September 10, 2007	Monday	Sha'aban 27, 1428

MONZA (Italy), Sept 9: Double world champion Fernando Alonso led a McLaren one-two in the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday to cut team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s lead to three points with four races remaining.

Hamilton, 22, had another highly impressive afternoon but the British rookie was doomed to follow in the Spaniard’s slipstream after his team mate secured pole position in Saturday’s qualifying.

He crossed the line six seconds behind Alonso, who celebrated his 19th career win and fourth of the season.

Hamilton now has 92 points to Alonso’s 89 in what looks increasingly like a two-man battle, dependant on the outcome of a hearing of the governing body in Paris on Thursday that could wreck their title hopes.

Ferrari, winners four times in the previous five seasons at the temple of Italian motorsport, had to make do with Kimi Raikkonen’s third place.

The Finn fell further behind in the title reckoning, 18 points adrift of Hamilton who highlighted his talents further by overtaking the Ferrari for second place with a brilliant move after his final pitstop.

On a sunny but miserable afternoon for Ferrari, ever more McLaren’s bitter enemies since a spying row erupted between the two in July, Brazilian Felipe Massa was forced to retire with just 10 laps gone.

Germany’s Nick Heidfeld was fourth for BMW Sauber with Polish team mate Robert Kubica fifth and Germany’s Nico Rosberg sixth for Williams.

McLaren lead Ferrari by 166 points to 143 in the constructors’ championship, pending Thursday’s hearing and another appeal by the Mercedes-powered team to try and claim back 15 points lost in Hungary last month.

Results:

1. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren 1hr 18min 37.806secs; 2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren + 00:06.062; 3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 00:27.325; 4. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 00:56.562; 5. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 01:00.558; 6. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams–Toyota 01:05.810; 7. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Renault 01:06.751; 8. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 01:12.168; 9. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull–Renault 01:15.879; 10. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 01:16.958; 11. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 01:17.736; 12. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault 1 lap; 13. Alexander Wurz (Austria) Williams–Toyota 1 lap; 14. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri–Honda 1 lap; 15. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota 1 lap; 16. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri–Honda 1 lap; 17. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso–Ferrari 1 lap; 18. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso–Ferrari 1 lap; 19. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Spyker–Ferrari 1 lap; 20. Sakon Yamamoto (Japan) Spyker – Ferrari 1 lap.

Retired: Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 43 laps, David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull–Renault 52 laps.

Fastest lap: Fernando Alonso, 1:22.871, lap 15.—Reuters