The result of Italian Grand Prix 2007 was somewhat obvious from the time McLaren imposed their strong presence during Friday Practice. McLaren devastated their rivals with their superb pace. Not much changed during the Qualifying as McLaren drivers quite easily snatched the first row of the Monza grid with Alonso on pole position. For Ferrari, Massa was third on grid and Kimi turned up a disappointing 5th after a horrific crash earlier in the day.
On Raceday, Kimi Raikkonen woke up with a sore neck and back but decided to race. Little did he realize that the next 53 laps were probably going to be his most painful yet. He got off to a great start, overtaking Nick Heidfeld by the first turn. Felipe Massa managed to get past Hamilton but his joy was short-lived as Lewis regained his position by shooting a chicane, the legality of which can be questioned. The stewards decided against taking any action for the incident.
Shortly afterwards, Massa retired with a suspension failure. All these while, Fernando Alonso was increasing his gap for the lead. Both he and Lewis Hamilton were comfortably ahead of 3rd placed Raikkonen by the time they made their 1st pit-stop. McLaren looked a bit concerned when Kimi came into the pits on lap 25 which meant he was on a 1-stop strategy as against 2-stops each for the McLaren drivers. They immediately increased their pace and were lapping up to 1.5 seconds faster than the Ferrari of Kimi.
For the second round of pit-stops, Hamilton came in first and was overtaken by Kimi. This was much to the delight of Tifosi fans as Monza is Ferrari’s home race. However, Lewis pulled off a dangerous yet brave overtaking move taking Kimi by surprise. Kimi was visibly struggling with a heavy car, used tires and his neck injury. He tried to defend his position but it was too late. McLaren claimed 1-2 in Monza after a brilliant winning performance by Alonso who reduced the lead to championship leader by another 2 points.
Kimi secured the 3rd place for Ferrari. He is now 5 points clear of his team-mate Massa in the Driver’s Championship but 15 points behind Alonso. Its looking extremely bleak for Ferrari in both the championships unless the famous F1 Spy Scandal springs up a surprise announcement when they meet this Thursday for another hearing. The next race is just a week from now and a great race is expected. The complete results from this race are as follows:
1 - Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Mercedes - 53 - 1:18:37.806
2 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren-Mercedes - 53 - +6.0 secs
3 - Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari - 53 - +27.3 secs
4 - Nick Heidfeld - BMW - 53 - +56.5 secs
5 - Robert Kubica - BMW - 53 - +60.5 secs
6 - Nico Rosberg - Williams-Toyota - 53 - +65.8 secs
7 - Heikki Kovalainen - Renault - 53 - +66.7 secs
8 - Jenson Button - Honda - 53 - +72.1 secs
9 - Mark Webber - Red Bull-Renault - 53 - +75.8 secs
10 - Rubens Barrichello - Honda - 53 - +76.9 secs
11 - Jarno Trulli - Toyota - 53 - +77.7 secs
12 - Giancarlo Fisichella - Renault - 52 - +1 Lap
13 - Alexander Wurz - Williams-Toyota - 52 - +1 Lap
14 - Anthony Davidson - Super Aguri-Honda - 52 - +1 Lap
15 - Ralf Schumacher - Toyota - 52 - +1 Lap
16 - Takuma Sato - Super Aguri-Honda - 52 - +1 Lap
17 - Vitantonio Liuzzi - STR-Ferrari - 52 - +1 Lap
18 - Sebastian Vettel - STR-Ferrari - 52 - +1 Lap
19 - Adrian Sutil - Spyker-Ferrari - 52 - +1 Lap
20 - Sakon Yamamoto - Spyker-Ferrari - 52 - +1 Lap
Ret - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 10 - Suspension
Ret - David Coulthard - Red Bull-Renault - 1 - Accident
