Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the 53-lap Italian Grand Prix and despite some last lap dramas that saw his lead reduced from ten seconds to just over two seconds, took a commanding win for McLaren Mercedes from the Renault duo of Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella.
The start of the race saw Montoya make a clean getaway from his Pole Position with Alonso tucking in behind and from that point onwards, there was little doubt over the finishing order at the front. Montoya, like team-mate Kimi Raikkonen would suffer with a left rear tyre problem in the closing stages, but he had enough of a margin to take the chequered flag ahead of the Championship leader.
"I could see the tyre breaking up and it went really bad, there was no grip. You could not push," said Montoya. "It was just like, go as slow as you can, I brought it back up to full power and that helped, but I couldn't go any quicker, it was a big risk to go off, but fortunately it was okay."
Alonso drove a solid race but never seemed to have the pace to challenge for the lead. It was however a perfect day for the Spaniard as he finished ahead of team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella and Also his title rival Kimi Raikkonen.
Giancarlo Fisichella made it back onto the podium for the first time since his Australian Grand Prix triumph at the start of the season, putting in a solid performance and making best of his very long first stint to move from eighth to third, a position he would hold to the end.
Kimi Raikkonen started the race 24 points behind Alonso in the championship battle and lost further ground today as everything that could go wrong pretty much did for the unfortunate Finn.
Starting 11th as a result of his ten position engine change penalty, Raikkonen made a tentative start, keen not to get into any first corner incidents and found himself bottled up behind the fast starting Sauber Petronas of Jacques Villeneuve. Losing two seconds a lap to the leaders Raikkonen bided his time, staying out longer than anyone else before making his one and only scheduled pit stop. This vaulted the Finn right up the order and he looked to be in contention for second position behind team-mate Montoya.
Soon after his second stop, the McLaren driver was back in the pits having picked up a puncture on the left rear of his McLaren. Raikkonen rejoined the race and battled hard only to spin in the closing staged allowing Jarno Trulli though for position. Still not done, Raikkonen made easy work of the Toyota driver to finish in fourth position, 23 seconds behind team-mate Montoya.
23 seconds of course is about the length of a pit stop at Monza, so Raikkonen will leave Monza shortly well aware that a tyre problem may well have cost him the chance of the win and more importantly, allowed Alonso’s championship lead to increase still further.
Jarno Trulli drove a solid race for Toyota. The Italian started fifth and finished in the same position 11 seconds behind Raikkonen and ten seconds ahead of Ralf Schumacher in the sister TF105. It was a good performance from Toyota who extends its advantage over rivals BMW Williams in the constructors’ championship.
Starting 16th, Antonio Pizzonia drove a superb race for BMW Williams to finish in seventh position for the team, less than a second behind Ralf Schumacher. The Williams test driver was drafted in yesterday morning to replace the unwell Nick Heidfeld and never put a foot wrong all day long and made best of a very long first stint to move up through the field. With team-mate Mark Webber in the wars again, it seems BMW Williams may have selected the wrong former Jaguar driver to lead the team this year.
Jenson button started third and ran in the same position early on. It was clear from the outset that BAR Honda had flattered only to deceive in qualifying as he was quickly dropped by Alonso and Montoya at the font of the pack. Pitting before his major rivals, Button lost ground through out the day and would finish just eighth in a disappointing day for the BAR Honda team.
Felipe Massa has a quiet race in his Sauber Petronas and would finish ninth but out of the points ahead of Michael Schumacher who went off track in the closing stages and lost ground to eighth place Button who he was chasing for the final point. It was a dismal race for Ferrari with Schumacher just tenth and Rubens Barrichello 12th after a late pitstop for a left rear tyre.
Jacques Villeneuve was 11th in the second Sauber Petronas a lap down with his short first stint not really paying dividends for the team while it was a tough race for Red Bull Cosworth with Christian Klien never really a factor and 13th and Coulthard 15th after a first lap pitstop for a damaged wing.
The run to the first turn saw Coulthard, Webber and Narain Karthikeyan all pitting at the end of the lap following what was fairly minor contact. Webber would finish 14th ahead of Coulthard while Takuma Sato seemed to have a fuel rig problem and had to pit an extra time, thus dropping him right out of contention for no fault of his own. Sato would finish 16th.
At the back, Tiago Monteiro finished two laps down in his Jordan Toyota ahead of Robert Doornbos in the leading Minardi. Christijan Albers ran 19th throughout and also received a drive through penalty for ignoring the blue flags. It mattered little as he would finish in the same position ahead of Karthikeyan who was yet another lap adrift in the second Jordan.
In terms of passing, there was little action at Monza with the front row of the grid taking the top two positions with Fisichella gaining ground on strategy to finish in third. For Raikkonen it was a damage limitation mission as problem after problem hit the Finn. The F1 circus packs up and heads straight to Spa Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix next weekend.