2012 Italian Grand Prix

The 2012 Italian Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Gran Premio Santander d'Italia 2012) was the thirteenth race of the 2012 Formula One Season. It took place at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on 9 September 2012. It was the 63rd consecutive running of the Italian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship and the 62nd on the Monza circuit.
After his accident the previous race, driver Romain Grosjean was given a one-race ban and was replaced by third driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Pole position was taken by driver Lewis Hamilton, ahead of teammate Jenson Button. Third-placed Felipe Massa had his best qualifying result since the same race two years previously. His teammate, Fernando Alonso, topped the first two sessions of qualifying before a problem meant the Spaniard only qualified in tenth place. experienced a difficult qualifying, with Sebastian Vettel obtaining fifth on the grid with Mark Webber exiting in Q2.
Hamilton won the race with relative ease, only troubled by a strong-performing Sergio Pérez once Button had retired with fuel pressure issues. Pérez, having started twelfth on the grid, used the opposite tyre strategy to the rest of the drivers, was able to easily carve his way through the field in the second half of the race, finishing within five seconds of Hamilton. Alonso finished third, helped up a place by his teammate, who finished in fourth. Red Bull's race was even worse than qualifying; Vettel received a drive-through penalty before retiring towards the end of the race with alternator failure and Webber retired after flat-spotting all of his tyres and crashing.
Alonso's championship lead was extended to 37 points as a result of the race, with Hamilton taking second in the championship, one point ahead of Kimi Räikkönen and two ahead of Vettel. In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren closed the gap to Red Bull to 29 points.
==Background==
Tyres Available	Tyres Available	Tyres Available	Tyres Available
Option 	Prime 	Inter 	Wet
 	 	 	
Going into the Italian Grand Prix, driver Fernando Alonso lead the Drivers' Championship by 24 points over Sebastian Vettel, and lead the Constructors' competition by 54 points ahead of .
The Monza circuit is unchanged from the layout used in 2011, and there are still two DRS zones.
The event was set to be a 50th career start for Vitaly Petrov, and 100th race for Pedro de la Rosa.
 driver Romain Grosjean was suspended for this race, as a result of causing a first corner incident at the previous race. He was be replaced by Jérôme d'Ambrosio. Kevin Korjus became Lotus's backup driver for the weekend.
Pastor Maldonado was set to receive two five place grid penalties, one for being unable to serve his penalty in the previous race for jumping the start due to damage on his car that caused him to retire; the second for causing a collision with Timo Glock.
Emanuele Pirro served as the racing driver on board the stewards panel for the weekend. Pirro had competed in Formula One from 1989 through to 1991 racing for the Benetton and Scuderia Italia teams. Pirro however saw more success as a sports car racer winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times and being a double world champion of the American Le Mans series.
==Entry list==
The full entry list for the is shown below:
No. 	Driver 	Entrant 	Constructor 	Chassis 	Engine 	Model 	Tyre
1 	Sebastian Vettel 	Red Bull Racing 	 	RB8 	 	RS27-2012 	
2 	Mark Webber 	Red Bull Racing 	 	RB8 	 	RS27-2012 	
3 	Jenson Button 	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 	 	MP4-27 	 	FO 108Z 	
4 	Lewis Hamilton 	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 	 	MP4-27 	 	FO 108Z 	
5 	Fernando Alonso 	Scuderia Ferrari 	 	F2012 	 	056 	
6 	Felipe Massa 	Scuderia Ferrari 	 	F2012 	 	056 	
7 	Michael Schumacher 	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	 	W03 	 	FO 108Z 	
8 	Nico Rosberg 	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	 	W03 	 	FO 108Z 	
9 	Kimi Räikkönen 	Lotus F1 Team 	 	E20 	 	RS27-2012 	
10 	Jérôme d'Ambrosio 	Lotus F1 Team 	 	E20 	 	RS27-2012 	
11 	Paul di Resta 	Sahara Force India F1 Team 	 	VJM05 	 	FO 108Z 	
12 	Nico Hülkenberg 	Sahara Force India F1 Team 	 	VJM05 	 	FO 108Z 	
14 	Kamui Kobayashi 	Sauber F1 Team 	 	C31 	 	056 	
