2011 Formula 1 : Vettel wins at Monza

2011 F1 - Italian Grand Prix Winner : Sebastian Vettel (GER), Red Bull Racing, RB7

MONZA, Italy : September 11, 2011 - Sebastian Vettel dominated today's F1 2011 Italian Grand Prix and in the end easily swept to yet another win.

2011 F1 - Italian Grand Prix Winner : Sebastian Vettel (GER), Red Bull Racing, RB7

Vettel, who had qualified on pole, slipped to second at the start, when Fernando Alonso stormed up into the lead from fourth on the grid. Towards the back though, there was chaos after Vitantonio Liuzzi lost control and took out Vitaly Petrov and Nico Rosberg, bringing out the safety car.



On the re-start, Alonso maintained his position, but further back Lewis Hamilton was passed by Michael Schumacher - something that ended up compromising his whole afternoon.



Back to the front and on lap 5, Vettel re-took the lead from Alonso with a super brave move on the approach to the second chicane. After that the defending champion was never troubled and he eventually won by 9.5 seconds, to strengthen his grip on the F1 2011 drivers' title. Indeed Vettel is now so far ahead he could sow things up in Singapore in two weeks time.



Behind, with Schumacher holding up Hamilton, Button, after a poor start from third, was able to close up. Then when Hamilton was forced onto the grass by Schumacher on lap 16, Button took advantage to overtake his team-mate and then straight away take Schumi.



Button later closed on Alonso and passed the Spaniard for second on lap 36 after his final stop.



Alonso took the final place on the rostrum in front of Ferrari's home crowd, despite coming under late pressure from Hamilton, who had to be content with fourth.



Hamilton finally got by Schumacher on lap 28, when the German was warned over the radio by Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn that he needed to give Hamilton room at Ascari. Despite his feisty defence though, Schumacher's actions were not deemed sufficient to warrant any action from the stewards and the 42-year-old eventually finished fifth.



Felipe Massa completed the top six, having lost time when he was tapped by Mark Webber at the first corner on lap 5. That incident cost Webber his front wing and while the Aussie tried to limp back to the pits, he locked up a few corners later and crashed out.



Jaime Alguersuari had a great race from 18th and charged back to take seventh in his Toro Rosso, ahead of Force India's Paul di Resta and Bruno Senna, the latter scoring his very first F1 points. Sebastien Buemi was tenth.



2011 Formula 1 : Italian Gran Prix - Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	53	1:20:46.172	1	25
2	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+9.5 secs	3	18
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	53	+16.9 secs	4	15
4	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+17.4 secs	2	12
5	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	53	+32.6 secs	8	10
6	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	53	+42.9 secs	6	8
7	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	18	6
8	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	52	+1 Lap	11	4
9	9	Bruno Senna	Renault	52	+1 Lap	10	2
10	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	16	1
11	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	52	+1 Lap	14
12	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	52	+1 Lap	13
13	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	51	+2 Laps	20
14	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	51	+2 Laps	19
15	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	51	+2 Laps	21
NC	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	39	+14 Laps	23
Ret	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	32	+21 Laps	15
Ret	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	21	+32 Laps	17
Ret	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	9	+44 Laps	12
Ret	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	4	+49 Laps	5
Ret	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1	+52 Laps	22
Ret	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	0	Accident	7
Ret	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	0	Accident	9
Ret	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	0	Accident	24

2011 Formula 1 : Drivers' Championship Standing

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	284
2	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	172
3	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	167
4	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	167
5	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	158
6	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	82
7	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	56
8	Michael Schumacher	German	Mercedes	52
9	Vitaly Petrov	Russian	Renault	34
10	Nick Heidfeld	German	Renault	34
11	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	Sauber-Ferrari	27
12	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	24
13	Jaime Alguersuari	Spanish	STR-Ferrari	16
14	Sebastien Buemi	Swiss	STR-Ferrari	13
15	Paul di Resta	British	Force India-Mercedes	12
16	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	8
17	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Williams-Cosworth	4
18	Bruno Senna	Brazilian	Renault	2
19	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Williams-Cosworth	1
20	Pedro de la Rosa	Spanish	Sauber-Ferrari	0
21	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Lotus-Renault	0
22	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	Lotus-Renault	0
23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italian	HRT-Cosworth	0
24	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Belgian	Virgin-Cosworth	0
25	Timo Glock	German	Virgin-Cosworth	0
26	Narain Karthikeyan	Indian	HRT-Cosworth	0
27	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	HRT-Cosworth	0
28	Karun Chandhok	Indian	Lotus-Renault	0

2011 Formula 1 : Teams' Championship Standing

Pos	Team	Points
1	RBR-Renault	451
2	McLaren-Mercedes	325
3	Ferrari	254
4	Mercedes	108
5	Renault	70
6	Force India-Mercedes	36
7	Sauber-Ferrari	35
8	STR-Ferrari	29
9	Williams-Cosworth	5
10	Lotus-Renault	0
11	HRT-Cosworth	0
12	Virgin-Cosworth	0

[Source : F1-Official, McLAREN, SUPERSPORT.ZA, CRASH.NET]