Podium Finish For Ferrari In Italy

Podium Finish For Ferrari In Italy

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro salvaged third place in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on Sunday as the McLaren Mercedes team sailed to a dominant one-two - Fernando Alonso ahead of Lewis Hamilton - as dominant as Ferrari had been two weeks earlier in Turkey.

Kimi Raikkonen finished third, suffering from the after-effects of his huge practice accident as he found difficulty in keeping his head upright during the final stages of the race.

"This was definitely a tough race for me because of the pain I felt in my neck after yesterday's accident, which was bad enough to make it hard for me to hold my head steady under braking," explained Raikkonen.

"Having said that, today we were not really quick enough. We knew it would not be an easy weekend, as we had already realized that in last week's test, with Friday and yesterday confirming it. The car was not bad in the first stint but then we were not strong enough. Hamilton's overtaking move? I tried to defend my position but he was definitely quicker than me. In the final stages I slowed to save the car for the next race. We were keen to win in front of our fans but we did not manage it.

At least I got onto the podium. Now we tackle another fascinating circuit at Spa-Francorchamps where I think that we and our closest rivals will be more evenly matched." Felipe Massa, sadly was one of two retirements after just ten laps of the race.

"I am very disappointed," said Massa. "It's horrible to see your chances go in the early stages because of a reliability problem. There was something not working with the rear suspension: coming into Ascari I could feel a problem under braking and came into the pits, thinking it might be due to a puncture. However, once the tyres were changed that was still undriveable and I had to retire. We must tackle the coming races with the same spirit. Here we were competitive and I think that will be the same in the near future.

This is very disappointing but these things happen in racing." Under warm, sunny skies, Alonso took the lead on the run down to the first corner from Massa who nipped into second place, but Hamilton came round the outside and nearly overtook his teammate in the first chicane. Massa gave Hamilton a harmless tap as he slithered into second place, with Massa taking third, and Raikkonen getting ahead of Nick Heidfeld for fourth place, the BMW Sauber driver then followed by his teammate Robert Kubica.

Heikki Kovalainen slotted into seventh place ahead of Nico Rosberg. After a four lap safety car period due to David Coulthard hitting the barrier without injury, the race got underway with Alonso leading Hamilton, the pair pulling away from Ferrari who lost Massa from third place on lap nine with a rear suspension problem. By lap ten, the gap to Raikkonen was 4.6s, the Finn gradually pulling out a gap to the following BMW Saubers. Hamilton made McLaren's first stop on lap 18, by which time they had a 10s gap over Raikkonen, while Alonso came in two laps later.

Raikkonen, who was on soft tyres, stayed out until lap 25 - a lap short of half distance therefore clearly on a one-stop strategy. At half distance, the McLaren pair were just 2.3s apart with Raikkonen only 12s further back in third place, but that gap soon began to grow, with the Ferrari now on Bridgestone's harder compound tyres. Furthermore, the Finn was having trouble keeping his head up due to a stiff neck, particularly suffering in the long right-handed Parabolica leading onto Monza's long pit straight.

However, Hamilton was having trouble staying with his teammate in this middle stint, having suffered vibration from his tyres and the gap grew to nearly six seconds when Hamilton again made the first of McLaren's stops. By this stage, his advantage over Raikkonen had doubled to 24s, and when he emerged from the pits, he was just behind the Ferrari. Knowing that he had only a couple of laps optimum performance from his new tyres, Hamilton rapidly went on the offensive, and taking advantage of Raikkonen's problems in the final corner, he slipstreamed up to the Ferrari but still had to outbrake the Finn going into the first chicane on lap 43.

The pair were close, both made the chicane itself, but Hamilton was ahead, and that spelt the end of Ferrari's challenge. Alonso won by just 6.0s from Hamilton who remains in the lead of the championship by three points. Raikkonen was in a safe third place and dropped back in the closing stages to clinch the final podium place. Heidfeld and Kubica were fourth and fifth, the latter overtaking Rosberg after a slow pit stop, but the Williams driver still clinched sixth place from Renault's Kovalainen, while Jenson Button claimed eighth place for Honda. With four races to go - the next in Belgium next weekend - Hamilton leads the Drivers' championship with 92 pts to Alonso's 89, while Raikkonen has 74 to Massa's 69. McLaren have 166 pts to Ferrari's 143.

ENDS

© Scoop Media