15 	Sergio Pérez 	Sauber F1 Team 	 	C31 	 	056 	
16 	Daniel Ricciardo 	Scuderia Toro Rosso 	 	STR7 	 	056 	
17 	Jean-Éric Vergne 	Scuderia Toro Rosso 	 	STR7 	 	056 	
18 	Pastor Maldonado 	Williams F1 Team 	 	FW34 	 	RS27-2012 	
19 	Bruno Senna 	Williams F1 Team 	 	FW34 	 	RS27-2012 	
20 	Heikki Kovalainen 	Caterham F1 Team 	 	CT01 	 	RS27-2012 	
21 	Vitaly Petrov 	Caterham F1 Team 	 	CT01 	 	RS27-2012 	
22 	Pedro de la Rosa 	HRT F1 Team 	 	F112 	 	CA2012 	
23 	Narain Karthikeyan 	HRT F1 Team 	 	F112 	 	CA2012 	
24 	Timo Glock 	Marussia F1 Team 	 	MR01 	 	CA2012 	
25 	Charles Pic 	Marussia F1 Team 	 	MR01 	 	CA2012 	
Free Practice 1 only	Free Practice 1 only	Free Practice 1 only 	Free Practice 1 only	Free Practice 1 only	Free Practice 1 only	Free Practice 1 only	Free Practice 1 only
11 	Jules Bianchi 	Sahara Force India F1 Team 	 	VJM05 	 	FO 108Z 	
19 	Valtteri Bottas 	Williams F1 Team 	 	FW34 	 	RS27-2012 	
23 	Ma Qinghua 	HRT F1 Team 	 	F112 	 	CA2012 	
==Practice==
===FP1===
In the first practice session Ma Qing Hua stood in for Narain Karthikeyan for , becoming the first Chinese driver to participate at a Grand Prix weekend. Jules Bianchi replaced Paul di Resta at whilst Valtteri Bottas stood in for Bruno Senna at .
It was the of Michael Schumacher that set the fastest time of the session closely followed by the of Belgium winner Jenson Button, teammate Nico Rosberg and the of championship leader Fernando Alonso. Alonso notably stopped out on track with mechanical sessions late in the session.
Schumacher, Button, Rosberg, Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen had notable minor offs when they hit the speed bumps at the chicanes. Raikkonen had the biggest off of all when his car hit one of the speed bumbs which proceeded to launch his car into the air. His suffered some minor damage which forced him to the pits for a new front wing. Raikkonen's new teammate Jerome d'Ambrosio, the replacement for regular driver Romain Grosjean performed admirably pacing his car quicker than Raikkonen for much of the session until he began focussing on long-distance runs where he finished the session 14th.
The cars did not display any particular speed with Mark Webber finishing the session 9th and Sebastian Vettel finishing 11th. However they were suspected to be doing long-distance runs for much of the session.
Chinese driver Ma, in his second opportunity to drive an F1 car after the 2012 Young Driver Test, finished last and three seconds off the pace of regular driver Pedro de la Rosa in the HRT. Other third drivers participating in the session saw Valtteri Bottas finish the session 13th, three places behind teammate Pastor Maldonado in the Williams whilst Jules Bianchi finished the session 16th, four places behind Force India teammate Nico Hülkenberg.
===FP2===
 continued to look quick in the second practice session with Lewis Hamilton leading the way with teammate Jenson Button just behind him. On home turf the team ended the session 3rd and 4th. Fernando Alonso edged out his teammate Felipe Massa, however Alonso's session was limited to 17 laps as he was suffering from brake issues and then a suspected gearbox failure.
Nico Rosberg finished the session in 5th whilst teammate Michael Schumacher finished the session in 10th. At the team Kimi Räikkönen finished the session in 6th whilst teammate Jérôme d'Ambrosio finished in 12th.
The of Narain Karthikeyan finished the session slightly early with a mechanical failure, therefore finishing the session in last place behind teammate Pedro de la Rosa.
===FP3===
For the second practice session in a row, Lewis Hamilton was the fastest driver on track. However close behind him was the Tifosi's home favourite Fernando Alonso who had led the drivers for most of the session until Hamilton beat him by a tenth of a second.
Paul di Resta finished an impressive third in the session in his Force India whilst the second of Felipe Massa was 4th followed by the McLaren of Jenson Button. At , Nico Rosberg finished the session 6th, his teammate Michael Schumacher however did not fair as well. Schumacher suffered a KERS failure early in the session which left him handicapped to finish the session 14th. Likewise the team appeared to struggle with Mark Webber finishing the session 11th and Sebastian Vettel finishing 12th. Vettel suffered a suspected electrics failure in the dying minutes of the session.
