It may not have been the dream result for the tifosi in Italy, but it was exactly what the doctor ordered for the drivers who finished on the podium this week.
At the same time last week, all three had been wiped out of the Spa race thanks to the crash caused by Romain Grosjean. However, seven days later in Monza, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso came back with style.
Race winner Lewis Hamilton will have been especially glad to have got this race win under his belt, the first Monza victory in his F1 career.
After his major boo-boo last week - tweeting his and Jenson Button's telemetry readings, and then having to spend the week fielding questions about who he will be driving for next year - when the time came to perform, the visor went down and the Brit showed what he could do. He took pole on Saturday and on race day sailed through with minimal pressure from other drivers.
His success this weekend is especially key at a time when his racing contract is being discussed. Hamilton's future has been the main topic of conversation in F1 this week after BBC F1 presenter and ex-team owner Eddie Jordan said he understood Lewis would leave McLaren this year and move to Mercedes.
The rumours about Hamilton's future have probably gathered even more steam thanks to Berne Ecclestone effectively announcing last week that Michael Schumacher wouldn't be back in F1 next year. If this turns out to be true, this would leave the seat free for Hamilton.
Hamilton has been a part of the McLaren family since he was just 13-years-old, when he was signed to their young driver programme, so the thought that he could go to another team will be sad for his fans as it would mark the end of that partnership.
However, he has to be at a team where he feels he can get the results he wants, despite Eddie Jordan suggesting his rumoured move to Mercedes could be a marketing decision; Mercedes are a worldwide brand while McLaren are mainly confined to the UK.
This would be a disappointing choice to make for a young driver who still has so much of his F1 career in front of him; to go for marketing rather than results. Wherever he ends up, let's hope it's for the right reasons.
Another driver who should be looking at where he could go in the future is Sergio Perez, who drove a sterling race from P12 to finish just 4.3 seconds behind Hamilton in P2, and 40 seconds ahead of his team mate Kamui Kobayashi who started the race in front of him in P8.
On his push through the field at the end of the race, Perez passed both Ferraris with minimal effort, and considering he drives for Ferrari-owned Sauber, this was quite a controversial move. Granted the Mexican was on newer tyres than the two Ferraris but he outperformed what was available to him in his Sauber and had the race been a few laps longer, he may have taken his first win. Of course , that is all part of the ifs and buts that go along with F1; but it is clear that Perez is a future race winner. It's only a question of when.
Ferrari, who are almost certain to replace Massa next year, would be wise to have a good look at Perez in my view, although they traditionally only take more experienced drivers. Perez also says he doesn't want to move, that he is happy at Sauber, but if Ferrari didn't at least give him a shot next year I think it would be a huge oversight on their part.
The Ferrari team, who have an almost complete crowd following at Monza, had hoped to deliver their Italian fans (called the tifosi) a race win this weekend. During free practice the Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa looked to have good pace and practised with the towing technique, a move they tried to carry over into qualifying to get both drivers in the best possible starting position on Sunday.
To explain towing, as an F1 car gets nearer to the back of another car, it moves into an area of turbulent air created by the car in front. When the cars are running in a straight line this slightly reduces the air resistance of the car behind and gives it a slight performance advantage. This is the reason cars are often seen very close together just before an overtaking attempt.
This is what the two Ferrari drivers were doing together on Saturday's qualifying. The move gave a great boost to Massa who went first, and ended up starting the race in P3. When Alonso went for his turn, his rear anti-roll bar broke causing massive understeer in his car and left him to start in P10.
However, the Spaniard showed the skill he's renowned for and managed to push to finish in third place. This was especially impressive considering the Ferrari garage seemingly lost all their computers for most of the race and didn't have the information about their driver’s telemetry they were used to.
Nevertheless, even Massa looked good for a while at the start of the race, managing to jump to P2 from his grid slot almost instantly, and Alonso's only real pressure came from Sebastian Vettel.
In a situation almost identically mirrored from last year, Alonso ended up running on the grass while scrapping with Vettel for P4. Last year it was Vettel who ended up on the grass at the same corner, Curva Grande, trying to pass Alonso.
In 2011, there were no penalties for the move, but this year Alonso was straight onto his radio to the team complaining, and a few laps later Vettel was handed a drive-through penalty for forcing Alonso off the track. In his post race interview Alonso said: "Last year was not penalty, this year is penalty, there is big difference for the people who understand".
It was hard to judge but from my seat on the sofa it looked to me as if Vettel was using the racing line and it was just a racing incident. I guess those are the ramifications of causing a Ferrari to put its wheels in the dust in Monza: do it at your peril.
The penalty was just part of a nightmare weekend for Red Bull. Vettel and Mark Webber only managed to qualify in P5 and P11 respectively and neither car crossed the finish line on race day; their first double drop out since Korea 2010.
Vettel suffered an alternator failure on lap 48, and his team immediately shouted at him to stop the car and save the engine. Vettel's alternator had already failed during the third free practice session on Saturday morning and the team were clearly worried about it, radioing Webber a few laps earlier warning him that Sebastian had "an engine problem that may cause him to stop suddenly".
Then, just two laps from the end of the race, Webber's car spun and the Aussie did well to keep it from slamming into the wall, but it meant the end of his race and he limped back to the pits to retire.
The Monza circuit is the fastest track of the year with three quarters of the race done flat out, at speeds up to 220mph. This means it can be hard on engines, and cars which are quick in the corners (like the Red Bulls) are instantly on the back foot.
Another casualty at the circuit was Jenson Button who was running in a strong second place and looked like the team could finish in the top two positions, but on lap 34 Button's engine suddenly gave out. He radioed the team to tell them he "had no drive" and the crew responded tell him, "yes, we have a fuel pick up problem"; a sad end to what looked like it could have been a great day for the British team.
Nico Hulkenberg, who had such a strong race last weekend, was also forced to retire on Sunday after an unlucky weekend.
The German lost his fuel pressure when he went out to the first qualifying session on Saturday and was forced to start from the back of the pack after he failed to post a qualifying time.
During the race he pushed hard and was up as far as P13 before he suddenly parked his car in the garage. As yet there has been no exact explanation as to what happened other than to say there were "numerous issues"
His team mate Paul di Resta had a more successful weekend, driving the wheels off his car on Saturday to qualify in P4. He started the race in P9 however after he changed his gearbox.
The Scot raced hard on Sunday, but was hindered by his degrading rear tyres which impacted his speed. He finally finished in P8, taking home four points for his team.
The Monza race sees the end of the European F1 circuit for 2012. It's not quite time to break out the alarm clocks for early starts yet though, for the next race in Singapore is the spectacular night race, meaning the drivers race at 8pm their time. For us it's another leisurely lunch time race - thank goodness! Here’s looking forward to it.
To follow me in between races you can find me on Twitter @JenBuchanan_F1
