Monza (Italy), Sept 14: Michael Schumacher won the Italian grand prix today, maintaining a slim lead on his chief championship challenger Juan Pablo Montoya from start to finish. Schumacher completed 53 laps over the 5.793-kilometer Monza circuit in 1 hour, 14 minutes, 19.838 seconds. Montoya was the runner up, 5.294 seconds behind.
Schumacher's Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello finished third 11.835 seconds back and Mclaren-Mercedes' Kimi Raikkonen was fourth at 12.8 seconds.
Schumacher now leads the drivers standings by three points ahead of Montoya and seven in front of Raikkonen with two races remaining this season.
The five-time world champion had not won since the Canadian GP in June and had not started on the pole since the Austrian GP in May.
Schumacher nearly lost his lead on the race's first turn, when Montoya challenged him on the inside. The BMW-Williams driver was unable to get in front, however, and never got so close again.
Montoya inched to within 0.9 seconds of Schumacher in the middle stage of the race, between the two pit stops for each driver, but lost ground behind traffic in the final stage of the race. Bureau Report