===Practice Results===
No.	Driver 	Team		FP1	FP1 		FP2	FP2 		FP3	FP3
No.	Driver 	Team		Pos	Time 		Pos	Time 		Pos	Time
1 	Sebastian Vettel 	 		11 	1:26.508		13 	1:26.394		12 	1:25.406
2 	Mark Webber 	 		9 	1:26.390		11 	1:26.104		11 	1:25.389
3 	Jenson Button 	 		2 	1:25.723		2 	1:25.328		5 	1:24.994
4 	Lewis Hamilton 	 		6 	1:25.944		1 	1:25.290		1 	1:24.578
5 	Fernando Alonso 	 		4 	1:25.800		3 	1:25.348		2 	1:24.579
6 	Felipe Massa 	 		5 	1:25.861		4 	1:25.430		4 	1:24.909
7 	Michael Schumacher	 		1 	1:25.444		10 	1:26.094		14 	1:25.563
8 	Nico Rosberg 	 		3 	1:25.762		5 	1:25.446		6 	1:25.036
9 	Kimi Räikkönen 	 		7 	1:26.046		6 	1:25.504		8 	1:25.255
10 	Jérôme d'Ambrosio 	 		15 	1:27.180		12 	1:26.157		17 	1:25.973
11 	Paul di Resta 	 		DNP	DNP 		7 	1:25.546		3 	1:24.849
11 	Jules Bianchi 	 		16 	1:7.192 		DNP	DNP 		DNP	DNP
12 	Nico Hülkenberg 	 		12 	1:26.518		8 	1:25.547		9 	1:25.289
14 	Kamui Kobayashi 	 		14 	1:26.746		16 	1:26.730		15 	1:25.689
15 	Sergio Pérez 	 		8 	1:26.323		9 	1:26.068		7 	1:25.160
16 	Daniel Ricciardo 	 		17 	1:27.373		15 	1:26.724		16 	1:25.709
17 	Jean-Éric Vergne 	 		18 	1:27.789		19 	1:26.864		18 	1:26.003
18 	Pastor Maldonado 	 		10 	1:26.504		14 	1:26.404		10 	1:25.383
19 	Bruno Senna 	 		DNP	DNP 		17 	1:26.783		13 	1:25.461
19 	Valtteri Bottas 	 		13 	1:26.641		DNP	DNP 		DNP	DNP
20 	Heikki Kovalainen 	 		19 	1:27.855		18 	1:26.841		19 	1:26.657
21 	Vitaly Petrov 	 		20 	1:28.578		20 	1:27.222		20 	1:27.267
22 	Pedro de la Rosa 	 		23 	1:29.331		23 	1:28.575		24 	1:28.384
23 	Narain Karthikeyan	 		DNP	DNP 		24 	1:28.779		23 	1:28.035
23 	Ma Qinghua 	 		24 	1:31.239		DNP	DNP 		DNP	DNP
24 	Timo Glock 	 		22 	1:29.207		21 	1:27.944		22 	1:27.728
25 	Charles Pic 	 		21 	1:28.751		22 	1:27.968		21 	1:27.454
 	 	 		 	 		 	 		 	
 	 	 		 	 		 	 		 	
 	 	 		 	 		 	 		 	
==Qualifying==
===Q1===
As the first qualifying session commenced, it quickly became apparent that the 's were very quick. The team employed an unusual yet original tactic in which both Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were working together to slipstream each other down the straights to gain some extra speed within their lap. By the end of the session Alonso was the fastest man on track with Massa finishing 6th.
The 's, having been quick all weekend, saw Lewis Hamilton finishing second ahead of teammate Jenson Button in second and third. had also carried their speed over from Belgium with Paul di Resta finishing the session a strong 5th. Teammate Nico Hülkenberg, however, did not fare so well after suffering from fuel pressure issues which forced him to stop on track on his opening lap. Without setting a time this meant that he would have to start from the back of the grid.
The cars appeared to struggle with Kimi Räikkönen finishing the session 10th with teammate Jérôme d'Ambrosio barely making it into Q2, notably dueling with the of Heikki Kovalainen.
