FORMULA ONE Italian Grand Prix :On Saturday afternoon, after McLaren's world championship title contender Kimi Raikkonen has yet again been visited by the demons that have haunted his quest all season, his team boss Ron Dennis stared determinedly into the lenses of a horde of cameras and predicted victory for the unlucky Finn at yesterday's Italian Grand Prix.at Monza

Raikkonen, he said was over a second a lap faster than anyone else on the track at Monza, the season's fastest circuit. The Finn had the fastest car. Their strategy would play the Monza race into Raikkonen's hands as Sunday afternoon unfolded. The small matter of an engine change before qualifying and a demotion of 10 places from his quickest time of the session to 11th on the grid would be no bar to the Finn's hopes of maintaining a championship challenge that has, over the course of the season, soared and slumped in equal measure.

The presence of his title rival, Renault's Fernando Alonso, on the front row behind McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya, would too be overcome.

On the fastest circuit in the fastest car, Raikkonen would be challenging the slower Renault within a handful of laps. Even the championship-leading Spaniard said so, reckoning on 10 laps before Raikkonen was breathing down his neck on a circuit he said would present no difficulty in overtaking for the electrically quick McLaren.

It took a little longer but eventually the predictions began to pan out. Even further hampered by a dreadful start as his McLaren bogged down under the weight of full fuel load Raikkonen began the afternoon in solid fashion.

Granted he spent the first quarter of the race wedged behind Sauber's Jacques Villeneuve, who capably defended what should have been an untenable position, but when the Canadian made for the pits on lap 14 Raikkonen was freed and his pace climbed with staggering efficiency.

As the rest of the field dropped into the pits ahead of him Raikkonen tore through the almost 30-second gap that existed between him and the leading pair of Montoya and Alonso. And as the Spaniard made his first stop on lap 19 and Montoya made his initial visit a lap later Raikkonen closed to within a few seconds.

By the time the Finn arrowed his MP4/20 towards the McLaren pit he was just 2.2 seconds behind his main opposition. And most crucially this would be the only visit he would make to the pits.

He emerged. Wound up his pace once more and made his move for the lead. And then the unexpected. Raikkonen's cause has chiefly been hit by engine trouble this season but yesterday it was the problems of the Nurburgring in late May that came back to haunt him.

There in the closing stages of a race he was comfortably leading a tyre problem caused such instability in his car that his front suspension simply exploded a lap from victory.

Yesterday it was a rear left tyre that threatened disaster. At the Nurburgring McLaren had opted not to bring him to the pits for a tyre change and the race had ended in disaster. Yesterday they took no such risk, changed the tyre, watched him emerge in 12th, again behind Villeneuve.

The Finn battled to fourth but the points again lost look like ending Raikkonen's championship. Up ahead Montoya and Alonso were cruising to the finish. The Colombian had a comfortable 11-second lead over the championship leader as he headed for his 49th tour of the 53 laps of Monza. But then the same trouble that had killed Raikkonen's chance of a win, struck again.

This time, thinking of a still more than viable constructors' title, McLaren risked all, including perhaps their driver.

Montoya's rear left was clearly in dire straits, a deep, treacherous groove worn into the meat of the tyre's carcass. But the Colombian bravely held fast to claim his second win at Monza.

Alonso made no bid for the victory, content to take eight points to move into a commanding 27-point lead over Raikkonen in the drivers' title race with just four rounds to go.