Fernando Alonso scored his fifth win out of eight races at the British Grand Prix on Sunday. By finishing 13 seconds ahead of title rival Michael Schumacher, the winner of the Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix stretched his lead in the championship standings to a commanding 23 points.
Fernando Alonso scored his fifth win out of eight races at the British Grand Prix on Sunday. By finishing 13 seconds ahead of title rival Michael Schumacher, the winner of the preceding Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix stretched his lead in the championship standings to 23 points.
Having been beaten off the line by Juan-Pablo Montoya in last year’s British Grand Prix, the pole-setting Alonso was determined not to fall foul of the Colombian’s McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen on Sunday. Despite a slower than usual start, the Spaniard managed to hold the advantage into Copse at the start of the race. Schumacher, team-mate Felipe Massa and Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella followed Alonso and Raikkonen off the line, but Rubens Barrichello made a poor getaway and the Honda driver dropped behind BMW’s Nick Heidfeld and Montoya’s McLaren-Mercedes.
At the Becketts complex – not usually known for its passing opportunities – American rookie Scott Speed attempted to pass Ralf Schumacher’s Toyota. The German had dropped back from seventh on the grid and was under pressure from the Toro Rosso driver, but Speed got a little too close in the middle of Becketts and collided with the rear of the German’s car. Both cars were damaged, but as Ralf attempted to recover, he swerved into the path of Mark Webber’s Williams. The Australian and German crashed out of the race and Speed struggled back to the pits.
The accident prompted a safety car period. Approaching the end of lap three, Alonso slowed down and bunched the field up through Priory, Brooklands and Luffield, waiting for Raikkonen to hit the brakes before giving himself a decent cushion as the race got underway again.
Determined to make up for the disappointment of qualifying 19th, Honda’s Jenson Button was already in 14th position on lap one, having narrowly avoided becoming a part of the Schumacher-Webber crash. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli was quickly disposed of, while Torro Rosso’s Antonio Liuzzi succumbed to a classic Stowe overtaking maneuver on lap seven, leaving Button behind David Coulthard (Red Bull Racing).
Before the Britons could engage in combat, Button’s car failed as he approached Brooklands. The oil leak that caused his car’s engine fire pitched the Honda into a spin and Button was beached in the gravel.
Meanwhile, Alonso was easing out a couple of seconds over his closest rivals, who were now nose to tail after Raikkonen ran wide at Club on lap four. Schumacher closed in on the McLaren and the pair all but banged wheels on the entry to Abbey. However, the Finn emerged in front, and the positions remained unchanged to the first round of pit stops.
Trulli was the first to stop – only one lap earlier than Schumacher. Alonso proved to have the biggest fuel load of the leaders and stopped on lap 22, four tours after Schumacher and three after Raikkonen. McLaren hoped that the MP4-21’s harder-compound Michelin tyres would prove beneficial, but Raikkonen was unable to prevent Alonso from stretching his lead.
The Renaults of Alonso and Fisichella ran one-two for a while between stops, and Heidfeld also took a turn in the top echelon as BMW ran longer even than the Regié, but it was not enough to prevent Alonso staying in the lead. He was eleven seconds ahead of Raikkonen by lap 35.
Heidfeld’s made a tardy getaway after his stop on lap 25 (due to a possible clutch/gearbox problem), but the biggest loser in the first round of pit stops was Barrichello, who found himself on the tail of the top ten, now behind both Jacques Villeneuve’s