Italian GP as it happened

Final positions after 53 laps:

1 JP Montoya (McLaren)

2 F Alonso (Renault)

3 G Fisichella (Renault)

4 K Raikkonen (McLaren)

5 J Trulli (Toyota)

6 R Schumacher (Toyota)

7 A Pizzonia (Williams)

8 J Button (BAR)

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Lap 53: Despite seeing his lead fade away towards the end, McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya comes home in first place for the sixth Grand Prix win of his career, ahead of championship leader Fernando Alonso, with Giancarlo Fisichella third and Kimi Raikkonen in fourth.

Lap 51: Fourth-placed Raikkonen does his best to close the gap on third-placed Fisichella in search of precious championship points. Michael Schumacher spins off and loses 15 seconds, returning to the race in 10th place. It seems unlikely there will be a Ferrari in the points on their home track.

Lap 50: Within touching distance of the finish line, Montoya is losing a second a lap, but his team take the gamble of leaving him out on the track rather than replacing his damaged tyre.

Lap 48: Montoya's lead slips to 7.4 seconds as he appears to be having left rear tyre problems, and may need an emergency pit stop to replace it.

Lap 47: Montoya's lead over second placed Alonso is now over 10 seconds. Raikkonen has made his way up to fourth place. over 36 seconds off the pace.

Lap 45: Raikkonen spins when trying to pass Fisichella, and slips back to fifth place.

Lap 43: Barrichello leads another series of pit stops, including Webber and Sato, who race neck and neck out of the pit lane, with Webber securing a narrow advantage.

Lap 42: Ralf Schumacher (from fourth) and Trulli (sixth) both make pit stops.

Lap 41: Montoya, who is comfortably in the lead, makes his second stop of the day. Button, who began in third and was going well in the first half of the race, makes a second stop and slips back to 10th place.

Lap 39: Second placed Alonso takes a pit-stop to refuel, allowing Montoya to stretch his lead to over 11 seconds.

Lap 35: Michael Schumacher pits from eighth place. Montoya's lead over Alonso remains constant at 9.3 seconds.

Lap 34: Button pits from sixth place, having been passed by Ralf Schumacher. Reports from the pits say Raikkonen's tyre problem was a puncture caused by debris on the track, rather than delamination.

Lap 31: Alonso, in second place, cuts Montoya's lead to just under nine seconds. On his final appearance as a Ferrari driver on their home track, Barrichello remains in front of Michael Schumacher.

Lap 29: Raikkonen is stuck in 11th place, having got past Villeneuve, but remains over a minute off the pace as his bad luck continues.

Lap 27: Raikkonen appears to be having problems with his right rear tyre, and having worked his way up from 11th to fifth place, he is forced back for an unscheduled pit stop. He comes out in 12th place just behind Villeneuve, who held him up for the first 14 laps of the race. Montoya remains over nine seconds ahead of the field.

Lap 25: Raikkonen pits, taking over 11 seconds for a lengthy fuel stop, and rejoins in fifth place behind Trulli. Montoya leads the field by over nine seconds.

Lap 22: Second placed Raikkonen, who is the only driver yet to pit, sets the fastest lap time yet but Montoya leads by over four seconds.

Lap 20: Montoya pits and comes out in second place, just behind new leader Fisichella.

Lap 19: Alonso pits, taking exactly 11 seconds and rejoins the race just ahead of Raikkonen. The two main championship rivals are now going wheel to wheel for the first time in the race.

Lap 18: Button pits from third place, returning to the track in 10th place, as Alonso cuts Montoya's lead back to 2.5 seconds. Sato makes a second pit stop, possibly with a software problem.

Lap 16: Sato pits, as Raikkonen works his way up the field to eighth place, having finally got past Villeneuve during his pit stop. Alonso stretches his lead over Montoya to nearly three seconds.

Lap 14: Barrichello and Villeneuve both make their first pit stops, as Montoya tries to build up a lead before his first stop.

Lap 13: Alonso cuts Montoya's lead to 1.6 seconds, as Michale Schumacher pits and drops to eighth place.

Lap 12: Raikkonen is lapping at two seconds per lap slower than his team-mate Montoya. But there is a large bunch of cars just behind third-placed Button, so Raikkonen could well make up a lot of ground if he could get out of 11th place.

Lap 11: Montoya's lead over Alonso is stable at just over two seconds, with no-one gaining any ground on the leading pair.

Lap 9: Montoya and Alonso are 10 seconds clear of Jenson Button in third place, with Raikkonen stuck back in 11th place, now over 20 seconds behind the leaders.

Lap 7: Slowly but surely, Alonso eats into Montoya's lead of just over two seconds. Raikkonen falls back to over 18 seconds off the lead as he cannot find a way past Jacques Villeneuve.

Lap 4: Raikkonen remains stuck in 11th place, 14 seconds off the pace.

Lap 3: Montoya opens up a 2.4 second lead over Fernando Alonso.

Lap 2: Kimi Raikkonen is 10 seconds behind leader Juan Pablo Montoya, back in 11th place.

Lap 1: Straight from the start, Kimi Raikkonen makes a poor start but holds on to 11th place at the first corner, and David Coulthard loses ground. He pits on the first lap after losing part of this front wing.

1300: The crews leave the tracks as the engines are fired up and the cars start the formation lap.

1240: The cars line up on the grid, with air temperatures around the 31C mark. The wind is negligible, and conditions are dry, despite heavy overnight rain.

McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya will start from pole after team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who qualified fastest, was relegated to 11th position on the grid after being forced to change his engine, his third grid relegation of the season.

Renault's championship leader Fernando Alonso, who has a 24-point lead over Raikkonen, starts from second spot, with BAR duo Jenson Button and Takuma Sato third and fourth respectively.

The Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello line up in sixth and seventh place for their team's home race, behind the Toyota of Jarno Trulli.