Fernando Alonso stamped his authority on McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton with a dominant victory at Monza, cutting Hamilton’s championship lead to three points.

It was an important result for the double world champion and for the team after a stressful few days at the Italian Grand Prix. The on-going spy scandal is still taking proceeding in Formula One and we will discover the outcome of this season’s championship in a World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris on Thursday, September 13.

It is unclear what the verdict will be especially with new evidence coming into light (apparently McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa exchange some emails to race driver Alonso about top secret information on Ferrari). So for the next few days, the fight for this year’s titles could be decided in the courts than out on the race track…

Nevertheless, McLaren and Alonso should be pleased by Sunday’s race result. It was the Spaniard’s 19th career Grand Prix win and to take the chequered flag in front of the passionate Ferrari fans (tifosi) was a special feeling for the double world champion.

As for Lewis Hamilton, he still holds onto the drivers’ title lead over his team-mate by a small points margin. Finishing second was a good result for the British team but it could have been worst if Kimi Raikkonen finished in front of him. But Hamilton was in a racy mood and forced his way past the Ferrari driver with a spectacular overtaking manoeuvre into the first chicane on lap 43.

Raikkonen was caught by surprise as he just moved into second place thanks to Ferrari’s clever single pit-stop strategy to promote him a track position. Both cars locked their brakes into the first corner and it was lucky that both drivers didn’t make any contact. A great pass by the Formula One rookie but Kimi should have defended more aggressively.

Nick Heidfeld continued his consistent points finishes with a fine fourth for BMW Sauber, finishing ahead of team-mate Robert Kubica. Nico Rosberg was sixth for Williams after fighting off a determined Jenson Button. The Honda seemed to be working much better in the low-downforce configuration at Monza and it was fascinating to see the duel between Rosberg and Button in the 53-lap race. In the end though, Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen finished between the pair.

There were two non-finishes in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix and one of them was a championship contender, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. The Brazilian had a frantic opening set of laps trying to pass Hamilton’s McLaren. But was forced to retire early with mechanical problems, hitting his title hopes and the team’s. The other driver to retire from the race was David Coulthard. The Red Bull driver suffered a front wing failure (as the result of damage after hitting Giancarlo Fisichella’s Renault in the first chicane) and speared hard into the wall at the Curva Grande. The Scot escaped unhurt in the high speed accident.

So a perfect result for McLaren with first and second in Ferrari’s home race. This season’s Formula One World Championship is becoming tensed with four races remaining. But could politics rather than supreme driving talents of Alonso, Hamilton, Raikkonen and Massa decide the fate of the championship?

Italian Grand Prix result, Monza, 53 laps

1. ALONSO McLaren 1h18m37.806s
2. HAMILTON McLaren +6.0s
3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +27.3s
4. HEIDFELD BMW +56.5s
5. KUBICA BMW +1m00.5s
6. ROSBERG Williams +1m05.8s
7. KOVALAINEN Renault +1m06.7s
8. BUTTON Honda +1m12.1s
9. WEBBER Red Bull +1m15.9s
10. BARRICHELLO Honda +1m16.9s
11. TRULLI Toyota +1m17.7s
12. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
13. WURZ Williams +1 lap
14. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
15. R SCHUMACHER Toyota +1 lap
16. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
17. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +1 lap
18. VETTEL Toro Rosso +1 lap
19. SUTIL Spyker +1 lap
20. YAMAMOTO Spyker +1 lap
R. MASSA Ferrari +43 laps
R. COULTHARD Red Bull +52 laps

Fastest lap: ALONSO 1:22.871

Fernando Alonso leads a McLaren one-two after a dominant performance in qualifying at Monza. The Spaniard set the quickest time in all three segments of qualifying to takes his second pole position of the season and the 18th of his Grand Prix career.

The double world champion’s pole time of one minute, 21.997 seconds was only 0.037 seconds quicker than his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Turkish Grand Prix winner Felipe Massa lines up in third ahead of ‘Quick Nick’. The BMW Sauber driver did a fantastic job to beat one Ferrari – that of Kimi Raikkonen – and by starting on the second row (with P4), the German could possibly spoil the weekend for the Italian team in front of the tifosi in Sunday’s race.

Raikkonen was on his back-foot after a troubled start to his weekend. First he suffered a hydraulics problem in Friday’s practice session and then during the warm-up to qualifying, had a high-speed crash under braking for the Variante Ascari chicane.

The crash caused significant damage to his chassis so Kimi was forced to switch to the spare car in order to qualify. The Finn will start tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix in fifth, three-quarters of a second slower than his team-mate Massa.

Robert Kubica lines up in sixth for BMW Sauber with Heikki Kovalainen and Nico Rosberg – seventh and eighth for Renault and Williams respectively. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli continued his great form in qualifying by beating team-mate Ralf Schumacher for the fifth time with ninth and it was a good result for Honda’s Jenson Button who managed to qualifying inside the top ten for the second time this year.

