Defending triple world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing won the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso to take his 32nd career F1 win and open up a 53 point lead ahead of Alonso at the top of the drivers championship.
The 26-year-old German's teammate Mark Webber took third place in what is - for the time being - his final F1 race at Monza ahead of the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa and Sauber F1's Nico Hulkenberg.
The 53 lap race at the Monza Autodrome was filled with a fair amount of tension, however, not for the lead as Alonso fought off Webber and Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus F1 and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes AMG fought their way back from bad starting positions and on-track incidents that saw them drop back again.
Raikkonen was forced to pit for a new front wing at the end of the opening lap following a slight collision with McLaren's Sergio Perez going into the first chicane. Hamilton was forced to make his first tyre stop early as well as a strategy to start the race on harder tyres was undone due to a slow puncture.
Vettel was briefly threatened by Alonso - who he has now tied as the most successful active driver in F1 - at the end of the race as the Red Bull Racing pitwall requested him to take it easy due to fears of a gearbox related retirement.
With seven races left till the end of the F1 season, Vettel's gap at the top of the standings looks insurmountable barring a mechanical problems for his normally bulletproof RB9.
Third placed Hamilton is 81 points behind Vettel and Raikkonen 88 points behind.
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