Of those cars that were eliminated, Kovalainen led teammate Vitaly Petrov, followed by the 's of Timo Glock and Charles Pic. Narain Karthikeyan who notably out qualified his teammate Pedro de la Rosa for the first time. In 24th place was the lone Force India of Nico Hülkenberg.
===Q2===
Fernando Alonso continued to set the pace in the second qualifying session with teammate Felipe Massa finishing in fifth position. The s continuing to use their slipstreaming tactic to good effect. The s continued to demonstrate speed with Jenson Button in second and Lewis Hamilton in fourth. Paul di Resta was able to split the McLarens by finishing a strong third in the session.
Further down the field, was struggling. Sebastian Vettel only just made it into the final qualifying session in ninth. Teammate Mark Webber was not as lucky, and just failed to make it into the final qualifying session with another championship contender, the of Kimi Räikkönen knocking Webber down to eleventh and out of qualifying.
Raikkonen's teammate Jerome d'Ambrosio had struggled to make it out of Q1, and he continued to languish in the second qualifying session finishing in a disappointing 17th, sandwiched between the two s of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne.
It was also a disappointing day for Sergio Pérez, who could not match his teammate Kamui Kobayashi, and was unable to make it into the final qualifying session ending the session in 13th place. The team struggled as well with neither driver making into Q3 with Pastor Maldonado finishing the session 12th and Bruno Senna 14th.
===Q3===
As the final top ten shoot out in Q3 commenced, had looked the favourites heading into the session with Fernando Alonso setting the pace in the first two qualifying sessions. The Ferraris of both Alonso and Felipe Massa exited the pits in unision once again to continue their slipstreaming tactic once again. Whilst Massa was able to get a good tow off Alonso on his flying lap to set a competitive lap time which would put him 3rd on the grid, his teammate Alonso struggled to put in a competitive lap time on the two runs he did. Alonso was the slowest car of the ten contenders in the session. The problem was later attributed to a faulty anti-roll bar which would leave him in a very disappointing tenth place on the grid.
The s, however, were able to make use of Alonso's misfortune with Lewis Hamilton taking pole with Jenson Button right alongside on the front row. Paul di Resta had been demonstrating good pace throughout qualifying to finish fourth on the timing sheets.
The cars finished fifth and seventh with Michael Schumacher leading Nico Rosberg. Splitting the two Mercedes cars was Sebastian Vettel who had done well to qualify sixth considering the poor performance of the . It was a disappointing day for Kimi Räikkönen who was only able to put his in eighth place ahead of the of Kamui Kobayashi and Fernando Alonso.
===Post-Qualifying===
Pastor Maldonado, who would have started 12th on the grid, suffered a ten-place grid penalty pushing him down to 22nd. He had sustained two five-place grid penalties at the previous race in Belgium. The first was for not serving a drive-through penalty for jumping the start; a penalty he would have served had he not had a collision with Timo Glock that forced his retirement, the collision itself also warranting a five-place grid penalty.
Paul di Resta would have started in his highest ever grid position in 4th place, however, he received a five-place grid penalty after he was confirmed to have had an unscheduled change of his gearbox after the Friday Practice sessions.
Nico Hülkenberg was allowed to race by the stewards after not setting a time in Q1.