So it will be another McLaren versus Ferrari battle in Sunday’s Grand Prix. McLaren are looking very strong after a competitive showing in last week’s testing and a win on Ferrari’s home soil will be the perfect result for the team after suffering a stressful period of accusation in the latest series of the spy scandal that has rocked this year’s championship.

Ferrari really needs to strike back in their home race to prevent rival McLaren taking the main points in its quest for the world championship. But could Heidfeld spoil the day in the fast and competitive BMW Sauber? Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix will be a fascinating contest with cars travelling around 220 miles per hour!

Italian Grand Prix grid

1. ALONSO McLaren 1:21.997
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1:22.034
3. MASSA Ferrari 1:22.549
4. HEIDFELD BMW Sauber 1:23.174
5. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:23.183
6. KUBICA BMW Sauber 1:23.446
7. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:24.102
8. ROSBERG Williams 1:24.382
9. TRULLI Toyota 1:24.555
10. BUTTON Honda 1:25.165
11. WEBBER Red Bull 1:23.166
12. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:23.176
13. WURZ Williams 1:23.209
14. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:23.274
15. FISICHELLA Renault 1:23.325
16. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1:23.351
17. SATO Super Aguri 1:23.749
18. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:23.787
19. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:23.886
20. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:24.019
21. SUTIL Spyker 1:24.699
22. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1:25.084

Finland’s Marcus Grönholm has beaten Frenchman Sébastien Loeb in one of the closest-fought World Rally Championship in many years.

Grönholm managed to beat his main rival by a small margin of 0.3 seconds! The title rivals were inseparable throughout the last day of the Rally New Zealand, swapping the lead three times in the final stages and being split by less than a second for most of leg three.

The Ford Rally driver looked set for a dominant victory after setting the pace on the first day, but Sébastien had other ideas. It was a fascinating contest as the two fastest rally drivers trade stages times.

The rally was decided on the final stage, the Mystery Creek Super Special. Even though Loeb took the stage honours, Grönholm had just enough of a margin to seal the victory after three incredible days of rally action.

The result brings Grönholm’s championship lead back up to 10 points with five rounds remaining.

In contrast to the nail-biting tension of the lead battle, Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen finished a distant third but was well ahead of the other drivers to take the last remaining podium spot.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa led home his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen with a dominant display in Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix. The Brazilian led from the start and resisted a race-long pressure from Raikkonen to reignited his and Ferrari’s title challenge.

It was an important win for Massa as the team’s president Luca di Montezemolo had set a target of scoring 1-2 finishes in the remaining six races in order to turn the tables on rival McLaren. Now that we are heading into Ferrari’s home race in a fortnight’s time (Monza), the first stage of this target has been achieved.

It also helps that the championship leader Lewis Hamilton could only finish in fifth after suffering a puncture.

Hamilton was on course to finish in third but with just 15 laps to go, his front-right Bridgestone exploded… Luckily, he managed to get his car back to the pits but the consequent delay dropped him behind his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso – who had lost ground with a poor start – and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld.

And although he salvaged four points with fifth position, his misfortune gifted team-mate Alonso a podium, which allows the Spaniard to close within five points in the race for the drivers’ title.

The double world champion was lucky to inherit third as he made a poor getaway off the grid. In fact, neither McLarens got away well at the start of the race, with Hamilton immediately losing second to Raikkonen and Alonso dropping to sixth behind the two BMW Saubers.

Although the Spaniard managed to re-pass both Robert Kubica and Heidfeld during the first pit sequence, Alonso had already fallen 14 seconds adrift of the leaders by this time. He proceeded to match Hamilton’s pace, but could not gain any ground and would not have bettered fourth place if his team-mate’s race had run trouble-free.

Finishing in sixth went to Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen, who drove a strong race and at one point, actually led the Grand Prix! The Finn even had a opportunity to pass Hamilton’s damaged car in the closing stages of the race, but in the end Kovalainen crossed the line a second adrift behind the McLaren.

Nico Rosberg was another driver who put in a fine performance for Williams. The German finished in seventh, just about holding off the chasing Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber. Kubica’s strategy of making early pit-stops cost the BMW Sauber driver dear, as he fell behind Alonso, Heidfeld and Kovalainen in the first sequence. And then he lost out another race position to Rosberg at the final stops.

But no such worries for Ferrari, as the team scored an impressive result. This was Massa’s second consecutive Turkish Grand Prix win and the Brazilian has significantly close the points gap between himself and the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton to just 15 points.

In the constructors’ championship, McLaren retain their lead with 148 points to Ferrari’s 137, while BMW Sauber are still a healthy third on 78 as the championship moves to Monza.

