Curva Grande and sent the Red Bull spearing into the barriers.

Coulthard was unhurt, but the safety car was deployed for four laps while the wrecked Red Bull and a rather mangled advertising hoarding (ironically for Renault backer ING) were tidied away.

Alonso was concerned that the restart might give Hamilton an opportunity to attack him - "here you take the slipstream very easily and I didn't know how to avoid that" - but he managed to accelerate out of the Parabolica with a comfortable advantage, and Hamilton's jink to the inside at the first corner was purely speculative.

The threat from Massa did not last long. The Ferrari swiftly dropped two seconds behind the McLarens, then pitted on lap nine, believing he had a puncture. He rejoined, but not for long.

"There was something not working with the rear suspension," Massa said. "Once the tyres were changed it was still undriveable and I had to retire."

With Raikkonen losing 0.7-1.0 seconds per lap to the leaders, it looked like McLaren would have the race to themselves. They suspected otherwise, however.

"We thought they might one-stop," said Martin Whitmarsh. "And on the grid, seeing Kimi was on the option tyre we assumed he would probably stop between 20 and 25 and one-stop it from there. One-stopping, theoretically, is about eight seconds faster than two stopping, but with attendant risks."

McLaren's hunch was right. Hamilton shadowed Alonso until pitting on lap 18, with the leader coming in two laps later. But Raikkonen stayed out for a further five laps, and an additional three seconds of fuelling suggested he would not be pitting again.

The Finn rejoined 15 seconds behind Alonso, and with pit visits taking up to half a minute in total, McLaren had work to do.

Alonso's imperious speed - up to 1.5 seconds per lap quicker than the heavy Ferrari could manage - immediately made it unlikely that Raikkonen could steal the lead when the McLarens stopped. But Hamilton looked like a realistic target. Having flat-spotted his tyres, and feeling that he was less fortunate than his teammate in where he encountered traffic, he drifted six seconds away from Alonso in the middle stint.

His tyre worries prompted Hamilton to pit again on lap 40, mildly earlier than planned. He only had 24.9 seconds in hand over Raikkonen, and rejoined 1.6 seconds behind.

"I opted to pit early because I wasn't sure that that vibration wasn't going to be something like (the tyre failure in) Turkey, so I thought I would play it safe and just bag the points," Hamilton explained.

"I came out and I thought, shoot, Kimi is too far ahead. I probably had two laps maximum out of the tyres before they would go off and he was on the harder tyre which was a little bit better but I managed to pull out a couple of really good laps, the tyres were great and the car felt good as well."

Within three laps he was on the Ferrari's tail, if not exactly all over it. That didn't deter Hamilton however, as he darted out of the slipstream approaching the Rettifilio on lap 43, locked up and slid a touch sideways, but cleanly claimed the inside line before Raikkonen could think about defending.

"I had an opportunity and I had to make sure I stuck it in there and got it," Hamilton said.

"I was surprised that the slipstream wasn't as much as normal, I would have thought I would have passed him before the first corner, but I had to actually do it on the brakes.

"But nevertheless, it was quite close. He closed the door, it was very fair. I didn't think I was going to make the corner but somehow I did. I needed those points, so I'm very, very happy with it."

Raikkonen was in no position to retaliate, as he revealed that Saturday morning's huge practice accident had left him more battered than he had initially let on.

"The biggest problem for me was that I couldn't keep my head upright any more under braking," he said. "My neck is not in such good shape after yesterday. That was the main issue. But we just didn't have the speed today."

While one McLaren was surging past a Ferrari, the other was rejoining in the lead after a smooth final pit stop. Alonso had a comfortable 7.5 second lead over Hamilton with 10 laps to go, and the frontrunners all duly eased off to conserve their engines for next week's Spa race.

As Alonso took the chequered flag to become the first four-time race winner of 2007 and narrow Hamilton's championship lead to three points, it was all a far cry from the misery he endured at Monza last year.

"A perfect weekend for me. Sometimes everything seems to go in the right direction," he said.

"Sometimes I have started well here in Monza but I always had some problems in the race, and I always missed the victory. So to win here in Monza for the first time is a very, very special win."

Having caused such a stir at Monza in 2006, BMW hoped they could get amongst the title contenders again in Italy this season, but had to be content with a distant fourth and fifth for Heidfeld and Kubica.

Although Heidfeld kept Raikkonen in sight at first, he was on a two-stop strategy and needed to be pulling away from the Ferrari rather than struggling to cling on to it. He was half a minute adrift at the flag.

Kubica had a more fraught race. Running two laps heavier than Heidfeld, he fell five seconds behind his teammate in the first stint, then lost eight seconds in his first stop after the car fell from its jacks. Kubica accepted responsibility for the mess.

"I didn't arrive straight so the car slid down from the jack when the guys were changing the tyres," he said. "Then after the stop we couldn't get the jack out from under the front wing, so it cost me a lot of time."

The delay dropped Kubica into the busy lower top ten pack. He had pulled away from fellow two-stopper Kovalainen early on, but would spend the middle stint trapped behind the Renault.

