Ferrari’s Alonso wins 2010 Italian F1 GP

For 36 of the 53 laps at Monza on Sunday a silver car led the reds of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, but when McLaren’s Jenson Button ducked into the pits then it was Ferrari’s Alonso who led from Massa until he stopped on Lap 37. When he resumed, Alonso just made it to the first chicane ahead of Button, and thereafter there was never any question about who would win.

While the McLaren was ahead the gap between Button and Alonso fluctuated between 0.5 seconds and 1.6 seconds, but once the Spaniard got in front he opened it to as much as 4.0 seconds before finishing 2.9 seconds ahead. Massa was another 1.2 seconds adrift, on a day when the Scuderia moved firmly back into contention for the drivers’ world championship.

It was a disastrous day for Lewis Hamilton in the other McLaren, who jumped to fourth as Mark Webber’s Red Bull again started slowly, but at the second chicane Massa’s left rear wheel came into contact with Hamilton’s front right, and by the first Lesmo the McLaren driver was in the gravel, his day done.

It also seemed like being a bad day for Sebastian Vettel as an engine problem momentarily dropped him behind Red Bull team mate Webber, from fifth to sixth. But a very clever bit of strategy from the Milton Keynes team saw them keep their man out until the 52nd lap before he finally made his mandatory tyre stop.

By then his long run had taken him ahead of fast-starting Nico Rosberg who’d held fourth for most of the race for Mercedes GP. Vettel got out of the pits ahead of the silver arrow, which had Webber on its tail after the Australian had doggedly fought by Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg. The young German made a mistake on the 49th lap, blocked Webber enough to provoke an angry gesture from the latter, then Mark made a move stick a lap later.

Webber now leads the world championship again with 187 points to Hamilton’s 182, but Alonso’s great drive vaults him to third on 166, just ahead of Button on 165 and Vettel on 163. Red Bull have 350 points to McLaren’s 347 and Ferrari’s 290.

It was a tense rather than thrilling race, but the scrap for the lower points places was always entertaining. Hulkenberg chased fifth-placed Robert Kubica for much of the race and jumped the Renault in the pit stops, but the Williams driver dropped back to seventh after Webber’s successful attack. Kubica took eighth, with Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher a distant ninth ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the second Williams.

Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi just headed Force India’s Tonio Liuzzi over the line for 11th, with Renault’s Vitaly Petrov benefiting from a very late pit stop to take 13th ahead of BMW Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa. Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersauri was 15th after a drive-through penalty for missing a chicane, while Force India’s Adrian Sutil fought up to 16th after contact on the opening lap sent him into the pits.

Timo Glock won the new teams’ race for Virgin after Jarno Trulli’s Lotus blew up late in the race, from Heikki Kovalainen in the other T127 and Sakon Yamamoto’s HRT, after Lucas di Grassi had to make a pit stop on lap 52. During Yamamoto’s pit stop an unnamed crew member was hurt, but initial reports say they remained conscious as they were taken to the medical centre for checks.

Besides Hamilton and Trulli, HRT’s Bruno Senna stopped with mechanical woes and Kamui Kobayashi did not actually leave the pit lane after problems with his BMW Sauber before he got to the grid.