Hamilton wins at Monza

Lewis Hamilton is celebrating his third victory of the season, following a win in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

The 2008 world champion drove from pole position to finish 4.3 seconds ahead of Sergio Perez, who drove a stunning race from 12th on the grid. The young Sauber driver finished ahead of the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, who had swapped places in the final part of the race.

Hamilton was first into turn one, ahead of Felipe Massa who managed to jump Jenson Button at the start. Alonso also made a strong start from 10th on the grid - he slip-streamed past Kamui Kobayashi before overtaking the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen to take sixth. He then squeezed past Sebastian Vettel before inheriting fourth place from Michael Schumacher, who was making his first of two pit stops.

In the meantime, Hamilton was busy extending his lead, while Massa lost the telemetry feed from his car. He began struggling, which allowed Jenson Button to regain second place before a fuel pick-up problem ended the McLaren driver's race and McLaren's dreams of a one-two finish.

Further back in the field, Perez was running a long first stint on his hard tyres. He fought his way past Nico Rosberg, Bruno Senna, Paul di Resta, Kobayashi and Raikkonen, before pitting, overtaking Raikkonen again and inheriting places from Button, Vettel and Schumacher to go fourth. He then set his sights on the two Ferraris.

Alonso was now third behind Massa, who still didn't have telemetry. Although no team order was made on the radio, Massa was told to manage his tyres. On lap 40, Alonso eased past the outside into turn one to take second. Perez was still flying, though, and it didn't take him long to get past both.

Kimi Raikkonen came home fifth, ahead of the Mercedes cars of Schumacher and Rosberg. Di Resta, Kobayashi and Senna took the final few points. Pastor Maldonado finished 11th, having started 22nd on the grid thanks to two five-place penalties for incidents during last weekend's race at Spa.

It was a terrible day for Red Bull, though, with both drivers forced to retire from the race. Sebastian Vettel had been running well when he was handed a drive-through penalty, after Alonso was forced onto the grass. Later, with just five laps to go, his engine failed and he was told to stop his car at the side of the track.

Then, with just two laps of the race to go, Mark Webber had a huge spin at Ascari. He did manage to get back onto the track, but he'd flat-spotted both of his tyres and he retired to the pits.

Jerome D'Ambrosio finished 13th, in his one and only outing for Lotus. He was standing in for Romain Grosjean, following the Frenchman's one-race ban for causing the incident at the beginning of the Belgian Grand Prix.

This result means that Alonso has extended his lead in the drivers' championship to 179 points, but Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen are now second and third in the championship, with 142 and 141 points respectively.

Red Bull still leads the constructors' championship with 272 points, ahead of McLaren with 243.

2012 Italian Grand Prix results