Hamilton Wins At Monza

Lewis Hamilton took the podium at the 2012 Italian Grand Prix at Monza for the first time in his Formula One career (and McLaren's third ever at the circuit). Monza is declared motorsports' cathedral of speed but sometimes it's that speed that can get you. Monza has a long history of spectacular accidents, but at the 2012 Grand Prix, it was all mechanical retirements.

Jean-Éric Vergne was the first causality of the race when he appeared to have a failure at the rear of his car, under braking for turn on and flying across the kerbs into retirement.  Vergne was just the first in a long list of driver's that seemed to have taken flight during the race. Kimi Räikkönen was also seen multiple times to launch himself and his car over the kerbs and become airborne.

After Vergne, we saw Jenson Button retire form the race with a loss of drive (on the run down to Parabolica). Vettel also retired (with six laps to go) with an apparent alternator failure. His teammate, Mark Webber did not fair any better and he also retired from the race when he had a high-speed spin (exiting Ascari) and flat-spotted his tyre so badly, he had 'limped' back to the pits and end his race with only two laps remaining.

Past the retirements, the race was also packed with on track action. The Caterham drivers provided the fans a race long fight with Heikki Kovalainen leading Vitaly Petrov to the line by a tenth of a second. Like many other driver's Bruno Senna was seen to have made many 'trips' over the chicane kerbs during his race whist battling with both Nico Rosberg and Paul di Resta.

But it was Sauber's Sergio Perez that owned the race. Perez qualified not so well in 12th position but with a superb drive and excellent strategy by Sauber, it seemed the team and driver got their payback for what happened in Malaysia.

By lap 29, Perez had made it past the Lotus of Kimi Räikkönen (as well as the other's 'in his way') with a strong move into the first chicane and was off racing after the pair of Ferrari's. Perez eased up to them at over two seconds a lap quicker. Perez made his move and passing the Ferrari's seemed so easy. Coming into the final stage of the race, Perez, in his Sauber, seemed to be travelling quick enough that he started to worry McLaren (who was hear telling Hamilton to up his pace). Sergio Perez was able to gain ten potions from race start to race finish AND close the gap to Hamilton from 20 seconds to 4.3 at the checkered flag.

With a race and result like that, it is easy to see why Sauber's Sergio Perez was voted fan's driver of the day!

Lewis Hamilton	Winner
Sergio Pérez	Second      Fan's Choice
Fernando Alonso	Third
Felipe Massa	P4
Kimi Räikkönen	P5
Michael Schumacher	P6
Nico Rosberg	P7
Paul di Resta	P8
Kamui Kobayashi	P9
Bruno Senna	P10
Pastor Maldonado	P11
Daniel Ricciardo	P12
Jérôme d'Ambrosio	P13
Heikki Kovalainen	P14
Vitaly Petrov	P15
Charles Pic	P16
Timo Glock	P17
Pedro de la Rosa	P18
Narain Karthikeyan	P19
Mark Webber	Retired (Spin)
Nico Hülkenberg	Retired (Brakes)
Sebastian Vettel	Retired (Alternator)
Jenson Button	Retired (Fuel system)
Jean-Éric Vergne	Retired (Spin)