Heading into the first turn for the 59th and last time Kimi Raikkonen's front right Michelin was badly flat-spotted, but it was the suspension that failed due to the tremendous vibration on his McLaren Mercedes sending the unfortunate Finn spinning wildly out of the race. Watching the action unfold from a second back, Fernando Alonso was undoubtedly smiling as he completed the lap and took his fourth victory of the season for Renault.
The story of the 60-lap European Grand Prix was Raikkonen who took the lead with ease from nick Heidfeld heading to the first turn and seemed to have the race win in his hands until a big lock up whist lapping Jacques Villeneuve. A high speed trip across the grass later and Raikkonen had damaged his barge board and more importantly damaged his front right tyre.
McLaren gambled and until the very final lap, that gamble came to close to coming up with the perfect result. As it was, Raikkonen and McLaren lost the bet and leaves with no points.
Fernando Alonso looked set for second position from the mid point of the race, only gaining time as the handling of Raikkonen's MP4-20 started to go away. The gap came down lap after lap but it was Alonso who took the chequered flag as Raikkonen walked back to the pits.
Nick Heidfeld took a solid second position 16 seconds behind race winner Alonso. The German started from Pole Position but was passed by Raikkonen into the first turn. It soon became apparent that the BMW Williams driver was on a three stop strategy compared to the two stop strategies of his nearest rivals. This would prove costly for BMW Williams as Alonso duly took the position when Heidfeld made his third and final stop.
Rubens Barrichello had a good race in his Bridgestone shod Ferrari to take the final podium position, less than two seconds behind Heidfeld. Starting seventh the Brazilian picked his way though the field as his rivals made errors to claim his second podium position of the season and Ferrari's third.
David Coulthard made best of a first lap incident between Mark Webber and Juan Pablo Montoya to run at the sharp end, actually leading a handful of laps for Red Bull Racing. A pit lane speeding violation saw the Scotsman take a drive through penalty dropping him behind Barrichello, but it was still a very impressive drive to fourth position.
Michael Schumacher had a low-key race in the second Ferrari, never really showing much pace. His second and final pit stop saw him gain position over Felipe Massa after a long battle between the pair and Schumacher crossed the line nearly 20 second behind Coulthard.
Giancarlo Fisichella had a typically eventful race. The Australian Grand Prix winner qualified his Renault in ninth position but stalled the engine on the grid forcing an aborted start. Starting from the pit lane the Italian put in a good drive to bring Renault yet more points with sixth position.
Juan Pablo Montoya will leave Nurburgring wondering what might have been, heading into the first turn on lap one the Colombian was immediately up to third position. A fraction of a second later and Mark Webber out-braked himself and struck the McLaren ending his own race on the sport and pushing Montoya back down the order.
Montoya fought back, but will be very unhappy with the overall result as he will certainly feel that with Heidfeld stopping three times and Raikkonen having his own issues, he Montoya could and perhaps should have been on the top step of the podium. As it was, Montoya finished in seventh position.
Jarno Trulli qualified fourth for the race, but the Toyota mechanics were too slow in clearing the TF105 at the start of the race and Trulli was handed a drive though penalty. He recovered to finish in eighth position for the final point but it was a tough day for the team as Ralf Schumacher lost his front wing in the Webber-Montoya incident at the start and then spun out of the race at two-thirds distance.
Vitantonio Liuzzi finished out of the points in ninth in the second Red Bull Cosworth, surviving a very big moment in the closing stages when he ran wide though the final turn and so nearly ended up putting his RB1 into the pit wall.
Over at BAR Honda, their return to the sport was at best disappointing with Jenson Button tenth overall and never really on the pace while Takuma Sato was 12th after a pit stop for a new front wing on the first lap of the race. The team have a lot of work to do if they are to win a race this year.
Jacques Villeneuve had a difficult race once again in his Sauber Petronas, battling early on to try and pass the Jordan Toyota's. The Canadian finished 13th ahead of his unfortunate team-mate Felipe Massa who ran fifth for much of the race only for a Michelin tyre failure to effectively end his race in the closing stages.
Tiago Monteiro held off Narain Karthikeyan in the Jordan battle to finish 15th while Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher were the final finishers for Minardi Cosworth.
The Formula One circus packs up and heads to the test circuits of Europe before reconvening in Montreal in two weeks time. Kimi Raikkonen has now lost his Championship momentum and Fernando Alonso is firmly back in the driving seat for the overall 2005 honours.