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| August 25, 2003 | Monday | Jumadi-us-Sani 26 |
Alonso becomes youngest winner
BUDAPEST, Aug 24: Renault’s Fernando Alonso became Formula One’s youngest race winner on Sunday in a Hungarian Grand Prix that slashed Michael Schumacher’s championship lead to one point.
With the championship poised ever more on a knife-edge, the top three contenders were separated by two points, with Ferrari’s Schumacher on 72, Williams’s Juan Pablo Montoya on 71 and McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen on 70.
None of that concerned Alonso, the 22-year-old Spaniard dominating the race from pole position to take the chequered flag with a comfortable 16.7 second advantage over runner-up Raikkonen.
He was the first Spaniard to win a grand prix.
Colombian Montoya was third, despite a late spin, while five-times world champion Schumacher trailed home eighth to salvage just one point at the circuit where he celebrated his fourth title in 2001.
Ralf Schumacher was fourth for Williams, fighting back impressively and overtaking more cars than anyone else after a first-lap spin sent him from the front row to 18th place, with McLaren’s David Coulthard fifth.
Australian Mark Webber, running second for the first 12 laps with his slower car acting as a bottleneck as Alonso sped into the distance, took sixth place for Jaguar.
Alonso, 22 on July 29, replaced American Troy Ruttman in the record books as the youngest race winner.
Result:
Race distance: 70 laps, 306.873 km 1. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1 hour and 39:01 seconds 2. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) McLaren 1:39.18 3. Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) Williams 1:39.36 4. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Williams 1:39.37 5. David Coulthard (Britain) McLaren 1:39.58 6. Mark Webber (Australia) Jaguar 1:40.14 7. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Renault 1 lap behind 8. Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari 1 lap 9. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) Sauber 1 lap 10. Jenson Button (Britain) BAR 1 lap 11. Cristiano da Matta (Brazil) Toyota 2 laps 12. Jos Verstappen (Netherlands) Minardi 3 laps 13. Nicolas Kiesa (Denmark) Minardi 4 laps.—Reuters
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