Hamilton Wins in Italy While Red Bull Falls Apart

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button surprised everyone yesterday by snatching pole from the grasp of Ferrari at basically the last moment. Can the team convert yesterday's success into victory today? Also Felipe Massa had his best qualifying performance in ages. He starts in third. Could he have his first win of the season on his hands?

As the lights went out Massa and Button fought hard from the beginning, and Massa was able to get by just after the first corner. That put him into second. On lap 2, Alonso got past Raikkonen on the first corner for sixth place. Including the start, Alonso was able to pass four cars in two laps. 

On lap 8, Alonso was finally able to get around Schumacher bringing him up to fifth. One lap later, Jean-Eric Vergne had his rear wheels lock sending him flying, quite literally, off track. He was uninjured but complained of a sore back. 

Through the first 11 laps, the top three drivers stayed the same since the start - Hamilton, Massa and Button. Massa was over three seconds behind Hamilton, and Button was two seconds behind Massa. 

Alonso was knocking on Vettel's door by lap 17. He was just 0.5 seconds behind Vettel and appeared to be catching him. The pass would have brought Alonso up to fourth. Other drivers began pitting about this point. Maldonado was first to pit on lap 15, and on lap 17/18 Rosberg, Schumacher and Raikkonen all pitted. 

Button passed Massa for second in outstanding fashion on lap 20, but it was sadly unnecessary. Massa pitted immediately. That puts Hamilton and Button back to the front.

Vettel and Alonso nearly collided leaving the pit lane on lap 21. Vettel left first, but Alonso was ahead. Vettel got out with just enough time to get by Alonso in the pits. The two men fought constantly for the next several laps and raced through many slower cars. Vettel collided slightly with a Toro Rosso at one point. A few laps later Vettel pushed Alonso off course with all four wheels off. Alonso kept fighting even though the off put him half a second down on Vettel. Alonso finally made the pass on lap 29. 

Button had his pit stop on lap 23 and came out in third. Sergio Perez was ahead of him, but he had not yet taken his stop. Hamilton had a blazing 2.7-second pit stop and came out in second. Again, Perez was ahead of him. Hamilton and Button were second and third but behind a driver who had not pitted. Hamilton got past Perez on lap 29, and Perez pitted a lap later. 

Sebastian Vettel received a drive through penalty on lap 32 for forcing Alonso off track. That put Schumacher into fifth. 

On lap 34, Button pulled to the side of the track with some sort of mechanical failure. There was no smoke or lock up. The car simply stopped. On the radio, the engineers said that the car had a fuel pickup problem. Button leaving the race brings Massa up to second and Alonso into third. It also meant that Michael Schumacher was in fourth and challenging for a podium. After the drive through and Button's car breaking, Vettel was in ninth position. However, he was able to get past Webber relatively quickly to take eighth. 

On lap 40, Alonso passed Massa in what was a fairly clearly team order. Ferrari has never been good at hiding that it favors certain drivers. 

With 10 laps to go, Red Bull engineers came on the radio and told Webber that Vettel has a car problem. They did not say what the problem was. During the same lap, Perez got past Massa for third place. Three laps later, Sauber was able to get past Alonso for second. Perez was lapping a second faster than Hamilton with six laps to go. 

Apparently Webber's engineers were right. On lap 48, Vettel's car stopped working and pulled off. The fault was blamed on the alternator. 

Two laps later, Webber spun as Ascari and dropped down to 13th. There was something wrong with the car, and Webber continued to fall down the order. It appeared that Webber would pull in. 

While Webber had his problems, Nico Hulkenberg pulled his car into the garage. 

Hamilton cruised to the finish in first after an amazing race. The question lingered since Button dropped out if his car would make it. Sergio Perez deserves accolades as well. He passed both factory Ferraris to get to second place, and he was gaining on Hamilton at the end of the race. Alonso qualified 10th and made it up to third. 

In the drivers' points standings, Alonso is still the leader with 179 points and a 37-point lead. Behind him the championship is very tight. Two points separate Lewis Hamilton in second and Sebastian Vettel in fourth. Kimi Raikkonen sits between them. Webber is just eight points down on Vettel. 

Red Bull scored no points today but retain their lead. McLaren is in second, and Ferrari is in third. 

In other Formula 1 related news, this weekend former F1-driver Robert Kubica tested a rally car this week and is taking the first, tiny steps towards a possible F1 return. 

We will see you again in two weeks for the Grand Prix of Singapore.