08 Great Britain - Alonso shows the way to Schumacher
Renault are celebrating 200 Grand Prix this weekend and today the team dominated the British Grand Prix with Fernando Alonso to make it three wins in a row and for Alonso to extend his championship advantage over nearest rival Michael Schumacher who finished in second position.
Alonso dominated the race from his Pole Position slowly extending his advantage to over ten second from the field and then controlling the gap to the chequered flag. While it was a bit of a Sunday drive for Alonso, Schumacher had a frustrating day as he lost ground to Alonso early on as he trailed Kimi Raikkonen off the grid.
Raikkonen didn't have the pace to challenge Alonso and as a result the Renault driver was able to control things from the front. Schumacher made the pass on Raikkonen to run second in the second round of stops but by then it was all too late. Schumacher crossed the line 14s down on Alonso and his look on the podium told the story of a frustrating day at work.
Raikkonen finished in third position withstanding the pressure from Giancarlo Fisichella in the closing stages. It was an important position to hold as it gives him his third podium of the season and more importantly moves him ahead of Fisichella in the standings.
Felipe Massa had a quiet day in the second Ferrari as predicted, losing fourth position to Fisichella in the first round of stop and then bringing the 248 F1 home a low-key fifth.
Juan Pablo Montoya survived a first lap bump with Jacques Villeneuve and went on to finish sixth in his McLaren Mercedes. Montoya lost a lot of ground in the first stint of the race from the fast-starting Nick Heidfeld. The Colombian regained the position in the pit stops but by then the damage was done and he finished half a minute behind Massa.
BMW Sauber started the race from ninth and tenth and with the early demise of Ralf Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello having his bi-weekly struggle for pace, moved into the final two points paying positions. Nick Heidfeld took the chequered flag seven second behind Montoya with Jacques Villeneuve the same distance behind.
Nico Rosberg pushed hard in his Williams Cosworth but was unable to seriously challenge Villeneuve for the final point while it was an early shower for team-mate Mark Webber in the second FW28.
The only major incident of the race took place on the first lap as the fast-starting Scott Speed met up with the slow-starting Ralf Schumacher at Chapel. The Toro Rosso driver clipped the back of the Toyota sending Ralf spearing across the circuit and into the unfortunate Webber. A weekend to forget for the Australian racer.
With Ralf out of the action on lap one, Jarno Trulli fought his way from flat last on the grid to chase Rubens Barrichello across the line in 11th. For Barrichello, it was another nightmare of a race with the RA106 now showing any real pace and he finished four positions lower than he started and a lap down on Alonso.
Honda team-mate Jenson Button started the race 19th and worked his way quickly up to the back of David Coulthard who finished in 12th position in his Red Bull Ferrari only for his race to end in a cloud of Honda smoke.
Tonio Liuzzi had a busy race in the sole surviving Toro Rosso Cosworth and did a great job to split the two Red Bull Ferrari racers as he took 13th ahead of Christian Klien.
Christian Albers had a good race for Mf1 Toyota finishing a lap ahead of team-mate Tiago Monteiro who had shown such good pace right through the weekend but sadly not in the race. Takuma Sato and Franck Montagny finished three laps down for Super Aguri Honda.
The 2006 British Grand Prix was a bit of a parade again this year. The GP2 machinery showed this morning that passing is possible at Silverstone but at the pinnacle of the sport, the only passing seems to occur in the pit stops. A dream result for Fernando Alonso who now is surely set to line up back-to-back titles with Renault.