Rubens Barrichello has won the Italian Formula One Grand Prix at Monza ahead of his Brawn team-mate Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) while Lewis Hamilton crashed out on his final lap of the race.
In taking his second win of the season and 11th of his career, the 37-year-old Brazilian has now closed the gap on team-mate and championship leader Jenson Button down to 14 points.
With Mark Webber crashing out on the opening lap and Sebastian Vettel claiming a solitary point, the Red Bull duo are 26 and 28.5 points adrift of Button with four races remaining.
Lewis Hamilton should have joined Barrichello and Button on the podium, only to dramatically crash out on the final lap at Monza as the reigning world champion chased down his fellow Briton.
Hamilton's second successive smash after his opening-lap drama in Belgium two weeks ago elevated Kimi Raikkonen into third for Ferrari. That was naturally to the delight of the home fans, with the Finn finishing narrowly ahead of Force India's Adrian Sutil as the German collected his first points for the team.
At the start, it appeared to be an extraordinarily slow getaway from from Hamilton as he seemed to have too much wheel spin once the five red lights disappeared. But the fact close friend Adrian Sutil was hardly like lightning out of the box either in his Force India appeared to come to the Briton's aid.
With Raikkonen directly behind him, and with only one option but to go to Hamilton's left and onto the grass, he quickly realised such a plan was never going to work. It allowed Hamilton to control the field from the front on approach to the opening Rettifilio chicane, and from that moment the race was destined to all come down to pit-stop strategy.
For this race different tactics were being employed, with Hamilton, Sutil and Raikkonen opting for two trips into the pits, in contrast to Barrichello and Button who were running 'one-stoppers'.
In his first stint Hamilton set about putting in fastest lap after fastest lap, and by the time of his initial stop after 15 laps, he was 20.4 seconds clear of Button.
It was not enough to get him ahead of his compatriot, but it was close enough to leave him in contention for a crack at the win.
It was then the turn of the Brawn duo to eke out their advantage over Hamilton, and on laps 28 and 29, it was Button and then Barrichello in for their one and only stops.
The Brazilian's team managed to turn around Barrichello half a second quicker than the man who is still searching for his seventh win of the season after emerging victorious in six of the opening seven races.
It was now a case of whether Hamilton, regaining the lead, would be able to open up enough of a gap to make his second stop and be in and out ahead of the Brawns in order to take the win.
It was not to be, though, as he came in again on lap 34, but with only a 21.4secs cushion over Button.
When he re-emerged, Hamilton was just 100 yards down on Button, and that was game over.
Although he managed to close to within a second, it was clear Hamilton was pushing until the bitter end, paying the price as he simply put his front-left wheel on the kerb at Lesmo, sending him into a spin and a heavy impact into a tyre barrier.
Ferrari's fans erupted as they realised Raikkonen would then be on the podium, and it was the usual mayhem on the start-finish straight as thousands invaded the track.
Alonso, Kovalainen, and BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld were the other points scorers.
Results:
1. Rubens Barrichello (BRA) Brawn 1hr 16min 21.706sec
2. Jenson Button (GBR) Brawn at 2.866s
3. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari 1 lap
4. Adrian Sutil (GER) Force India 31.131
5. Fernando Alonso (ESP) Renault 59.182
6. Heikki Kovalainen (FIN) McLaren 1:00.693
7. Nick Heidfeld (GER) BMW Sauber 1:22.412
8. Sebastian Vettel (GER) Red Bull 1:25.407
9. Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) Ferrari 1:26.856
10. Kazuki Nakajima (JPN) Williams 2:42.163
11. Timo Glock (GER) Toyota 2:43.925
12. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) McLaren 1 lap
13. Sebastien Buemi (SUI) Toro Rosso 1 lap
14. Jarno Trulli (ITA) Toyota 1 lap
15. Romain Grosjean (FRA) Renault 1 lap
16. Nico Rosberg (GER) Williams 2 laps
Overall standings:
1. Jenson Button (GBR) 72.0pts
2. Rubens Barrichello (BRA) 56.0
3. Sebastian Vettel (GER) 53.0
4. Mark Webber (AUS) 51.5
5. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) 34.0
6. Nico Rosberg (GER) 30.5
7. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) 27.0
8. Jarno Trulli (ITA) 22.5
9. Felipe Massa (BRA) 22.0
10. Heikki Kovalainen (FIN) 17.0
11. Timo Glock (GER) 16.0
12. Fernando Alonso (ESP) 16.0
13. Nick Heidfeld (GER) 10.0
14. Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) 8.0
15. Robert Kubica (POL) 8.0
16. Sibastien Buemi (SWI) 3.0
17. Sibastien Bourdais (FRA) 2.0
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