Turkish Grand Prix race result – 58 laps

1. MASSA Ferrari 1h26m42.161s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +2.2s
3. ALONSO McLaren +26.1s
4. HEIDFELD BMW +39.6s
5. HAMILTON McLaren +45.0s
6. KOVALAINEN Renault +46.1s
7. ROSBERG Williams +55.7s
8. KUBICA BMW +56.7s
9. FISICHELLA Renault +59.4s
10. COULTHARD Red Bull +1m11.0s
11. WURZ Williams +1m19.6s
12. R SCHUMACHER Toyota +1 lap
13. BUTTON Honda +1 laps
14. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 laps
15. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +1 laps
16. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap
17. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
18. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
19. VETTEL Toro Rosso +1 lap
20. YAMAMOTO Spyker +2 laps
21. SUTIL Spyker +5 laps
R. WEBBER Red Bull +49 laps

Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN 1min. 27.295 secs

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa beats the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton in the final moments of qualifying to take his fifth pole position of the season.

The Brazilian has a good record at the Istanbul Park race circuit. Massa scored his first pole position and race victory last year, so to repeat his qualifying performance this season is a fantastic achievement.

Initially, Lewis Hamilton had the advantage after making the switch to the white stripes Bridgestone tyres during his final run. The Formula One rookie set the benchmark with a time of one minute, 27.373 seconds. But as his McLaren team were celebrating, Felipe Massa had the faster momentum out of the tricky final sequences of corners to cross the line with a time of one minute, 27.329 seconds.

This edge out Hamilton down to second but both drivers out-performed their respective team-mates, who will line up behind in third and fourth.

Kimi Raikkonen blew his chance to take top spot when he made a slight error into the penultimate corner. His time of one minute, 27.546 seconds was sufficient enough to keep McLaren’s Fernando Alonso down in fourth with a lap time of one minute, 27.574 seconds.

The double world champion opted for the harder Bridgestone compound in his bid to set the quickest time, but this gamble didn’t work and will line up on row two.

Behind the Ferrari and McLaren pair, Robert Kubica drove a great lap to record one minute, 27.722 seconds to take fifth for BMW-Sauber. Team-mate Nick Heidfeld is directly behind with one minute, 28.037 seconds, while Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen and Nico Rosberg in the Williams completed row four with one minute, 28.491 seconds and one minute, 28.501 seconds respectively.

Row five comprises Jarno Trulli’s Toyota on one minute, 28.740 seconds, and Giancarlo Fisichella’s Renault on one minute, 29.322 seconds.

Star performance of qualifying goes to Anthony Davidson. He beat his Japanese team-mate Takuma Sato by a long margin (Sato will start in P19), so to qualifying his Super Aguri just outside the top ten is a remarkable achievement for the British driver.

Looking at the times between the Ferraris and McLarens, Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix will be very tense for the four drivers as the championship moves into the final six races of the year. Felipe Massa is determined to turn his pole position with race victory, while his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen needs to strike back on else the Finn drops out of contention for the 2007 drivers’ title. As for Lewis Hamilton, he has track advantage over Fernando Alonso so another good result at Istanbul will be a huge benefit towards achieving his dream result of winning his first title in only his first season of Formula One racing. Alonso on the other hand, will want to close down the championship points gap by outracing both his team-mate and the Ferrari pair. It should be a thrilling race!

Starting grid for the Turkish Grand Prix

1. MASSA Ferrari 1:27.329
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1:27.373
3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:27.546
4. ALONSO McLaren 1:27.574
5. KUBICA BMW 1:27.722
6. HEIDFELD BMW 1:28.037
7. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:28.491
8. ROSBERG Williams 1:28.501
9. TRULLI Toyota 1:28.740
10. FISICHELLA Renault 1:29.322
11. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:28.002
12. WEBBER Red Bull 1:28.013
13. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:28.100
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:28.188
15. BUTTON Honda 1:28.220
16. WURZ Williams 1:28.390
17. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:28.798
18. R SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:28.809
19. SATO Super Aguri 1:28.953
20. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1:29.408
21. SUTIL Spyker 1:29.861
22. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1:31.479

Since 2002, only one driver remained unbeatable on the Rallye Deutschland. His name? Sébastien Loeb. His achievement? Winning the event for the sixth time, thereby closing the championship gap to rival Marcus Grönholm to eight points.

Loeb dominated the three-day event with ease and it was fitting that his main championship rival lost track position after losing control in his Ford Focus. Grönholm should have finished in second, but under extreme pressure by the flying Citroen of Francois Duval, the Finn went off in the final stage… Handing the position to Duval.

Grönholm managed to continue in his damaged car and was lucky to finish fourth, behind his Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen.

After crossing the line, Frenchman Loeb expresses his gratitude to Duval for pressuring Grönholm into his error.

“I must say thank you to Francois Duval because he was pushing incredibly hard,” Loeb said.

Duval was equally thrilled with his second place. “I pushed a lot… I’m very happy – after eight months (away) it’s incredible.”

So a great drive by the two Citroen WRC drivers. The championship now heads to New Zealand in two weeks time. Can Sébastien Loeb reduce the points gap further?