Formula One news
Alonso storms to Monza victory
09 September 2007 / Results / PhotosFernando Alonso stormed to his fourth win of the season, the nineteenth of his career ahead of championship rival Lewis Hamilton, cutting his team mate's championship lead to just three points. Kimi Raikkonen tried his luck on a one-stop race, but couldn't muster any more than third for Ferrari.
Alonso got a clean start from pole, leading into the first corner but behind him Hamilton and Massa were wheel-to-wheel. Hamilton cut across at the start but left too much space and Massa streamed through. The Ferrari moved to cover the inside line into the chicane as Hamilton tried to blast around the outside. The pair had slight contact and Hamilton cut across the apex of the chicane to retake second place.
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At the front Alonso stretched his lead to almost two second before the safety car was deployed to allow marshals to clean up from David Coulthard's accident. The Red Bull suddenly veered off track in the Curva Grande when his front wing failed, smashing into the barriers.
The safety car came in at the end of lap six and the race was back on. Hamilton had a feint go at the back of Alonso into the first corner, but the reigning champion was having none of it. The order then stabilised as the McLaren pair led Massa, Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Kubica, Kovalainen and Rosberg.
Massa came in for an unexpected pit stop on lap nine, resumed, but his Ferrari was very slow. The Brazilian crawled back to the pits to retire, and not even a legal move from any magistrate in Modena could change poor Massa's luck.
At the front Alonso led Hamilton by 1.6s on lap 15 who was a further eight seconds ahead of Raikkonen. Hamilton was the first to blink and pitted on lap 18 for fuel and tyres. Alonso stayed out two laps longer, making his qualifying achievement from Saturday afternoon all the more impressive, and rejoined the race comfortably ahead of Hamilton.
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Raikkonen took the lead on Ferrari's home soil, courtesy of his one-stop strategy and on lap 24 was 19 seconds ahead of the McLarens. The sole-remaining Ferrari pitted on lap 25 for its single fuel and tyre stop of the race, releasing two-stopping Alonso and Hamilton into the lead for the chase to the chequered flag.
In the middle sector Alonso extended his lead over Hamilton - reaching five seconds by lap 34. Raikkonen could not keep pace on a heavy fuel load and hard tyres, slipping to 26s behind Alonso by that same point.
Hamilton made his second pit stop on lap 40, but had not made enough advantage to emerge ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, the Finn stealing second place. Alonso continued on his charge out front, but Hamilton wasn't about to sit pretty in third, taking a wild lunge down the inside of Raikkonen into the first chicane on lap 42 to take back second place. Meanwhile team mate Alonso cruised in for his second and final pit stop of the afternoon.
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The final laps were a procession to the flag as Alonso cruised home to a dominant win to close to within three points of Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship. Raikkonen salvaged third for Ferrari, but increasingly his, and Ferrari's chances look to have slipped away - unless the countless legal actions the team is conjuring up left-right-and-centre can take hold.
Heidfeld drove his typically unspectacular but competent race to take another fourth place for BMW ahead of Kubica who did well to climb back up to third after a lengthy first pit stop. Rosberg continued to impress by taking sixth for Williams.
Kovalainen's outclassing of Giancarlo Fisichella continued as he brought his Renault home in seventh while all Fisichella could manage in a crucial time for contract renewal negotiations was thirteenth.
Finally in eighth, Jenson Button got a point payback for a much better weekend for Honda - Barrichello ended the race tenth behind Mark Webber's Red Bull.
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