MONZA, ITALY —
Clive Mason/Getty Images
Fernando Alonso of Spain and Ferrari won the Italian Formula One Grand Prix in Monza, Italy.
The Italian Grand Prix was a drama in two acts on Sunday.
It started with a change of lead roles and finished with a reversal of fortune between the two protagonists that led to a re-exchanging of roles.
With 15 laps left in the race it was to a standing ovation from the bulk of the 85,000 mostly Italian fans in the grandstands that Fernando Alonso retook a lead he had lost at the start to guide his Ferrari team to its — and his — third victory of the season, on the team’s home ground.
“It’s a very, very special win this one,” said Alonso, “a really emotional win.”
It was the 24th victory of Alonso’s career and his second in Monza, where he won in a McLaren Mercedes in 2007. Most importantly, it lifts him back into the fight for the drivers’ title as he climbs from fifth place in the series to third.
Mark Webber retook the lead in the series over Lewis Hamilton, after the latter crashed out on the first lap, and Webber finished sixth.
Webber leads with 187 points, Hamilton is second with 182 and Alonso is third with 166 points. There are five races left in the season, and a victory is worth 25 points.
Alonso’s triumph could have come much more easily and with less drama. The Spaniard started the race from pole position, but he lost position by the first corner to Jenson Button in a McLaren Mercedes, who started second.
Alonso nearly lost another position to his own teammate, Felipe Massa, who started third.
In the first corner, the Spaniard tapped the rear end of Button’s McLaren and then struck Massa.
“I touched with the front nose of the rear of Jenson’s car and I jumped and when I landed I touched Felipe to the right and so two touches in a few meters in the first corner,” said Alonso.
“I thought maybe I had damaged something, and so the first couple of laps were just a check of how the car was behaving. The first 10 seconds of the race were quite stressful and negative because I thought I had a bigger problem.”
Approaching the second corner, Hamilton, the other McLaren driver, tried to pass Massa’s car, but he hit the rear of the Ferrari and broke his right front wheel upright and skidded off the track and out of the race.
“I was trying to position the car in a certain way and I was too close to Massa and he clipped my wheel and there was nothing I could do,” said Hamilton.
“I am very disappointed in myself and sorry for the team.
“It’s not over, but it’s days like this, and mistakes like I made today that lose you world championships,” he added.
Hamilton lost an opportunity to increase his lead in the series, as his main rival, Webber, had a bad start in his Red Bull and dropped back to ninth after starting fourth.
Webber spent the rest of the race fighting his way back up and he finished only sixth, passing the Williams of Nico Hulkenberg with three laps left, after being held up behind it most of the race. But it was enough to put him back into the lead of the series.
“I lost a lot of time behind Hulkenberg, he seemed to spend every second lap going through the chicane,” Webber said.
“I’ve had a better day than Lewis and got more points, but Fernando won the race.”
Still, Alonso’s lost position at the start was a gain for the interest of the race, which would otherwise have been a walkover by Ferrari.
Instead, it became a tight battle for the Spaniard to try to pass Button to retake the lead.
He spent the first 37 laps of the 53-lap race at 1 second or less trailing Button, as Massa settled in to third.
But the Monza circuit is the fastest on the Formula One calendar and with very few slow corners it is nearly impossible to pass. So everything came down to teamwork during the pit stops.
Button stopped first, on Lap 36, and his pit stop lasted 4.2 seconds. Alonso stayed out one more lap in order to make up time on his rival, and then his pit stop was quicker, at 3.4 seconds.
The Spaniard returned to the track just ahead of Button.
There ensued a small battle, but Button said he had less grip than before, and could not catch up, and finished the race in second.
“I didn’t have the pace,” said Button, then referring to Ferrari, he said, “These guys were super fast, I didn’t get more than 1.4, 1.5 seconds ahead the whole race.”
Indeed, once Alonso was ahead, he set one fastest lap after another to win the race.
With only three laps left, he had a misunderstanding passing the Sauber of Pedro de la Rosa, and cut through a corner. But he had already built up sufficient lead to win the race by 2.9 seconds ahead of Button.
Alonso said he was pleased to return to the championship battle, but said that his was still a difficult position to be in.
“There is no room for mistakes, or no room to retire in one race; if we have a problem maybe it is bye-bye to the championship,” Alonso said.
“It is time to deliver now, with five races to go. So let’s try to do our maximum and never give up and we will try knowing it is very difficult.”
A member of the Hispania team was injured during in Monza when Sakon Yamamoto drove off while the man was still working on the car, Reuters reported.
Video footage showed the man, possibly a radio engineer, leaning over the car to fix something while the rest of the pit crew stood back.
He was then struck hard by the rear wing as Yamamoto was released and fell limply to the ground.
Other Formula One teams were notified on timing screens during the race that an ambulance would be entering the pit lane to take the injured man to the race circuit’s medical center.
Hispania said in a statement that the crew member had remained conscious and been talking to a doctor, adding that the situation was under control. There was no immediate word from the medical center.
“I was very worried about the incident in the pit lane,” Yamamoto said. “I asked if he was okay and I was told that he was not badly injured.”
No comments:
Post a Comment