Italian GP 2012: Hamilton wins, Pérez charges from 12th to 2nd

Lewis Hamilton won the 2012 Italian Grand Prix from pole position in his McLaren. Sergio Pérez in the Sauber and Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari completed the podium. Two things decided the day at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza: Hamilton was in total control at the front, and Pérez, on a bold tyre strategy, kept closing in during the final phase. Hamilton only gave up the lead during his one and only pit stop.

Hamilton converted grid position 1 into the lead at the first corner. Behind him, Felipe Massa made a strong start and passed Jenson Button, who had started from the front row. Button later complained of wheelspin at the start. That gave Hamilton a clear track ahead, and by the time Button got back past Massa after 18 laps, the leader was already around seven seconds up the road, according to grandprix.com.

Further back, reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull moved up from 5th on the grid to 4th by the fourth lap, passing Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes along the way. Alonso had suffered a broken anti-roll bar in qualifying and therefore had to start from 10th. He was already seventh after the opening lap. After that he overtook, among others, Bruno Senna, Paul di Resta and Kamui Kobayashi.

Hamilton pitted on lap 23. Pérez was still running on his first set of tyres and so took over the lead. The Mexican stayed in front until his own stop on lap 29, after which Hamilton was back in the lead.

Alonso and Vettel both pitted on lap 20 and then went wheel to wheel. Around lap 26, Alonso made his move. Vettel took a tough line through Curva Grande, and the Ferrari was forced onto the grass at high speed. Over the radio, Alonso demanded that his team get Race Control involved. The stewards handed Vettel a drive-through penalty for “forcing another driver off track” (FIA). Vettel himself had little to say about the penalty afterwards.

After his trip across the grass, Alonso could feel that something was not right with his car. Even so, he went on to pass Vettel later. Vettel served his penalty on lap 34 while running fourth and rejoined in ninth, right behind his team-mate Mark Webber.

Pérez had not made it into the top 10 in qualifying, which meant he was free to choose his starting tyres. Sauber opted for new hard tyres and a long first stint. After switching to the softer medium tyres on lap 29, he rejoined in eighth, and that was when his charge through the field began. He got past Kimi Räikkönen, Schumacher and Vettel. He then overtook Massa and, with seven laps still to go, Alonso as well.

At that point, according to grandprix.com, Pérez was 11.2 seconds behind Hamilton. He was gaining as much as a second per lap, but it was no longer enough. At the chequered flag he was still 4.3 seconds short. It was his first podium finish in Europe. Afterwards Pérez said: “It was certainly the right strategy.” (grandprix.com, team quotes)

• Jenson Button (McLaren): He was running in 2nd place and on course for a McLaren one-two. On the way into Parabolica he lost drive and retired after 32 laps with a fuel pressure problem.
• Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull): After his penalty he had fought his way back up the order. After 47 laps he pulled over at Turn 1. The cause was an alternator failure, the same fault that had already stopped him in free practice.
• Mark Webber (Red Bull): His rear tyres were worn out, and Nico Rosberg was closing in on fresh rubber. Webber spun at the Ascari chicane but avoided the wall. The flat-spotted tyres made the car vibrate so badly that Red Bull called it into the pits after 51 laps. Webber was nevertheless classified.
• Nico Hülkenberg (Force India): By his own account, he had a long brake pedal from the very first lap. After 50 laps the team retired the car for safety reasons.
• Jean-Éric Vergne (Toro Rosso): He lost the rear under braking, was launched over a high kerb and retired after eight laps. The official cause was suspension failure. He was taken to the medical centre with back and head pain.

It was Red Bull's first double retirement since the 2010 Korean GP.

The biggest gainer was Pastor Maldonado in the Williams. He went from 22nd on the grid to 11th, a gain of eleven places. It narrowly fell short of a point, as his team-mate Senna took the last one in tenth. Pérez made up ten places and Alonso seven. For Ferrari, Alonso's podium at their home race was worth a great deal, and Massa finished fourth. Räikkönen brought his Lotus F1 home in 5th on a one-stop strategy. Schumacher and Rosberg both stopped twice and finished sixth and seventh, with Rosberg setting the fastest lap of the race. Kobayashi came home ninth, taking Sauber to exactly 100 points.

The big losers were Button, who failed to finish from 2nd on the grid, and Red Bull with their double retirement.

In the 2012 championship standings, Alonso extended his lead: he now had 179 points. The win lifted Hamilton three places to 2nd on 142 points. Räikkönen followed on 141, Vettel on 140 and Webber on 132. The gap to Alonso was a sizeable 37 points, but behind the Spaniard four drivers were covered by just ten points. In the constructors' standings, Red Bull led with 272 points, while McLaren closed to within 29 points on 243. Ferrari were third on 226 points, ahead of Lotus on 217.

For the record books, it was Hamilton's 20th Grand Prix win and McLaren's 180th victory. Following their wins in Hungary and Belgium, it was also McLaren's first hat-trick since 2008. Hamilton later called the Monza win “one of the greatest experiences of my Formula 1 career” (grandprix.com, team quotes).