Both were vulnerable to the train of one-stoppers led by the battling Button and Rosberg, who ran absolutely side by side through the first chicane on lap 20 before Rosberg took the place by successfully diving down the outside into the Roggia.

An extra two laps on low fuel allowed Kubica to jump Kovalainen at the last stops, as both emerged ahead of Button but behind Rosberg.

Kubica took just two laps to catch the Williams and sweep around the outside at the Rettifilio to claim fifth. In the remaining seven laps he hinted at what he might have achieved by slashing the gap to teammate Heidfeld from 14 to five seconds.

The happy Rosberg fended off the frustrated Kovalainen to secure sixth, with Button doubling Honda's 2007 points tally in eighth, but ruing how little front wing - and how much rear wing - he had been running.

"When Kovalainen came out of the pits right in front of me, and Kubica was just in front of him, it showed that we could have been up there fighting," Button said. "So it was disappointing for me, frustrating for everyone, but it's also nice to get a point."

Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello had run close behind Rosberg and Button all afternoon, with Trulli joining them once he had got past Wurz. All three finished within 1.9 seconds in ninth to 11th places.

Wurz's 37-lap opening stint proved counter-productive, the heavy fuel load taking too much out of his tyres. He fell behind Giancarlo Fisichella to finish 13th, the Renault having improved its pace later in the race after battling with Davidson initially.

The Super Aguri driver was thrilled to pass Fisichella on lap eight, but the Italian reclaimed the place on lap 26. Davidson then fended off Ralf Schumacher for 14th.

Takuma Sato finished close behind in 16th - a good effort considering he had fallen to the back of the field initially due to a severe brake problem. His front brakes briefly caught fire on the grid, but they cooled during the safety car and were more co-operative subsequently.

The Toro Rossos had uneventful races to 17th and 18th, with Vitantonio Liuzzi ahead thanks to Vettel's early delay. The German had followed the Spykers at first, but their decision to stop twice took them out of his way.

While Spyker continued to trail the field, it was a breakthrough race for Sakon Yamamoto. He briefly got ahead of his much more highly-rated teammate Adrian Sutil after the safety car, and then remained within a couple of seconds of the German until the final stint.

Race results

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

Team-by-Team

MCLAREN-MERCEDES

Both Hamilton and Alonso spin in first practice and are only third and fourth behind the Ferraris. But they take control from Friday afternoon onwards, with Alonso fastest in every remaining session and ultimately dominating both qualifying and the race.

Hamilton has to battle hard to resist Massa on the first lap, then loses second to the one-stopping Raikkonen after his second stop, before reclaiming the place with a bold dive at the first chicane.

RENAULT

Fisichella is an encouraging third in second practice, but only takes 15th on the grid - and angrily blames Barrichello for coming back on track in front of him after an error. The Italian swaps places with Davidson twice early on and can only progress to 12th. Kovalainen takes seventh in qualifying and the race, lacking the speed on a two stop strategy to beat the one-stopping Rosberg to sixth.

Although they start the weekend with a one-two on Friday morning, Ferrari struggle to match McLaren at Monza. Massa qualifies third, half a second off the pace, tussles with Hamilton on the first lap, but then retires on lap 11 with a rear suspension problem.

Raikkonen has hydraulic problems on second practice, a massive accident at the Ascaris in third practice, and then qualifies fifth, albeit on a heavy fuel load. On a one-stop strategy he manages to lead in the mid-stages and to split the McLarens after their second stops, but Hamilton gets back past and takes second, after which Raikkonen backs right off to conserve both his engine and his battered neck.

Button makes his second Q3 appearance of 2007 and starts 10th, while Barrichello drops to 12th after going off at the end of Q2. They run seventh and 10th in the first stint, but Button ultimately loses his battle with Rosberg and doesn't have the speed to get ahead of the two-stopping Kubica and Kovalainen. He takes eighth, with Barrichello a few seconds further back in 10th.

Widely seen as their best chance of a win this year, Monza instead sees BMW in their usual 'best of the rest' position, although Heidfeld gets ahead of Raikkonen for fourth on the grid. Kubica starts sixth. Both struggle with the dirty side of the grid at the start, with Heidfeld losing fourth to Raikkonen.

He regains the place when Massa retires, but lacks the pace to keep up with the top three. Kubica parks awkwardly at his first pit stop and falls from the jacks, costing him eight seconds. A late race pass on Rosberg brings him back up to sixth.

Trulli qualifies ninth but is unimpressed with Toyota's start system after losing four places on his first lap. He is handed one place back because Wurz cut a chicane to pass him, but can only finish 11th. Schumacher struggles all weekend and is 18th on the grid. He makes little process through traffic and comes home 15th.

Webber suspects after practice that Red Bull do not have the speed to do anything stunning in Italy. Sure enough, he qualifies 11th and finishes 10th, and has little to report. Coulthard has a troubled weekend, as a gearbox problems spins him out of Q1 and leaves him 20th on the grid. He gains five places on lap one then weakens his front wing by tapping Fisichella. The wing then collapses at the Curva Grande and he crashes heavily.

