Vettel wins eighth race of the season with victory in Monza

By Elmar Dreher Sep 11, 2011, 13:42 GMT

Monza, Italy - World champion Sebastian Vettel on Sunday extended his lead in the drivers' standings with an emphatic victory in the Italian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver, who now leads the standings by 112 points from Ferrari's Fernando Alonso with six races outstanding, took the chequered flag ahead of Jenson Button in a McLaren and Alonso.

It was Vettel's eighth victory from 13 season races and came on the Autodromo di Monza track, where he secured his first Grand Prix victory three years ago.

Vettel, who could already win the championship in Singapore in two weeks time, had tears in his eyes during the victory ceremony. 'It is always very special here.

'It is very emotional. My first victory was here and on the podium you remember everything. You just feel so happy because not many drivers have the privilege of winning here.

'We have not had the best of runs on the course in the last few years.'

The race began in dramatic fashion as McLaren's Lewis Hamilton tried to overtake pole setter Vettel. Alonso, meanwhile, who started from third, pushed ahead both of them and was leading the race at the first corner.

Vettel said that he did not have the best of starts. 'Fernando did well. I managed to overtake him after the restart, though I did not have a lot of space.'

Alonso said that he had a good feeling at the start. 'That is why I managed to get the maximum out of the start. But we did not have enough speed to be first, but I wanted to keep the podium place.

'It was a great result for us.'

Behind the leaders, there was more action as Hispania driver Vitantonio Liuzzi spun through the grass in the first corner and crashed into the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Vitaly Petrov's Renault, forcing all three cars to retire.

The safety car was called out as a result and Alonso held onto his lead when he restarted the race behind the safety car on the third lap.

Within two laps though, Vettel had managed to overtake the Ferrari driver and soon managed to pull ahead.

Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber, who went into the race in second position in the overall standings, had to retire after touching the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa.

As Webber was driving back to the pits the front wing folded under his car and resulted in him crashing into the barriers.

The Australian admitted after crashing out that Vettel was too far ahead in the championship to be caught. 'We are all driving for second place. That's just the way it is.'

Upfront, Vettel was driving a lonely race as he had a 15 second lead over Button, who had managed to move into second place ahead of Alonso.

Behind the leading three, Mercedes' Michael Schumacher and Hamilton were involved in a hectic tussle for fourth place, with the British McLaren driver accusing Schumacher of unfairly preventing him from passing.

After sitting behind the German for a while Hamilton managed to get past Schumacher and started a frantic chase to catch Alonso, but ran out of time to do it and the Spaniard took his third place over the line.

Hamilton finished fourth, followed by Schumacher and Massa.

Jaime Alguersuari in a Toro Rosso and Force India's Paul Di Resta were seventh and eighth respectively, while the top ten were completed by Renault's Bruno Senna and Sebastian Buemi in a Toro Rosso.

Vettel has an overwhelming lead in the drivers' standings. The German is on 284 points, followed by Alonso who has 172. Webber and Button are on 167.