UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > McLaren remain masters at Monza

1-2 on Ferrari soil

He was strong all weekend, so it would only make sense that Fernando Alonso would take victory today at Monza. The McLaren driver lead the race from start to finish, with his only real challenge coming from his team mate, Lewis Hamilton, in the early stages of the race. After the first pit stop, it became more obvious that the race would be Alonso's. Hamilton still finished the race in a fine second place, however, his lead in the championship is now down to three points.

Taking the final spot on the podium was Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn, still admitting to feeling the effects of his shunt in final practice, still put on a good performance to come third in spite of his sore neck. Team mate Felipe Massa was not so fortunate, however. The Brazilian began the race in third and looked like he had the pace to take it to McLaren, but it was not to be. At around lap ten, Massa suddenly headed for the pit lane in what was believed to be an unscheduled stop. Those beliefs soon turned true as on the out lap Massa suddenly began to slow in what looked to be some form of suspension failure.

Finishing in fourth was Nick Heidfeld for BMW, another fine drive from the German. Team mate Robert Kubica finished fifth, a great performance from him considering the disastrous first pit stop he encountered. The entire stop took a total of seventeen seconds as a result of the front jack slipping under the front wing.

Taking sixth position was Nico Rosberg for Williams, seventh went to Heikki Kovalainen for Renault, and taking the final point was Jenson Button for Honda. A fantastic effort from those drivers. Just missing out on the points were Mark Webber (Red Bull) in ninth and Rubens Barrichello (Honda) in tenth.

In retrospect to their team mates finishing in points positions, it was not a good day for David Coulthard (Red Bull), Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) and Alexander Wurz (Williams). Both Fisichella and Wurz finished 12th and 13th, but Coulthard had a more serious incident. Around lap two, something suddenly came away from the front of his car, he flew off track at the Curva Grande and collided heavily with the wall. Luckily though, he emerged from the cockpit, thankfully unhurt.

Toyota had another disaster race with Jarno Trulli starting in ninth, slipping down the field and eventually finishing 11th while Ralf Schumacher started 18th and finished 15th.

The Super Aguri team had a decent enough race with Anthony Davidson finishing 14th and Takuma Sato finishing 16th.

Both Vitantonio Liuzzi and Sebastian Vettel finished 17th and 18th respectively for Toro Rosso.

Taking up the final two positions on the track were the Spykers of Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto. A disappointing result for Spyker, who were looking to do better given that they were running their new B-spec car for the first time this weekend.

Ferrari definitely took a serious blow here scoring only six points in contrast to McLaren's eighteen. The gap between them is now out to 23 points. With only four races left, can Ferrari get back in the hunt?

Written: Sun, 09 Sep 2007 14:26:54