Rubens Barrichello won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza ahead of Jenson Button, his Brawn team-mate, to turn the drivers' championship into a two-horse race.

In taking his second win of the season, the Brazilian has closed the gap on Button to 14 points.

With Mark Webber crashing out on the opening lap and Sebastian Vettel claiming a point for eighth place, the Red Bull pair 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 as the reigning world champion chased down his fellow Briton. Instead, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen finished third.

With Hamilton currently 53 points behind Button, it means his reign as World Champion is at an end, with nothing but pride to race for in Singapore, Japan, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

"On the chequered flag at the end, I had no words," Barrichello said. "But it was a tough night because I didn't know if we would have to change the gearbox [which would have led to a five-place grid penalty], but I think it's now going to last the final four races."

Barrichello also paid tribute to Ross Brawn's tactical decision to go with a one-stop plan. "It was a great decision yesterday," he said. "The guys with KERS had 20 litres [of fuel] on us at the start, but luckily we had a good start, and the pace was then good enough to be ahead of them by their second stop."

Button was also delighted after taking the podium for the first time in six races. "It's nice to be back up here with second position," he said. "I'd rather be where Rubens is, but he deserved it because he did a great job, and he's now my closest rival after taking another seven points out of Vettel."

Despite Hamilton's late charge, Button felt he had the edge on the 24-year-old anyway, despite his late crash. "Lewis started pushing on the final three laps, but I had him pretty much covered because it's difficult to pass here, even with KERS," Button said. "I don't know what happened to him at the end, but it's a great result for me."

Renault's Fernando Alonso, Kovalainen and BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld were the other drivers to collect points for fifth, sixth and seventh.