McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya drove a faultless if troubled race to his second race win at Monza when he won Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix. But he was only 2.479s ahead of Fernando Alonso after 53 laps as he suffered a damaged rear tyre in the final six laps which saw his lead reduced from eleven seconds. Alonso was followed home by Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella.

Montoya’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth, having had to change a damaged tyre earlier in the race, with the two Toyotas of Jarno Trulli fifth and Ralf Schumacher sixth. Michael Schumacher finished tenth after a late race excursion which cost him one place while Rubens Barrichello, who led his teammate for much of the race, finished 12th after having to pit to change a damaged rear tyre. Montoya took straight off into the lead at the start of the race in warm conditions, heading Alonso, Jenson Button, Takuma Sato (BARs), Barrichello and Michael Schumacher. Fisichella was next from Ralf Schumacher, then Jacques Villeneuve (Sauber) with Raikkonen close behind him.

Montoya quickly opened up a 2.4s lead over Alonso, but there it stabilised. However, the pair were soon pulling away from the BARs, while the lighter Ferraris moved ahead of Trulli in the opening stages, only for Trulli to get back ahead of Michael again on lap four. However, they now gathered behind Sato: Barrichello, Trulli, Michael and Fisichella. Ralf Schumacher was next under pressure from Villeneuve and Raikkonen. Montoya’s lead over Alonso never grew to more than 2.7s during the opening stages, the Colombian suffering oversteer. But by the time the first of the BARs pitted – Sato making the first of two stops on lap 16 - they were 17s behind. But at least Sato had pulled away a little bit from those behind, particularly as the Ferraris came in on laps 13 and 14 as had Villeneuve, allowing Raikkonen a clear track.

Alonso was next to pit on lap 19, the Renault driver finding opposition from championship rival Raikkonen as he came out of the pits when he understeered off at the first corner, and then being overtaken by the Finn two corners later. Massa also pitted on that lap, while Montoya and Trulli came in on lap 20. Fisichella was relatively late, pitting on lap 21, but Raikkonen didn’t come in until lap 25. After the stops, Montoya’s lead had grown to 9.3s from Alonso, but now Fisichella had leaped into third place ahead of Trulli in fourth. Raikkonen was fifth for a couple of laps before he suffered a cut left rear tyre and had to pit again on lap 28, dropping to eleventh.

Again, Montoya’s lead over Alonso remained fairly stable at around nine seconds throughout the middle stint before the second round of pit stops. Behind the leading pair, Fisichella slipped from 16s behind to 21s, but at the same time, he eased away from Trulli in fourth place, and he was just pulling away from Button in fifth. Ralf Schumacher was next, just ahead of the Barrichello and teammate Michael. Button was first to pit again on lap 35, with the Ferraris stopping next. Alonso came in on lap 39 and Montoya, Fisichella and Trulli came in a lap later. Ralf pitted on lap 41, while Barrichello made a second stop to replace a punctured tyre on lap 42.

After the pit stops, Montoya led by 11 seconds from Alonso. Fisichella was 16s back in third place, from Trulli in fourth. But he was overtaken by Raikkonen at the Parabolica on lap 47 – just before Montoya suddenly began to lose time with similar tyre damage to Raikkonen’s earlier in the race. His 11s lead became 9.3s, then 7.4s, 6.2s, 4.9s and then 3.5s and 2.4s on the last lap. But Alonso felt he couldn’t catch the McLaren, and Montoya won by that margin. Alonso was happy to finish second, ahead of teammate Fisichella, while Raikkonen was fourth from the Toyotas of Trulli and Ralf, the latter caught in the closing stages by Nick Heidfeld’s Williams replacement Antonio Pizzonia.
 

Final point scorer was Button after a disappointing race. Michael was running ninth but went off at the Lesmo 2 on the 50th lap and damaged his car, but held on to tenth place. The delayed Barrichello was two places behind. For the first time since the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix, there wasn’t a single retirement during the race.

Jean Todt: “Yet another painful day in what has been a difficult season for us. We fought really hard to try and finish in the points, but we did not manage it. This was another big disappointment with both cars making it to the finish but with no points to our name. We are very disappointed for our fans and our staff who were here in the grandstand at Monza. The main problem afflicting us is, as everyone knows, a lack of grip and all we can do is continue to work with our partners at Bridgestone to fix it. Next weekend, in the Belgian Grand Prix, at Spa-Francorchamps, we can once again expect a difficult weekend. But hopefully we can show that this current situation can be turned around in the final three rounds of the championship. Despite the fact that we are going through very difficult times, the team and the drivers have once again worked very hard. We have shown that we are really determined to get the most out of the package we have at our disposal.”

Michael Schumacher: “Clearly, our race did not go well and we were much too slow. We are nowhere near where we want to be but we have to live with it. You could say we were a bit better than in Turkey, but that is still not good enough. Running ninth, I was prepared to take some risks to get a point, but I risked a bit too much and went off the track, which lost me a place. There is no point in getting angry about our situation, we must simply try and improve, maybe in time for Spa, although that is unlikely, but possibly before the end of the season. The championship was obviously lost a while ago, but we have had a lot of good years before this one. There is no need to give up because this is all part of competition. I feel sorry for the tifosi and thank them for their support, even though we were not able to deliver them a good result.”

Rubens Barrichello: “We had to adopt quite a risky strategy this afternoon, as we knew we were not really quick enough. So we were fighting to get into the points, but were unable to do it. Unfortunately the car was running with very light downforce and when you got close to a car in front it was therefore very difficult to overtake. I had a good start and the momentum took me up to fifth place and I think I could have finished eighth which is the best we could have hoped for today. But unfortunately a puncture on my left rear meant that even this was out of reach.”

Ross Brawn: “Obviously this was a difficult race for us. We really needed better starts than we had in order to suit our chosen strategy, so that held us up in the early stages. Rubens had a puncture on his left rear tyre which spoiled his race and then in the closing stages, Michael went off at Turn 8 and did some damage to his car which affected his race. Generally, the cars performed okay, but we simply did not have the overall performance we needed and we must continue working to try and understand and rectify that situation.”

Michael Schumacher: 10th +1.36.070 53 laps chassis 249; Rubens Barrichello: 12th + 1 lap 52 laps chassis 248; Temperatures: air 28 °C, track 40/41 °C