===Qualifying Results===
Pos.	No.	Driver 	Team		Q1 	Q1 		Q2 	Q2 		Q3 	Q3 	Grid
Pos.	No.	Driver 	Team		Pos	Time 		Pos	Time 		Pos	Time 	Grid
1 	4 	Lewis Hamilton 	 		2 	1:24.211		4 	1:24.394		1 	1:24.010	1
2 	3 	Jenson Button 	 		3 	1:24.672		2 	1:24.255		2 	1:24.133	2
3 	6 	Felipe Massa 	 		6 	1:24.882		5 	1:24.505		3 	1:24.247	3
4 	11 	Paul di Resta 	 		5 	1:24.875		3 	1:24.345		4 	1:24.304	9*
5 	7 	Michael Schumacher	 		12 	1:25.302		7 	1:24.675		5 	1:24.540	4
6 	1 	Sebastian Vettel 	 		7 	1:25.011		9 	1:24.687		6 	1:24.802	5
7 	8 	Nico Rosberg 	 		4 	1:24.689		6 	1:24.515		7 	1:24.833	6
8 	9 	Kimi Räikkönen 	 		10 	1:25.151		10 	1:24.742		8 	1:24.855	7
9 	14 	Kamui Kobayashi 	 		13 	1:25.317		8 	1:24.683		9 	1:25.109	8
10 	5 	Fernando Alonso 	 		1 	1:24.175		1 	1:24.242		10 	1:25.678	10
11 	2 	Mark Webber 	 		14 	1:25.556		11 	1:24.809		 	 	11
12 	18 	Pastor Maldonado 	 		8 	1:25.103		12 	1:24.820		 	 	22†
13 	15 	Sergio Pérez 	 		11 	1:25.300		13 	1:24.901		 	 	12
14 	19 	Bruno Senna 	 		9 	1:25.135		14 	1:25.042		 	 	13
15 	16 	Daniel Ricciardo 	 		16 	1:25.728		15 	1:25.312		 	 	14
16 	10 	Jerome d'Ambrosio 	 		17 	1:25.834		16 	1:25.408		 	 	15
17 	17 	Jean-Éric Vergne 	 		15 	1:25.649		17 	1:25.441		 	 	16
18 	20 	Heikki Kovalainen 	 		18 	1:26.382		 	 		 	 	17
19 	21 	Vitaly Petrov 	 		19 	1:26.887		 	 		 	 	18
20 	24 	Timo Glock 	 		20 	1:27.039		 	 		 	 	19
21 	25 	Charles Pic 	 		21 	1:27.073		 	 		 	 	20
22 	23 	Narain Karthikeyan	 		22 	1:27.441		 	 		 	 	21
23 	22 	Pedro de la Rosa 	 		23 	1:27.669		 	 		 	 	23
24 	12 	Nico Hülkenberg 	 		24 	no time 		 	 		 	 	24‡
Notes
* * Paul di Resta (4th) was handed a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, and started ninth.
* † Pastor Maldonado (12th) was penalised ten places for two five-place grid penalties, one for jumping the start, the other for causing a collision, and started 22nd.
* ‡ Nico Hülkenberg (24th) failed to set a time in qualifying but was allowed to start the race.
==Grid==
Notes:
* * Paul di Resta was handed a five place grid penalty for a change of gearbox.
* † Pastor Maldonado was handed a ten place grid penalty for jumping the start (five places) at the Belgian GP and for causing a collision (another five places) at the same race.
* ‡ Nico Hülkenberg failed to set a time in qualifying but was allowed to start the race.
==Race==
===Report===
At the start of the race, both the s made strong starts with Felipe Massa storming past the of Jenson Button for second place at the first corner whilst nearly overtaking the other McLaren of Lewis Hamilton for the lead. Fernando Alonso was able to make it up three places in the first lap passing the of Nico Rosberg, the of Kamui Kobayashi and the of Paul di Resta to take seventh position.
The following lap Alonso was able to continue his charge by taking sixth place of the of Kimi Räikkönen. Teammate Massa had briefly been challenging Hamilton for the lead of the race but was gradually beginning to drop back and into the clutches of Button who had lost out to the Brazilian driver at the start of the race.
Michael Schumacher who was able to maintain position at the start of the race but his fourth place was now being severely hounded by the of Sebastian Vettel and the charging Ferrari of Alonso. Vettel was able to quicky dispose of his older compatriot on lap 4 down the pit straight with the assistance of DRS. Schumacher was able to keep Alonso behind him until lap 7 when he too was able to get past the German veteran.
Schumacher's teammate Rosberg was also struggling to hold off cars behind him while in eighth place. Rosberg was defending hard against driver Bruno Senna, who had made a strong start to go from 14th on the grid to ninth place. However, while attempting to pass Rosberg around the outside on lap 5, Senna was forced off the circuit by the Mercedes driver taking to the escape road and subsequently dropping behind the Force India of Di Resta. Three laps later Senna found himself off the circuit once again whilst attempting to pass Di Resta in the same place as Rosberg. The two cars touched sending Senna into a spin, only to re-emerge in 13th place, behind the Red Bull of Mark Webber.
One lap later there was to be a third incident whilst heading down to turn 1. The of Jean-Éric Vergne suffered a rear suspension failure sending him into an uncontrolled high speed spin down into turn 1, hitting the kerbs, causing his car to go airborne, before coming to a rest off the circuit. Vergne retired, luckily not taking out any other cars, but did suffer from a small bit of back pain.
