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| July 25, 2005 | Monday | Jumadi-us-Sani 17, 1426 |
Alonso wins again as Raikkonen quits
HOCKENHEIM (Germany), July 24: Renault’s Fernando Alonso cashed in on Kimi Raikkonen’s misfortune to win the German Grand Prix on Sunday and take a huge step towards becoming Formula One’s youngest champion.
Raikkonen’s hopes were left in tatters after his McLaren slowed, emitted a puff of smoke and came to a halt with hydraulic failure on lap 35 after the Finn had led by a comfortable margin.
Alonso inherited the lead, as he has done before in a championship that seemingly has the 23-year-old Spaniard’s name written all over it, to cruise to his sixth win in 12 races by 22.3 seconds from McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya.
The Renault driver stretched his lead over Raikkonen, still second in the drivers’ standings, to a hefty 36 points with seven races remaining.
Montoya did his best to make amends for spinning off the track in Saturday’s qualifying by racing through the field from the back of the grid to secure second place.
Briton Jenson Button took third place for BAR, overtaking Ferrari’s local favourite Michael Schumacher on the circuit’s tight hairpin for his first podium finish of the season after being disqualified at Imola in April.
Schumacher, who grabbed a record equalling 11th win of the season here last year, looked like winning a dogfight with Alonso’s team mate Giancarlo Fisichella for fourth place.
Result: 1. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:26:28.599; 2. Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) McLaren +00:22.569; 3. Jenson Button (Britain) BAR 00:24.422; 4. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault 00:50.587; 5. Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari 00:51.690; 6. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota 00:52.242; 7. David Coulthard (Britain) Red Bull 00:52.700; 8. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Sauber 00:56.570; 9. Christian Klien (Austria) Red Bull 01:09.818; 10. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Ferrari 1 lap; 11. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) Williams 1 lap; 12. Takuma Sato (Japan) BAR 1 lap; 13. Christijan Albers (Netherlands) Minardi 2 laps; 14. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 3 laps; 15. Jacques Villeneuve (Canada) Sauber 3 laps; 16. Narain Karthikeyan (India) Jordan 3 laps; 17. Tiago Monteiro (Portugal) Jordan 3 laps; 18. Robert Doornbos (Netherlands) Minardi 4 laps.—Reuters
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