Fernando Alonso wins the Italian Grand Prix
Fernando Alonso of Ferrari followed up his pole position from yesterday by winning the Italian Grand Prix in front of the home fans.
The Spaniard was made to work for the victory in his first outing at Monza as a Ferrari driver by reigning world champion Jenson Button.
Button, starting from second on the grid, jumped Alonso at the start and maintained the lead up until the pit stops, where Button and his McLaren team made the first move on lap 37. However, Alonso was able to get the advantage back and take his third win of the season.
Button and Alonso were the two best drivers today, with Alonso staying with Button throughout the grand prix and waiting for his opportunity. To cap off a fine day for Ferrari, Alonso’s teammate Felipe Massa took third place after he drove a solid race as well.
Ferrari needed the race win today and so did Alonso to have any chance of winning this year’s constructors’ and drivers’ world championship, and Alonso now finds himself 21 points off leader Mark Webber, who finished in sixth for Red Bull.
Lewis Hamilton was leading the drivers’ standings before the race, but a costly error from him on the first lap- where he hit the side of Massa’s car and broke his steering- has put him five points adrift of Webber.
Sebastian Vettel in the other Red Bull somehow managed to salvage fourth position after it was looking like he would retire from the race with an engine issue. He didn’t retire, and to his credit took a valuable fourth place to keep his championship dreams alive. The young German is only 24 points off his teammate Webber.
All that matters today was that Alonso driving in a Ferrari winning the Italian Grand Prix for the passionate Italian fans, who have had to wait four years for their team to take a win at this famous Monza track.
It wouldn’t quite be Monza without a Ferrari taking the race win would it?
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