Webber, who had been struggling all weekend, took until lap 11 to move his Red Bull into a points-paying position, passing the struggling Force India of Di Resta who had also recently dropped behind the charging Sauber of Sergio Pérez who had made his way up to seventh position after an early pit stop by the Mercedes of Rosberg.
Pérez, who had started in 12th position, was storming up the field, managing to fly past Räikkönen's Lotus around the outside of Variate Ascari to take sixth place, and moving into hot pursuit of Schumacher. Up at the front Hamilton had began to break away from the rest of the field as Massa appeared to be struggling to match the pace of the McLarens as Button was now all over the back of the Ferrari driver. On lap 19 Button was able to get by the ailing Ferrari making it a McLaren 1–2 at the front. Massa duly headed for the pits for new tyres, followed in a lap later by Alonso and the Red Bull of Vettel, the pair having been dueling for fourth place for many laps. Vettel, who had held fourth, entered and exited ahead of the Spaniard.
With many of the leading drivers entering the pits, Pérez, on the prime compound, was able to move into third position with the Williams of Senna and the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo both performing well. Pérez appeared to be competitive, setting similar pace to that of the leaders despite not pitting. This was in contrast to Senna and Ricciardo, both pitting, the latter after being passed by Massa, Vettel and Alonso in one lap.
The McLarens of Hamilton and Button pitted on lap 23 and 24, leaving Sergio Pérez to take the lead of the race on the harder tyre. Further back Vettel and Alonso continued to duel for position. Alonso made his move on Vettel on lap 26 attempting to go around the outside of Vettel at the Curva Grande, but Vettel, who had not appeared to see the Ferrari, forced him off the circuit. Alonso was barely able to keep control of his car, and re-emerged from the incident without damage.
Pérez dived into the pits on lap 29 for soft tyres after being passed by Hamilton. The same lap Alonso finally managed to get past the Red Bull of Vettel, and set off in pursuit of his Ferrari teammate Massa for third place.
Vettel was then handed a drive through penalty on lap 32 for forcing Alonso off the track. Vettel exited the pits after his penalty in seventh place, behind teammate Webber. Two laps later a chance for a McLaren 1–2 finish is ruined as Jenson Button pulls off the circuit with a fuel feed failure, which left the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso in second and third places.
The Sauber of Pérez had been lapping as the quickest driver on the circuit after making his way past the Lotus of Räikkönen for fifth place, putting him in pursuit of the two Ferraris once both Mercedes drivers had pitted for a second time. The same lap Vettel was able to get the better of teammate Webber for sixth place.
By lap 39, Pérez had continued his pace, lapping much quicker than both Ferraris and even the race leader Hamilton and was catching the cars ahead at a rapid pace. Massa proceeded to let through his teammate Fernando Alonso for second, allowing him to attempt to catch race leader Hamilton, and to help the Spaniard extend his Championship lead.
On lap 42, Pérez was able to easily dispose of Massa before moving on to attack the Ferrari number one of Alonso. Further down the field Vettel is found to have mechanical troubles.
On lap 46, Pérez is able to overtake Alonso, who didn't fight the Mexican too hard, and sets off in pursuit of Hamilton. The race leader however sits a further 12 seconds up the road. One lap later Vettel, whose alternator issues were causing him problems, was told to stop the car, ruining any chances for points and placing a dent in his championship ambitions. Red Bull's miserable day continued when sixth place Webber suffered a massive spin at Variate Ascari, barely keeping it out of the barriers, however this would be no consolation to him as he had dropped out of the points and into 11th place. The spin saw him suffer severe damage to his tyres which left them very badly flatspotted. Webber opted to retire the car one lap later due to the damage.
Hamilton, despite being caught by Pérez, is able to put in enough extra speed to win by four seconds, the Brit taking his third win of the season, and Pérez is third podium of the year. Alonso finished third ahead of teammate Massa who scored his best result of the season. Räikkönen finished 5th ahead of the two Mercedes of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, followed by the second Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi, and then the Williams of Senna who was able to overtake the struggling Toro Rosso of Ricciardo on the last lap. Ricciardo also was passed by the other Williams of Pastor Maldonado the same lap, and finished twelfth. Jérôme D'Ambrosio finished a quiet race on the lead lap in thirteenth. The s of Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov finished a lap down in fourteenth and fifteenth, followed by the two s, Charles Pic ahead of Timo Glock. The two remaining finishers were Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan, both drivers also one lap down. Webber was classified 20th, Nico Hülkenberg was classified 21st after retiring with brake issues and Vettel was classified 22nd.
