Kimi Raikkonen dominated the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday to give McLaren-Mercedes its first win of the season and deny home favourite Fernando Alonso a fourth consecutive F1 victory.
Kimi Raikkonen dominated the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday to give McLaren-Mercedes its first win of the season and deny home favourite Fernando Alonso a fourth consecutive F1 victory.
The Finn finished 27,6 seconds ahead of the Spaniard’s Renault and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli was third after Michael Schumacher retired from the race due to a puncture.
Trulli’s team-mate Ralf Schumacher was fourth, ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault), Mark Webber (Williams-BMW), Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren-Mercededs) and Red Bull Racing veteran David Coulthard.
Raikkonen delivered a stunning qualifying lap in the morning to grab pole position. And, after the early deployment of the safety car due to the two Minardis stalling on the grid, the Finn set a barrage of fastest laps to draw clear of Alonso.
The Finn was so far ahead by his first stop that he came back out in the lead, and Alonso lost second place to team-mate Fisichella after the stops.
Schumacher qualified in a lowly eighth position, but showed stunning pace at the end of his first stint to move up to fourth. The German looked set for a podium place when Fisichella had to pit for repairs to his front wing.
The seven-time world champion struggled with tyre problems on lap 44 – his Ferrari suffered a left front puncture almost immediately after the left rear tyre failed and he retired his car with a broken front suspension soon afterwards.
Although Alonso never looked like making it five wins out of five for Renault on Sunday, he extended his championship lead over Trulli. The Italian’s podium finish was his third of the season, leaving him second in the drivers’ championship, 18 points adrift of Alonso. Raikkonen is third on 17 points.
Montoya briefly looked poised to challenge for a spot on the podium, but the Colombian, who was making his comeback after two races out due to injury, was forced to make extra pit stops after a fuel nozzle malfunctioned and eventually settled for seventh place.