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| June 27, 2006 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1427 |
Faultless Alonso clinches 6th win
MONTREAL, June 26: Fernando Alonso produced a faultless display as he cruised to his sixth win of the season in the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday. The world champion Spaniard, 24, started from pole position and led almost every one of the race's 70 laps to win by 2.1 seconds in his Renault and take the 100th win for tyre manufacturer Michelin.
Schumacher's result dropped him a further two points to Alonso in the drivers' championship to leave him 25 points behind with only nine races remaining.
Montoya did not escape unharmed as he pitted to allow his mechanics to change his nosecone and check for damage, dropping to the tail of the field.
Portuguese driver Tiago Monteiro then then took out Midland team-mate Christijan Albers at the pits hairpin.
Both incidents caused the race organisers to send out the safety car to allow the mess to be cleared up. Alonso and Raikkonen streaked ahead on the lap three re-start, pulling out a 12-second gap to the rest of the field by lap 10.
Raikkonen had the audacity to try an overtaking move on the world champion at the end of the main straight on lap 12.
Alonso was wise to the move though, forcing his rival to the outside of his Renault as they reached the breaking zone side-by-side.
Trulli moved up to third when Fisichella, penalised for his jump-start, served a drive-through penalty on lap seven and dropped to fifth, behind his compatriot and seven-time world champion Schumacher.
Just half a second separated the trio when Schumacher broke the Trulli train with a move around the outside into the final chicane on lap 24.
The final corner was not lucky for Montoya, who hit the infamous wall of champions' eight laps earlier while fighting back up the order and retired before the next corner.
Alonso made his first pit-stop on lap 23 but retained the lead after Raikkonen had a tyre problem on the next lap.
Schumacher immediately began to catch the Finn, closing to within a second and a half of him before making his first pit-stop on lap 32.
Raikkonen appeared to lose any chance of victory when he stalled at his final pit-stop, losing another seven seconds.
But his 30-second deficit to Alonso was erased when the safety car was deployed following an accident for home hero Jacques Villeneuve, 35, who crashed heavily while attempting to lap German Ralf Schumacher's Toyota on lap 60.
Behind the podium finishers, fourth went to Fisichella with Brazilian Felipe
Massa fifth for Ferrari and Trulli taking his first points of the season in sixth.
German Nick Heidfeld and Briton David Coulthard completed the points scorers in their BMW Sauber and Red Bull respectively.—AFP
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