Another strong weekend for Rosberg, who is a top six fixture in practice then qualifies eighth. He has a spectacular dice with Button in the opening laps before pulling away from the Honda, then benefits from Kubica's pit delay to run fifth in the last stint until the BMW gets past. He resists the two-stopping Kovalainen to finish sixth.

A small error in qualifying leaves Wurz 13th on the grid. He tries to make progress with an extremely long 37-lap first stint, but cannot maintain his pace on worn tyres and finishes only 12th.

Vettel has his strongest weekend yet for STR, qualifying 16th while Liuzzi can only manage 19th. But then the German hits Davidson on the first lap and needs to stop for a new front wing. Although the safety car keeps him in touch with the pack, he can only get up to 18th. Liuzzi has an unremarkable run to 17th, six seconds behind the Super Aguri/Schumacher battle, and five seconds ahead of Vettel, who had been delayed with the Spykers early on.

The B-spec car does not bring the anticipated step forward, as Sutil and Yamamoto again qualify 21st and 22nd, the latter having spun into the barriers in Q1. But Yamamoto has his best race yet and keeps Sutil on his toes throughout. Running light on a two-stop strategy, they hold off the delayed Vettel and Sato at first, but fall to the back again once the pit stops unfold and finish 19th and 20th.

Davidson causes a red flag in practice two when a clutch failure leaves him parked dangerously at the Lesmos. He impresses again in qualifying by starting 14th, while Sato has a spin and is 17th. Davidson passes Fisichella in the first stint, gets repassed later on, then resists pressure from Schumacher to finish 14th.

Sato is close behind in 16th despite major brake problems - including a brake fire on the grid - putting him to the back early on. The glitch disappears when the brakes cool during the full course yellow, allowing Sato to bring himself back into contention.

Lap-by-Lap

Lap 1: On pole position for the third time this season, Fernando Alonso beats Lewis Hamilton in the drag to Turn One as the Englishman is swamped by the Ferraris.

David Coulthard returns to the pits following his crash in Curve Grande © XPB/LAT

Hamilton gets sideways at the first chicane, but ultimately holds on to third from Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, Nick Heidfeld, Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen, Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Rubens Barrichello, Alex Wurz, Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella, David Coulthard, Anthony Davidson, Takuma Sato, Ralf Schumacher, Tonio Liuzzi, Adrian Sutil, Sakon Yamamoto and Sebastian Vettel, the last of whom pits for repairs at the lap's end. Alonso opens up a 1.1s lead.

Lap 2: Sato falls behind Schumacher, Liuzzi and the two Spykers. Coulthard crashes at the Curva Grande shortly after his front wing breaks, following contact with Fisichella, and jams under his chassis. Safety Car deployed.

Lap 7: Race restarts. Alonso holds off Hamilton and leads by 0.6s.

Lap 8: Button passes Rosberg, Davidson passes Fisichella.

Lap 9: Massa pits from third place.

Lap 10: Alonso leads by 1.3s. Raikkonen is an increasingly distant third. Massa pits to retire.

Lap 12: Sato passes Yamamoto.

Lap 15: Trulli passes Wurz.

Lap 18: Hamilton makes the race's first scheduled stop. He slips to sixth.

Lap 19: Alonso leads Raikkonen by 12.7s.

Lap 18: Hamilton pits and drops to sixth.

Lap 19: Alonso leads Raikkonen by 12.7s.

Lap 20: Alonso and Yamamoto pit. Raikkonen leads.

Lap 21: Heidfeld, Kovalainen and Sutil pit. Rosberg passes Button.

Lap 23: Kubica pits and is delayed by a jammed jack before rejoining.

Lap 25: Raikkonen pits and slips back to third behind the McLarens.

Lap 26: Fisichella repasses Davidson.

Lap 27: Beyond half-distance. Alonso leads Hamilton by 2.2s and Raikkonen by 16.3s.

Lap 30: Rosberg and Trulli pit.

Lap 31: Schumacher and Vettel pit.

Anthony Davidson fights Giancarlo Fisichella in the second chicane © LAT

Lap 32: Liuzzi pits.

Lap 33: Button and Fisichella pit.

Lap 34: Webber, Barrichello and Sato pit.

Lap 35: Davidson pits.

Lap 37: Wurz completes the longest first stint. Sutil stops a second time.

Lap 38: Alonso leads Hamilton by 5.9s and Raikkonen by 29.9s. The Finn's pace suggests he's one-stopping.

Lap 39: Heidfeld stops.

Lap 40: Hamilton pits and rejoins behind Raikkonen.

Lap 41: Kovalainen pits.

Lap 43: Alonso and Kubica pit. Hamilton passes Raikkonen at Turn One.

Lap 46: Kubica passes Rosberg for fifth.

Lap 53: Alonso wins by 6.0s from Hamilton, Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Kubica, Rosberg, Kovalainen, Button, Webber, Barrichello and Trulli. The rest, all lapped, cross the line in the order Fisichella, Wurz, Davidson, Schumacher, Sato, Liuzzi, Vettel, Sutil and Yamamoto.