Alonso wins dominantly at Monza

F1 Grand Prix, GP Italy, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

Fernando Alonso has led from start to finish after securing yesterday's pole position and even recording the fastest lap of the race. Hamilton came in second and confirms a dominant display of McLaren at Ferrari's home Grand Prix. Raikkonen could somewhat save the day for Ferrari by completing the podium after Massa suffered a technical problem early in the race.

After a trouble free warmup lap, Alonso is the fastest off the line and easily keeps his pole position into the first corner. Hamilton is a bit slower and is passed by Massa before slightly cutting the chicane and thereby regaining his second position. It appears that Massa slightly touched the Briton who consequently was unable to make the chicane on the trackside of the curbstones. Raikkonen was able to gain a position and is the only man on the option tyre in the top 10.

Halfway through the second lap, David Coulthard's Red Bull loses parts of the front wing and leads the Scotsman straight into the barriers. The car is badly damaged by David can escape unharmed. This crash at the Curva Grande makes it a weekend to forget for Coulthard after he already suffered a gearbox problem during qualifying.

The deployed safety car stays out for 4 laps and no incidents occur during the restart. Hamilton is however just 4 tenths behind the leader and makes up for his start deficit.

Felipe Massa is already in the pits at lap 10 and leaves again without a tyre change. Half a lap later he misses a chicane and appears to have a technical problem. At a very reduced pace he rolls into his pitbox but stays in the car while his mechanics are checking on the problem. The Brazilian leaves his car 10 minutes later.

The abandon of Massa leaves puts Alonso and Hamilton largerly ahead of their competitors. The two are close to each other while Raikkonen is 10s behind after 16 of the 53 laps.

The first real planned refuelling is for Lewis Hamilton who joins his crew in lap 18 and looks set for a two stop strategy. Alonso continues for two more laps and rejoins in 5th place, ahead of his teammate. All other stops that follow in the same string are performed without problems except for Kubica as the BMW mechanics have trouble with the front jack. The stop takes 16 seconds in total.

The sole Ferrari still on track only enters the pitlane on lap 25 and takes plenty of fuel. He may well be on a single stop strategy. Immediately after, Alonso starts pushing harder and slowly gets away from Hamilton. While a pitstop at Monza can take roughly 30 seconds, Alonso is 15 seconds ahead of Kimi just after his pitstop.

5 laps later there are 22 more to go. 9 of the drivers have even not yet pitted and are undoubtedly also on single stop strategies. Alonso is putting in laps in the range of 1:23 that no one can match. The gap to Hamilton has by then increased to 5 seconds with Raikkonen being a further 19 seconds down. Heidfeld is in fact catching up with the Ferrari and could cause extra worries for the Finn.

There are just 13 laps more to go and Hamilton is in the pit for his final stop. He takes on the softer tyres. Raikkonen however is just quick enough to get ahead of Hamilton with a slight margin of 1.5 seconds. One lap later the Briton had already closed the gap and retaken his second place with a risky manouvre at the end of the main straight. Alonso however is still seven seconds ahead of his teammate Hamilton after stopping in lap 43.

In the end, McLaren have actually secured an easy 1-2 and none of the competitors were a real challenge.