2010 Italian Grand Prix

On the Wednesday before the race, Ferrari were summoned before the FIA World Motor Sport Council to answer charges related to fixing a race outcome through the use of team orders – banned since 2003 under Article 39.1 of the sporting regulations following an infamous incident at the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix – and subsequently bringing the sport into disrepute at the German Grand Prix. Although Ferrari were fined US$100,000 at the time of the incident, the special meeting of the WMSC opened the door for further sanctions. The tribunal eventually decided against punishing the team further, with a promise to review the ban on team orders, a decision that was received negatively by fans.[5]

Following increased speculation over Red Bull and Ferrari appearing to use flexible bodywork – banned under the sporting regulations – the FIA announced its intention to intensify testing procedures for the second time, having increased lateral load-bearing tests on the front wings at Spa-Francorchamps. Speculation within the Belgian paddock suggested that both teams had been using flexible floors to lower the front wings closer to the roadway, giving rise to the FIA's plan for stricter testing at Monza.[6] On the Wednesday before the race, McLaren admitted to changing the floor of the MP4-25 to meet the increased load tests.[7]

Lewis Hamilton led the drivers' championship and Mark Webber went into this race 3 points behind, since Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso did not score in Belgium. They were over a race win behind Hamilton and Webber. Sakon Yamamoto took Karun Chandhok's seat again for the Italian Grand Prix.

The first qualifying session saw all six cars from the new teams knocked out, with Jarno Trulli in the Lotus leading among them in 18th. His teammate Heikki Kovalainen was 19th and then came Vitantonio Liuzzi, whose Force India had had technical issues. Timo Glock had originally been ahead of Liuzzi in his Virgin, but he was handed a five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox, putting him at the very back. Lucas di Grassi was 21st in the other Virgin ahead of Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto in the HRTs.

Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button started on the front row.

There were no real surprises in the second qualifying session either, as the two BMW Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi (13th) and Pedro de la Rosa (17th) were eliminated along with the Toro Rossos of Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, the Force India of Adrian Sutil and Michael Schumacher's Mercedes. Also eliminated was Vitaly Petrov, who qualified his Renault 15th but was given a five place grid drop for blocking Glock in the first session.

Rubens Barrichello scraped into the top 10 and qualified tenth in his Williams, just behind Robert Kubica in the other Renault. It was a good performance from the other Williams of Nico Hülkenberg, who out qualified his teammate to qualify eighth. Nico Rosberg was probably pleased with seventh in the Mercedes, but then came the championship contenders. A mistake put Sebastian Vettel sixth, and it was a tough day for his Red Bull team as Mark Webber could only qualify fourth in the sister RB6. The two McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button had chosen completely different car set ups, and it did not work out for Hamilton who could qualify only fifth. It was looking good for Ferrari in front of their home crowd, and Felipe Massa qualified third. It was their day as Button was pipped to pole by Fernando Alonso, the 19th pole of the Spaniard's career.

At the start of the race, Jenson Button had a fantastic start, jumping his McLaren from second past Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. Alonso, who was alongside his teammate Felipe Massa through the turn one chicane, just clipped the rear of Button's diffuser, but there was only light damage to the McLaren. As the pack headed down to the second chicane of turns three and four, Button's teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was in fourth, tried to pull a move on Massa, but there was contact between the two. Although Lewis tried to carry on, the front track rod was broken and he pulled up at the next corner. Massa managed to carry on unscathed. Kamui Kobayashi did start the race but retired his BMW Sauber on the first lap with a gearbox failure.

Heikki Kovalainen was slower than teammate Jarno Trulli for much of the weekend, and finished the race 18th.

Meanwhile, Mark Webber in the Red Bull was going backwards from his fourth place grid slot, and he was ninth at the end of the first lap. He soon re-passed Michael Schumacher's Mercedes at the second chicane on lap 6, with a calm and collected move on the seven times world champion. A hydraulic failure made Bruno Senna's HRT the race's third retirement on lap 11.

Alonso was harrying Button all the way, and drama occurred further back on lap 20 as Webber's teammate Sebastian Vettel, who had also had a bad start, dropping from 6th to 7th and was harrying Nico Hülkenberg in the Williams to take the place back, complained of an engine issue in the Red Bull's Renault power unit. Webber sailed past and Vettel was just dropping back into the clutches of compatriot Schumacher when he suddenly regained power, and began to close in on Hülkenberg and Webber.

