Alonso wins Italian GP

Fernando Alonso had a perfect pit-stop to win Ferrari’s Italian home Grand Prix from world champion Jenson Button on Sunday.

McLaren’s Button beat the pole-sitter Alonso at the start but the Spaniard rebounded thanks to his super-fast pit crew in the 39th lap to get his third season victory and 24th overall.

Button came second and Felipe Massa was third in the second Ferrari, just four days after the Italian team escaped sanctions from the ruling body FIA over a team-order issue.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton damaged his right front wheel in the first lap which forced him to retire and hand the championship lead back to Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who finished sixth.

The Australian, Webber, has 187 points from 14 of 19 races, Hamilton 182, Alonso 166, Button 165 and German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel 162 in what promises to be a dramatic season finale over the final five races.

Alonso failed to capitalize on his first pole of the season as Button won the start from second place on the grid. But there was also despair for McLaren a few seconds later when Hamilton was too aggressive against third-placed Massa into the Della Roggia chicane. The cars touched and Hamilton damaged his right front wheel which sent him out in the following turn.

“I put my car up the inside and tried to get third — it was obviously a little bit too much. I’m very disappointed in myself. The championship is not over, but it’s mistakes like I made today that lose world championships,” said Hamilton.

The Red Bulls had nothing to laugh either as Webber had another disaster start to drop from fourth to ninth in the first lap, and Vettel went down from fifth to seventh.

Webber later passed Vettel for seventh place as the German complained about engine problems in the 21st lap before salvaging a remarkable fourth place with a final lap pit stop.

Up front, Button held off early attempts from Alonso before settling into a rhythm which did not allow the Spaniard another attack as McLaren seemed determined to spoil the Ferrari party.

However, the pit stops eventually made the difference as Alonso’s stand-time in the 38th of 53 laps was 0.8 seconds shorter than Button’s the previous lap.

Alonso then cruised to Ferrari’s first Monza win since Michael Schumacher in 2006, completing the race over 306.720 kilometres in 1 hour 16 minutes 24.572 seconds.

The Monza race marked the end of the European part of the season.

The next race is the Singapore GP race on September 26.