Ah, Monza. Another of the old-school circuits, where the lack of huge pit buildings, shiny surfaces everywhere and buckets of cash means it's all about the racing. And a flippin' good one it was too - if you ignore Seb.
One Italian got of to a flier for his home race at least, as Trulli somewhat surprisingly got re-signed by Lotus. I though he was bound to get dropped at the end of the year, but hey. Seems that, now he's figured out how the steering works, the team are happy with him again.
Toasty conditions and long straights with minimal breaking zones tends to muddle things up a bit at Monza, but that wasn't really reflected after quali, with pointyfinger half a second ahead of everyone, chased forlornly by Hamilton (new policy - don't criticize anything), Button (wear ridiculously big shades at every opportunity), Alonso (smile a lot - hope for the best), Webber (I could have been a contender) and Massa (yes, I am still driving a Ferrari. Over here! Hello!!).
Alonso did his best to give the Tifosi and lift by toughing it out down the inside with Vettel and Hamilton at the start, snatching a surprise lead at the first corner. Whilst he was probably wondering why there was no-one in front of him, The drivers taken out by Liuzzi probably didn't even know what hit them. Having embarrassed himself in front of his home crowd, at least Tonio had the company of Rosberg and Petrov for the walk back to the garage - although the conversation probably wasn't too friendly. Kobayashi and Barrichello limped round with damaged cars too, and post-race Liuzzi paid a terrible price, when he was handed a 5 place grid penalty at the next race. The man who starts on the back row. Brilliant move, stewards, that'll show him!
The Safety Car deployed after Liuzzi's demolition derby headed pitwards on Lap 3, but an oddly dozy Hamilton seemed not to notice and was mugged by Schumacher for 3rd place - something he would regret for most of the afternoon.
Webber made sure his championship was well and truly doomed by clumsily trying to pass Massa on lap 5, damaging his wing sufficiently that it tried to hide under the car a few corners later, sending Mark into the barriers and almost certainly out of the championship running.
Seb made the move we all feared and took the lead from Alonso... and we can pretty much forget about him for the rest of the race.
Alonso, Schumi and Lewis ran nose to tail for a while for 2nd place and by lap 10, Hamilton was in a titanic battle with the veteran German. 3 laps later Lewis dived past only for Michael to snatch the place back, both drivers using every inch of the track. Their fight allowed Button to close (or had he been letting them damage their tyres deliberately whilst cleverly conserving his own...?) and as Schumi put Gloomy on the grass, Jenson took his chance to pass his team-mate. For good measure he then nailed Schumi too.
After the first round of pit-stops, Lewis was back behind the Merc, but couldn't get past, his engine bouncing on the limiter when he pulled out of the silver slipstream. An increasingly determined Michael was starting to push the boundaries of fair driving too. Unusually, Ross Brawn came on the radio to tell his driver to leave space at the Ascari corner. It's debatable if Michael paid the slightest bit of attention.
Kobayashi conked out on lap 25, and a lap later Jenson was up behind Alonso, with Vettel (remember him?) 12 seconds ahead.
Brawn was back on the radio to Michael giving him a stern warning about his driving, but Lewis finally got past on lap 28.
Perez parked up on lap 34, compounding a tough weekend for Sauber and 2 laps later Jenson bagged Alonso for 2nd place.
My favourite ever graphic then appeared - Ricciardo has seemingly retired, but managed to get his car fixed and went out again to get a bit of track time. The gap to the car in from of him popped up at an impressive 1237 seconds... or 20 minutes. Oooo - that's slower than a Forti-Ford. Just.
Hamilton gained ground on a fading Alonso towards the end, but Vettel crossed the line first with a comfortably maintained gap to Button, with Schumi 5th, Massa 6th and a very impressive Alguersuari in 7th, having started 18th. di Resta managed not to hit anyone and came home 8th, with Senna claiming his first F1 points ahead of Buemi in 10th.
Seb was surprisingly emotional on the podium - maybe he doesn't get a win bonus. Still, he could wrap up the championship next time out in Singapore...
Did you notice? The top 5 were all World Champions - I think that's the first time that's ever happened. These would be classic days if Seb and Red Bull weren't quite so dominant.
(Choons tonight courtesy of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin & Sammy Davis Jr. I'd like to say I'm cool, but it was free CD in the newspaper yesterday.)
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