Alonso Dominates Italian Grand Prix For First Victory At Monza

[PressRoom-GFN]

By Mike Lane

MONZA, Italy (Sept. 9, 2007) – With the spy scandal still hanging over McLaren, this has been a difficult weekend for the team, so it was important to perform well on Ferrari’s home turf.

With a front row lock by McLaren in qualifying, the prospects seemed promising. When the start lights went out, Fernando Alonso got a great start, but Lewis Hamilton was slightly slower off the line. That allowed Felipe Massa in the lead Ferrari to head him into the first bend. However, the one thing we have learned about Hamilton in his “rookie” season is that he is a racer and he doesn’t believe in conceding. Hamilton left his braking very late and passed Massa on the left side to go around the outside through the right hand bend at the end of the straight. This is followed immediately by a left turn where Hamilton now held the inside lane. With Massa coming across to the apex, he may have been surprised to find Hamilton there and the cars touched, pushing the McLaren across the inside run-off area. Neither car was damaged and Hamilton was judged not to have taken an unfair advantage.

In this frantic opening sequence, Kimi Raikkonen forged ahead of Nick Heidfeld in the BMW to take fourth, while David Coulthard made contact with another car and broke his car's front wing. The damage quickly led to the Red Bull driver spearing off the track and hitting the tire wall obliquely for a heavy impact.

With carbon fiber shards scattered across the track, the safety car was deployed on lap 2 and remained on the course until lap 6. None of the drivers elected to come in for an early pit stop, which would have changed their strategy.

When the safety car came in and the race restarted, Alonso maintained his lead with Hamilton second and the two Ferraris behind.

At the back of the pack, the Japanese driver Sakon Yamamoto was ahead of his teammate, Adrian Sutil, in the Spykers.

With the beginning of lap10, Massa, in the Ferrari, made a pit stop, which was too early for a scheduled one. It was a long stop at 11 seconds and didn’t look good. He rejoined the race, but on the next lap was forced to retire with what was to suggest a mechanical problem at the car's rear.

On lap 15, Alonso led by 1.4 seconds over Hamilton, who was 9 seconds ahead of Raikkonen. Meanwhile, a fierce battle was underway between Nico Rosberg in the Williams and Jenson Button for Honda. Rosberg has been impressive this season with some strong performances. Rumors are that other teams may be looking at him for next season, Frank Williams insists he is not for sale. Button also continues to impress with his skillful, smooth style and could be considered one of the unluckiest drivers to be with Honda at a time when their performance has been poor.

When Hamilton pitted on lap 19, Raikkonen moved up to second place behind Alonso, but with the length of the main straight between them. Two laps later, Alonso made his first pit stop, which underlined his performance in qualifying when he outpaced Hamilton with two more laps of fuel in the car. For the first time Raikkonen led the race while his nearest rival, Heidfeld, also pitted.

During Kubica's pit stop on lap 24, his BMW fell off the front jack and delayed the Polish driver for a 17.3-second stop. As a result, he emerged in 11th with his race seemingly compromised.

By this point, Raikkonen in the Ferrari was some 19 seconds ahead of Alonso and had not yet stopped. It seemed as though he might be going for a one-stop strategy. His eventual stop on lap 26 seemed to seriously point to that strategy and if so, might compromise Hamilton’s race since he had to stop again.

By lap 30, Raikkonen was only 19 seconds behind Hamilton, which was less than the time required for a pit stop. Raikkonen’s strategy was looking as if there might be a chance for Ferrari to snatch second place.

With a number of pit stops occurring over a few laps, it became clear that many of the mid-field runners were ‘one-stopping’.

On lap 40, Hamilton came in for his last pit stop and then the attention was on Raikkonen and whether Hamilton would re-emerge in front. The McLaren mechanics did a superb job, but as Hamilton exited the pit lane, Raikkonen flashed past to take second. The Ferrari strategy seemed to have paid off.

With only 13 laps remaining, it looked as though Ferrari would spoil McLaren’s fun -- and on home soil.

Lower in the points positions, Nico Rosberg was in a creditable sixth place and Heikki Kovaleinen for Renault emerged from his last pit stop to take seventh, relegating Button to the last point scoring position.

Hamilton continued to chase Raikkonen's Ferrari, but this is a high speed circuit where overtaking opportunities are limited.

The race was now at the point when drivers are thinking about preserving their cars, because the engines have to last two weekends. So the finishing order seemed to be settled. Of course, as I said earlier, Hamilton is not the type of driver we have come to expect. He might be a “rookie” but he really wants to fight for the championship and on lap 43 he pulled a stunning, overtaking move into the chicane at the end of the straight to retake second. Raikkonen went defensive, but he could not have expected the new driver to out-brake him with a mighty maneuver, which required Hamilton to fling the car sideways in the first part of the bend to slow it.

The following lap Alonso made his last pit stop and emerged with a clear lead over Hamilton, who, in turn, seemed secure in front of Raikkonen.

As the race moved into the last five laps, it was clear the cars had backed off slightly to preserve them for next weekend in Belgium.

The final positions in the race as Alonso took the checkered flag were:

Alonso won in 1:18: 37.806 with an average speed of 234.047 km/h.
2nd Hamilton +6.0 secs
3rd Raikkonen +27.3secs
4th Heidfeld +56.5secs
5thKubica +1.00.5min
6th Rosberg +1.05.8min
7th Kovaleinen
8th Button
9th Webber
10th Barrichello
11th Trulli
12th Fisichella +1 lap
13th Wurz +1 lap
14th Davidson +1 lap
15th Ralph Schumacher +1 lap
16th Sato +1 lap
17th Liuzzi +1 lap
18th Vettel +1 lap
19th Sutil +1 lap
20th Yamamoto +1 lap
Massa unclassified
Coulthard unclassified


The Championship points are as follows:-
Drivers
Hamilton 92
Alonso 89
Raikkonen 74
Massa 69
Heidfeld 52
Kubica 33
Kovaleinen 21
Fisichella 17
Wurz 13
Rosberg 12
Coulthard 8
Webber 8
Trulli 7
Schumacher 5
Sato 4
Button 2
Vettel 1

Constructors
McLaren 166
Ferrari 143
BMW 86
Renault 38
Williams 25
Red Bull 16
Toyota 12
Super Aguri 4
Honda 2