Phil Prew McLaren team joined on the podium to receive the winning manufacturer's award.
===Post-race===
Both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso had suffered dents in their championship ambitions after being forced to retire at Belgium in the first lap accident. In Italy, Alonso was able to increase his championship lead whilst Hamilton was able to move from fifth in the Drivers standings all the way up to second. Kimi Räikkönen had not displayed much pace at Italy yet was able to gain a position in the title standings after his 5th-place finish, moving to third.
The big losers in Italy was the team. With retirements from the race by both drivers, Sebastian Vettel had gone from second in the Drivers Championship all the way down to fourth, whilst teammate Mark Webber had droped from third to fifth in the standings. 
Belgian GP winner, Jenson Button, who had also retired, suffered the biggest championship dent of all however after since he was now 77 points behind championship leader Alonso meaning his chances of overtaking the driver in the standings had dropped severely. 
In the Constructors Standings, Hamilton's win and the double retirement of Red Bull meant that was able to take a 25-point deficit out of Red Bull's lead in the championship, now only 29 points behind the championship leaders. After a strong points finish for Ferrari at Italy, they were able to overtake Lotus for third in the Constructors standings.
===Results===
Pos.	No.	Driver 	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired 	Grid	Pts
1 	4 	Lewis Hamilton 	 	53 	1 h 19 m 41.221 s 	1 	25
2 	15 	Sergio Pérez 	 	53 	+ 4.356 s 	12 	18
3 	5 	Fernando Alonso 	 	53 	+ 20.594 s 	10 	15
4 	6 	Felipe Massa 	 	53 	+ 29.667 s 	3 	12
5 	9 	Kimi Räikkönen 	 	53 	+ 30.881 s 	7 	10
6 	7 	Michael Schumacher	 	53 	+ 31.259 s 	4 	8
7 	8 	Nico Rosberg 	 	53 	+ 33.550 s 	6 	6
8 	11 	Paul di Resta 	 	53 	+ 41.057 s 	9 	4
9 	14 	Kamui Kobayashi 	 	53 	+ 43.898 s 	8 	2
10 	19 	Bruno Senna 	 	53 	+ 48.144 s 	13 	1
11 	18 	Pastor Maldonado 	 	53 	+ 50.136 s 	22 	
12 	16 	Daniel Ricciardo 	 	53 	+ 50.316 s 	17 	
13 	10 	Jérôme d'Ambrosio 	 	53 	+ 1 m 15.861 s 	15 	
14 	20 	Heikki Kovalainen 	 	52 	+ 1 lap 	17 	
15 	21 	Vitaly Petrov 	 	52 	+ 1 lap 	18 	
16 	25 	Charles Pic 	 	52 	+ 1 lap 	20 	
17 	24 	Timo Glock 	 	52 	+ 1 lap 	19 	
18 	22 	Pedro de la Rosa 	 	52 	+ 1 lap 	23 	
19 	23 	Narain Karthikeyan	 	52 	+ 1 lap 	21 	
20* 	2 	Mark Webber 	 	51 	Tyres 	11 	
21* 	12 	Nico Hülkenberg 	 	50 	Brakes 	24 	
22* 	1 	Sebastian Vettel 	 	47 	Alternator 	5 	
Ret 	3 	Jenson Button 	 	32 	Fuel pressure 	2 	
Ret 	17 	Jean-Éric Vergne 	 	8 	Spun off/Rear Suspension	16 	
Note:
* * Mark Webber, Nico Hülkenberg and Sebastian Vettel all retired, but the three drivers were classified since they had completed over 90% of the race distance.
