Race Notes - Hamilton wins Italian GP from pole

Lewis Hamilton won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza today in the McLaren-Mercedes over a fast closing Sergio Perez in the Sauber-Ferrari, 4.3 seconds behind in second place, and Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari, 20.5 seconds behind the leader in third place.

Hamilton won the race, only giving up the lead during his one pit stop of the race. Perez made a late race charge up the order after running a long first stint after starting on the hard compound tyre, and running fast laps on soft compound tyres in the final laps of the race. Alonso, after starting the race in tenth place, worked his way up to second place, but had to cede the position to Perez with a handful of laps remaining.

Felipe Massa (20.6s) in the second Ferrari finished fourth, followed by Kimi Raikkonen (30.8s) in the Lotus-Renault in fifth, Michael Schumacher (31.2s) in the Mercedes GP was sixth, his team mate Nico Rosberg (33.5s) was seventh, Paul di Resta (41.0s) in the Force India-Mercedes was eighth, Kamui Kobayashi (43.8s) in the second Sauber was ninth and Bruno Senna (48.1s) in the Williams-Renault finished in the final points paying position.

At the start Hamilton stormed off into the lead early in the race, Massa jumping past Button at the start.

Button was able to pass Massa after eighteen laps, the McLarens running 1-2.

While battling for fourth position Alonso attempted to pass Vettel at the Curva Grande, went to the outside and Vettel did not give him enough room, forcing the Ferrari to run wide and put four wheels off the track. A short while later Alonso was able to pass the Red Bull driver, but then the Stewards handed Vettel a drive-through penalty.

On lap 34 Jenson Button dropped out of the race with a fuel pickup problem while running second behind his team mate.

On lap 43, Perez who pitted for soft tyres after running a long first stint on the harder tyres, made a late race push, the fastest of the lead runners, passed Massa for third place.

On lap 46 Perez passed Alonso for second place.

On lap 48 Sebastian Vettel dropped out of the race with a suspected alternator failure while running in sixth place.