Felipe Massa finished third, days after Ferrari were spared any further sanction in relation to events at the German Grand Prix.

Button made his pit stop on lap 36, and by staying out for one lap longer Alonso was rejoin ahead of Button after his stop, although his teammate Massa actually held 1st for two laps before his own pit-stop relegated him back to 3rd. It was very tight as Alonso exited the pits, but the Spaniard just managed to stay ahead by holding the racing line as the two were side-by-side through turns one and two. Jarno Trulli was the race's next retirement in the Lotus with a gearbox failure on lap 46.

After even more off track adventures for Hülkenberg, he was finally passed by Webber with just four laps to go, and the Aussie was visibly frustrated by then. On the same lap, Lucas di Grassi's Virgin suffered a suspension failure. After his phantom technical failure, the Red Bull mechanics had decided to leave Vettel's stop to the last lap, which they did, and the gamble paid off handsomely as the German emerged from the pits still in fourth place, ahead of his teammate.

Alonso crossed the line in first place to the delight of the Tifosi, with Button still less than three seconds in arrears. Massa was third to complete a fantastic double home podium for the Scuderia, while Vettel drove a brilliant recovery drive to bring the Red Bull home fourth, holding off a late challenge from Nico Rosberg, who had had a quiet race for Mercedes. Webber, Hülkenberg and Robert Kubica's Renault were all in close attendance, while Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello's Williams rounded out the points.

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	8	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:22.646	1:22.297	1:21.962	1
2	1	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:23.085	1:22.354	1:22.084	2
3	7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:22.421	1:22.610	1:22.293	3
4	6	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:23.431	1:22.706	1:22.433	4
5	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:22.830	1:22.394	1:22.623	5
6	5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:23.235	1:22.701	1:22.675	6
7	4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:23.529	1:23.055	1:23.027	7
8	10	Nico Hülkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:23.516	1:22.989	1:23.037	8
9	11	Robert Kubica	Renault	1:23.234	1:22.880	1:23.039	9
10	9	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:23.695	1:23.142	1:23.328	10
11	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:23.493	1:23.199		11
12	3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:23.840	1:23.388		12
13	23	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:24.273	1:23.659		13
14	16	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:23.744	1:23.681		14
15	12	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:24.086	1:23.819		201
16	17	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:24.083	1:23.919		15
17	22	Pedro de la Rosa	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	1:24.442	1:24.044		16
18	18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1:25.540			17
19	19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1:25.742			18
20	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1:25.774			19
21	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:25.934			242
22	25	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1:25.974			21
23	21	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1:26.847			22
24	20	Sakon Yamamoto	HRT-Cosworth	1:27.020			23
Source:[8]

Notes:

1. ^ Vitaly Petrov was handed a 5-place grid penalty for blocking Timo Glock in the first part of qualifying.[9]
2. ^ Timo Glock was handed a 5-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.[10]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	8	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	53	1:16:24.572	1	25
2	1	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+2.938	2	18
3	7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	53	+4.223	3	15
4	5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	53	+28.196	6	12
5	4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	53	+29.942	7	10
6	6	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	53	+31.276	4	8
7	10	Nico Hülkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	53	+32.812	8	6
8	11	Robert Kubica	Renault	53	+34.028	9	4
9	3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	53	+44.948	12	2
10	9	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	53	+1:04.213	10	1
11	16	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	53	+1:05.056	14
12	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	53	+1:06.106	19
13	12	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	53	+1:18.919	20
14	22	Pedro de la Rosa	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	16
15	17	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	15
16	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	52	+1 Lap	11
17	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	51	+2 Laps	24
18	19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	51	+2 Laps	18
19	20	Sakon Yamamoto	HRT-Cosworth	51	+2 Laps	23
20	25	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	50	Suspension	21
Ret	18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	46	Gearbox	17
Ret	21	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	11	Hydraulics	22
Ret	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Collision	5
Ret	23	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	0	Gearbox	133
Source:[11]

• ^ Kamui Kobayashi started from the pit lane.
• ^ Di Grassi was classified for completing 90% of the race winner's distance.