===Fastest Laps===
Pos.	No.	Driver 	Constructor	Lap	Time 	Gap 	Avg Speed	Race
1 	8 	Nico Rosberg 	 	53 	1:27.239	 	239.054 	7
2 	15 	Sergio Pérez 	 	53 	1:27.562	+ 0.323	238.172 	2
3 	7 	Michael Schumacher	 	51 	1:27.718	+ 0.479	237.742 	6
4 	18 	Pastor Maldonado 	 	51 	1:28.053	+ 0.814	236.844 	11
5 	1 	Lewis Hamilton 	 	52 	1:28.427	+ 1.188	235.842 	1
6 	12 	Nico Hülkenberg 	 	46 	1:28.578	+ 1.339	235.440 	21
7 	16 	Daniel Ricciardo 	 	46 	1:28.621	+ 1.382	235.326 	12
8 	10 	Jerome d'Ambrosio 	 	52 	1:28.677	+ 1.438	235.177 	13
9 	1 	Sebastian Vettel 	 	46 	1:28.713	+ 1.474	235.082 	22
10 	19 	Bruno Senna 	 	52 	1:28.742	+ 1.503	235.005 	10
11 	5 	Fernando Alonso 	 	44 	1:28.835	+ 1.596	234.759 	3
12 	6 	Felipe Massa 	 	33 	1:28.914	+ 1.675	234.550 	4
13 	3 	Jenson Button 	 	31 	1:28.926	+ 1.687	234.519 	Ret
14 	14 	Kamui Kobayashi 	 	39 	1:29.032	+ 1.793	234.239 	9
15 	21 	Vitaly Petrov 	 	46 	1:29.066	+ 1.827	234.150 	15
16 	11 	Paul di Resta 	 	51 	1:29.068	+ 1.829	234.145 	8
17 	9 	Kimi Räikkönen 	 	52 	1:29.109	+ 1.870	234.037 	5
18 	2 	Mark Webber 	 	43 	1:29.202	+ 1.963	233.793 	20
19 	20 	Heikki Kovalainen 	 	46 	1:29.399	+ 2.160	233.728 	14
20 	25 	Charles Pic 	 	44 	1:29.753	+ 2.514	232.358 	16
21 	24 	Timo Glock 	 	50 	1:29.888	+ 2.649	232.009 	17
22 	22 	Pedro de la Rosa 	 	51 	1:30.398	+ 3.159	230.700 	18
23 	23 	Narain Karthikeyan	 	44 	1:31.086	+ 3.847	228.957 	19
24 	17 	Jean-Éric Vergne 	 	6 	1:31.962	+ 4.723	226.776 	Ret
===Lap Leaders===
====By lap====
Stint	Driver 	Laps 	Total	Distance
1 	Lewis Hamilton	1 – 23 	23 	132.930 km
2 	Sergio Pérez 	24 – 28	5 	28.965 km
3 	Lewis Hamilton	29 – 53	25 	144.825 km
====Totals====
Pos.	Driver 	Laps	Distance
1 	Lewis Hamilton	48 	277.755 km
2 	Sergio Pérez 	5 	28.965 km
==Milestones==
* 's 250th race.
* Pedro de la Rosa's 100th race.
* Vitaly Petrov's 50th race.
* Kamui Kobayashi's 100th point.
* Lewis Hamilton's 20th victory.
* The one race ban for Romain Grosjean marked the first time an F1 driver had been suspended from racing since the 1994 Formula One Season when then driver Michael Schumacher was suspended for two races.
==Standings after the race==
Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship
Pos. 	Driver 	Pts
1 	Fernando Alonso 	179
2 	Lewis Hamilton 	142
3 	Kimi Räikkönen 	141
4 	Sebastian Vettel 	140
5 	Mark Webber 	132
6 	Jenson Button 	101
7 	Nico Rosberg 	83
8 	Romain Grosjean 	76
9 	Sergio Pérez 	65
10 	Felipe Massa 	47
11 	Michael Schumacher 	43
12 	Kamui Kobayashi 	35
13 	Paul di Resta 	32
14 	Nico Hülkenberg 	31
15 	Pastor Maldonado 	29
16 	Bruno Senna 	25
17 	Jean-Éric Vergne 	8
18 	Daniel Ricciardo 	4
19 	Heikki Kovalainen 	0
20 	Vitaly Petrov 	0
21 	Timo Glock 	0
22 	Charles Pic 	0
23 	Narain Karthikeyan 	0
24 	Pedro de la Rosa 	0
25 	Jérôme d'Ambrosio 	0
Constructors' World Championship	Constructors' World Championship	Constructors' World Championship
Pos. 	Team 	Pts
1 	 	272
2 	 	243
3 	 	226
4 	 	217
5 	 	126
6 	 	98
7 	 	63
8 	 	54
9 	 	12
10 	 	0
11 	 	0
12 	 	0
==Notes==
==External links==
* STATS F1 page
* Wikipedia article
Category:2012 Grands Prix
Category:Italian Grand Prix
Category:Grand Prix articles
Category:Formula One races in Italy