1997 Italian Grand Prix

The 1997 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza on 7 September 1997. It was the thirteenth round of the 1997 Formula One season. The 53-lap race was won by David Coulthard driving for McLaren after starting from sixth position on the grid. Jean Alesi finished second for Benetton after starting from pole position, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished third for Williams.

Alesi led the race until the halfway stage; however, Coulthard, who had jumped from sixth on the grid into third place coming out of the first corner, got ahead of the Frenchman courtesy of a faster pit-stop, and held on to win the race by less than two seconds, gaining some measure of revenge for an incident in the French Grand Prix earlier that season, in which Alesi recklessly pushed Coulthard off the track on the final lap to rob the Scot of his fifth place. The top five finishers and Mika Häkkinen ran in two separate processional orders throughout - Häkkinen dropped out of the points when he flat spotted his front tyres after his pitstop; before his pitstop he ran out of fuel just metres from the entrance of the pits, thus costing him a chance to come out in the lead because he was the last car among the top teams to come in after being out the longest.