DELIGHTED:Fernando Alonso celebrates after winning the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday.
MONZA: Fernando Alonso kept alive his challenge for the drivers' World championship with a near-flawless drive to an emotional and exciting victory in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, his maiden race on home soil for Ferrari.
The 29-year-old Spaniard, who had said he needed a victory to maintain his bid for a third World title in his first season with the Italian ‘scarlet scuderia', delivered a stirring performance to the delight of a notably sparse crowd in the grandstands of the old Autodromo Nazionale.
Alonso lost a place after starting from his 19th pole position, but fought back and aided by a dazzling Ferrari pit-stop was able to hold on to win ahead of second-placed defending champion Jenson Button of McLaren and Felipe Massa, in the second Ferrari.
Third win
It was his third win this season and the 24th victory of his career and, unlike his triumph in Germany in July, was this time produced without the aid of any team orders at Ferrari.
He now has 166 points and is back within reach of the championship leaders who, once again, shuffled their positions.
Sixth-placed Mark Webber took over on top from Lewis Hamilton who crashed out in his McLaren on the opening lap. Webber is on 187 points, five clear of luckless Hamilton with five races to go.
Amazingly, German Sebastian Vettel finished fourth after surviving early engine problems and diving in for an extraordinary 3.3 seconds pit-stop on the final lap.
Fellow-German Nico Rosberg finished fifth in the second Mercedes, ahead of Webber, German Nico Hulkenberg of Williams and Pole Robert Kubica of Renault who was eighth.
Schumacher ninth
Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, 41, gave his fans something to cheer after finishing ninth in the second Mercedes and his former Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello was 10th for Williams.
No points for Force India
Force India returned empty handed for the fourth time this season with Vitantonio Liuzzi finishing 12th and Adrian Sutil 16th.
It is third time in the last four races that Force India has failed to get a point in an otherwise impressive season.
Before this race, Force India had returned without any points from the Chinese, German and Hungary Grand Prix.
Sutil, who began 11th on the grid, was pushed back to the rear after an opening lap trouble which also forced him an early pit stop, but the German driver raced amazingly to move up.
He switched on to hard tyres and moved to 17 by the lap 18. In another five laps, he was in top 15.
With the 16th-place finish, Sutil dropped one position to 10th.
It was a home race for Liuzzi, who started on P20, and the Italian made full use of the opening lap mix-up, which also saw Mclaren's Lewis Hamilton crashing out of the race.
Liuzzi soon was in 12th position and maintained that till he took first pit stop in lap 32 and joined the race back at 13th position.
Apart from Hamilton, BMW Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, Hispania's Bruno Senna and Lotus' Jarno Trulli also failed to finish the race.
The results: 1. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1hr 16min 24.572sec, 2. Jenson Button (McLaren) 2.938secs, 3. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 4.223, 4. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 28.196, 5. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP) 29.942, 6. Mark Webber (Red Bull) 31.276, 7. Nico H|lkenberg (Williams F1) 32.812, 8. Robert Kubica (Renault) 34.028, 9. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes GP) 44.948, 10. Rubens Barrichello (Williams F1) 1:04.213.
11. Sibastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) 1:05.056, 12. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India) 1:06.106, 13. Vitaly Petrov (Renault) 1:18.919, 14. Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber) 1 lap, 15. Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) 1 lap, 16. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 1 lap, 17. Timo Glock (Virgin Racing) 2 laps, 18. Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus) 2 laps, 19. Sakon Yamamoto (Hispania) 2 laps, 20. Lucas Di Grassi (Virgin Racing) 2 laps.
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