Juan Pablo Montoya won the Italian Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday and Renault’s Fernando Alonso finished second to maintain the inside track on the season championship.
Alonso’s teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella, was third and McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth for the most impressive performance of the day.
Due to an engine-change penalty, Raikkonen was relegated to an 11th-place start after posting the fastest qualifying time. Using a one pit-stop strategy, Raikkonen kept his losses to a minimum in the drivers’ standings, losing only three points to Alonso.
Alonso leads with 103 points to Raikkonen’s 76 with four races remaining and wins worth 10 points each.
Montoya had a smooth race until a problem developed with his rear left tire on the final laps and Alonso started gaining on him.
The race finished just in time for Montoya, however, and the Colombian won in 1 hour, 14 minutes, 28,659 seconds.
Alonso finished 2,4 seconds back. Fisichella was 17,9 seconds behind, with Raikkonen at 22,7 seconds behind.
It was the sixth victory of Montoya’s career and second at Monza, where he won his first Grand Prix in 2001. Montoya also won the British GP in July for his only other victory this season.
McLaren’s first and fourth placings were worth one more point than Renault’s second and third. McLaren now trails Renault by eight points in the constructors’ standings. – Sapa-AP