Watching the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, nobody would have doubted Lewis Hamilton as going through off-field drama regarding his contract situation at McLaren.
The Brit, cool as a cucumber, enjoyed the lead from pretty much start to finish to take his first ever Italian Grand Prix title and bring himself right back into the title picture.
Sergio Perez, thanks to some excellent strategy from his Sauber team, took an impressive second, while Ferrari's Fernando Alonso fought his way from 10th place at the start, to take third.
Hamilton now lies second in the driver's standings with 142 points, 37 points behind leader Alonso. Kimi Raikkonen, who finished the race in fifth behind Felipe Massa, is third in the overall table with 141 points while Sebastien Vettel lies fourth on 140. Vettel failed to finish the race with Jenson Button, who started the race in second, also retiring.
"It's been fantastic to win here, you've got the best crowd," Hamilton said after the race. "I'm just so happy for my team. It was really a fantastic day.
"It was pretty trouble-free (race). I don't think I had any problems throughout the race and the guys did a great job through the pitstop. And I got a good start for once, so very, very happy with that."
Hamilton was disappointed to see Button's race end in disappointment due to a problem with his fuel system. "Very, very unfortunate for Jenson, we were running 1-2 at the time and it would have been fantastic for the team to have won here and have first and second," he said. "I don't really know what went on with his car but it was very unfortunate."
Perez was, understandably, overjoyed with the result. "It was really enjoyable," the Mexican said. "One of those races where you have the pace and you are the one attacking.
"It was very crucial moments during the race, especially during my first stint, to go that long and to be able to keep the pace was not easy at all. I did quite a lot of laps on those tyres.
"Then in the second stint we managed to go maximum attack and I was able to have good fighting with some drivers. It was just a great race."
Alonso was also happy with his third-place finish, after trouble in the qualifying on Saturday meant he could only start from tenth on the grid. "Absolutely perfect Sunday for us. Obviously the win was out of reach after the problem yesterday," the Spaniard said. "Starting tenth is not easy to think about victory, so if you cannot win, podium is next target.
"In all the simulations and all the predictions we had, it was never a podium finish, so basically it's much better than expected. Jenson was out of the race and the two Red Bulls... so perfect Sunday maybe."
