Monza, Italy: Fernando Alonso recovered from a poor start to win the Italian Grand Prix for home team Ferrari on Sunday and revive his Formula One title chances.
The Spaniard lost pole position to McLaren's Jenson Button at the first corner but re-took the lead after the pit stops to hold on for a 2.9-second victory.
Felipe Massa of Ferrari was third and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel came fourth.
Red Bull driver Mark Webber, who finished sixth, leads the overall standings with 187 points. Lewis Hamilton crashed out on the first lap and is second with 182. Third-place Alonso has 166, Button 165 and Vettel 163. There are five races left.
Alonso was making his debut at Monza for the Italian team and it was Ferrari's first victory at its home track since Michael Schumacher won in 2006.
Alonso, who also won here in 2007 for McLaren, was already celebrating his win in front of fans ahead of the finish line. The two-time world champion's 24th career win tied him with Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina for eighth all-time. A huge heart-shaped Ferrari banner was unhurled in front of the podium before the champagne came out.
Button made a great start to move ahead of Alonso, who struggled to hold off teammate Massa only days after the pair were cleared over a team orders' controversy in a 1-2 finish at the German GP on July 25.
Webber started poorly for the second straight race but Hamilton fared even worse. He exited before the halfway point of his first lap after bumping with Massa as the pair jostled for third with the McLaren driver's front right wheel damaged.
Webber easily passed Vettel on the 21st lap to sit seventh even though his German teammate was lapping faster.
But Vettel, who had started sixth, eventually got past and worked his way up the field to recover from the Belgian GP, where he finished out of the points after crashing into Button.
Alonso was able to get back in front after the top two pitted, emerging with less than a second advantage at the start of the 38th lap. He held the lead to the end.
Vettel confirmed his spot at the close as he pitted to make the mandatory tire change on his last lap. He returned in front of Nico Rosberg, who finished fifth for Mercedes.
Force India returned empty handed for the fourth time this season with Vitantonio Liuzzi finishing 12th and Adrian Sutil 16th.
It is third time in the last four races that Force India has failed to get a point in an otherwise impressive season.
Before this race, Force India had returned without any points from the Chinese, German and Hungary Grand Prix.
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