Alonso cuts Hamilton lead to three

MONZA, Italy -- World champion Fernando Alonso cut McLaren team mate Lewis Hamilton's lead at the top of the world championship to three points when he won the Italian Grand Prix for the first time at Monza.

Alonso, who had earned the 17th pole of his career, dominated from the start and was only out of the lead for five laps after the first of his two pit-stops.

The 2005 and 2006 champion came home seconds ahead of the 22-year-old Hamilton to claim the 19th win in his 101st Grand Prix.

With four races remaining, Hamilton leads the standings with 92 points to Spaniard Alonso's 89.

The remaining races are next Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix and then the events in Japan, China and Brazil.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen finished third for Ferrari, who had a poor time on home territory and against the background of the acrimonious 'spy story' scandal in which they claim McLaren have gained an advantage from a secret dossier that was leaked from Ferrari.

Brazilian Felipe Massa, who started third for Ferrari, retired after only 11 laps.

German Nick Heidfeld finished fourth for BMW Sauber ahead of his team-mate Pole Robert Kubica, German Nico Rosberg in a Williams and Finn Heikki Kovalainen in a Renault.

Briton Jenson Button collected the final single point finishing eighth for Honda.

The 53-lap race began in warm sunshine with the track temperature 33 degrees Celsius and the air temperature 28 degrees as the cars completed their formation lap.

Alonso made a perfect start but Hamilton struggled and was passed on the run down to the first chicane by Massa in his Ferrari.

The young Briton responded vigorously and regained second place as they entered the braking zone, but had to miss the apex of the second part of the Rettifilio Tribune to hold his position as they ran down to Curva Grande.

On the second lap Briton David Coulthard careered off the track heavily into the barriers in his Red Bull, after a collision with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault.

The race was brought under the control of the Safety Car. The Torro Rosso team's young German driver Sebastian Vettel also suffered an early accident.

When the action resumed in earnest, Alonso led Hamilton by less than a second and it remained like that until the next major drama, when Massa came in to the pits after 10 laps and retired a lap later.

Hamilton, running second, was the first of the front-runners to come in to the pits and refuel after 18 laps. His stop took 8.3 seconds and he was soon followed by the rest of the field, Alonso diving in two laps later for a stop timed at 9.1 seconds.

Raikkonen led for five laps before he pitted after 25 laps when Alonso, who remained narrowly ahead of Hamilton, regained the ascendancy. The two McLaren men stayed in control until Hamilton's second stop after 42 laps.

This was a long one, at nine seconds, and gave Raikkonen a chance to go through to second ahead of him, but the Finn, perhaps struggling with his car on worn tires, lost that place when Hamilton passed him under braking on lap 42 at the first chicane.

A lap later and Alonso pitted for the second time from the lead, but this time kept his position when he rejoined, 4.5 seconds ahead of his team-mate. E-mail to a friend