A classic monza race and a crucial one in the world championship battle.
The two stopping Hamilton,Sutil and Raikkonen against the one stopping Kovalainen, Barrichello and Button.
It should have been Kovalainen's race to win, but 90seconds after the start his chance was gone as he ended lap one in the bottom half of the top ten despite starting fourth on the grid.
The brawn's of Rubens and Jensen ended lap one 4th and 5th and it was now a clear race. Could Hamilton Sutil and Raikkonen edge out enough of a gap to make that extra stop count?
Sutil and Raikkonen certainly could not, and would eventually find themselves 30seconds off the pace at the chequered flag.
Hamilton however, gave viewers everywhere a fight to the end.
After pulling out a significant gap over the Brawn's before the first stop, Lewis was still in with a decent shout of the win, but in the second stint, as the Brawn's were getting lighter on fuel and thus faster, he couldnt pull out the gap, and as he pitted for the second time, the Brawn's had done their single stop and were well out in front.
Undeterred, the reigning world champion hunted down 2nd place man Button lap after lap, like Schumacher used to do.
Entering the final lap, with Ruben's away and in the clear, Hamilton had got the gap to Button down to one second. The Mclaren set the fastest first sector of the race on the last lap, desperate to get close enough to the Brawn to make a move.
Exciting Lesmo one however, Lewis pushed just ever so slightly too hard, put his left reer just inches too far over the kerb and was pitched into the inside barrier, a heavy whack resulted in major damage for the Mclaren, but Lewis didn't care, he's not in the championship this year, he just wants to win.
It's a privilege to have racers like Lewis, he's a racer, not just a formula one driver, a racer. A man who wants to beat everyone the cross the line first, every race, every time.
That was the story of this year's Italian Grand Prix.
Red Bull have all but no chance of winning either title after Mark Webber was punted out of the race on lap one by Robert Kubica, its the third time in a row Webber has failed to score and his maiden win in Germany must seem quite a long time ago now.
Vettel, struggling with engine availability, struggled throughout, battling with the BMW's to earn a solitary point. This weekend was clear evidence that the engine to have was a Mercesdes, as 6 of the top 7 on the grid had the power plant. It is no wonder Red Bull want to start a deal with the German manufacturer.
Sutil put in a fantastic drive to finish in 4th place, easily his best ever formula one result. Had he beaten Raikkonen off the line he would have been much further up the road at the end. But it is just impossible to pass a KERS powered car.
Alonso put in a quiet drive to 5th, comfortably fending off Kovalainen who has a terrible habit of being super quick on a saturday, only to ruin it all on lap one on sunday.
Heidfeld dragged his beemer up to 7th, and would have been more of a threat I feel had he and Kubica not had identical engine failures in qualyfying.
Singapore next, and it very much is now a 2 man fight between the Brawn boys to be 2009 World F1 Champion.
1 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 1:16:21
2 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes +2.8 secs
3 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari +30.6 secs
4 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes +31.1 secs
5 Fernando Alonso Renault +59.1 secs
6 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes +60.6 secs
7 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber +82.4 secs
8 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault +85.4
9 Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari +86.8
10 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota +162.163
11 Timo Glock Toyota +163.925 secs
12 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 52 Accident
13 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 52 DNF
14 Jarno Trulli Toyota 52 +1 Lap
15 Romain Grosjean Renault 52 +1 Lap
16 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 51 +2 Laps
Ret Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes Transmission
Ret Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari Gearbox
Ret Robert Kubica BMW Sauber Engine
Ret Mark Webber RBR-Renault Accident
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