Alonso: A true leader

With an Army of blue and yellow-shirted Renault fans cheering him on under clear blue skies, Alonso crossed the line with his hand up in a ‘High Five’ as the French carmaker celebrated a first home win as a constructor for 22 years.

The 23-year-old lapped all but two cars to end a Schumacher family stranglehold on the race as the first winner in five years from outside the German family.

Ferrari’s seven times world champion Michael Schumacher, who had started the day hoping to become the first driver to win the same Grand Prix eight times, was third.

Briton Jenson Button was fourth, finally collecting BAR’s first points of the season, with Italian Jarno Trulli fifth for Toyota.

Both Button and Trulli benefited from Italian Giancarlo Fisichella’s misfortune, Alonso’s Italian team mate stalling his Renault on the third and final pitstop after challenging Schumacher for third place.

Fisichella was sixth, ahead of Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher. Canadian Jacques Villeneuve took the final point for Sauber. Alonso now has 69 points to Raikkonen’s 45. Schumacher has 40. Renault stayed ahead in the constructors’ standings with 89 points to McLaren’s 71.

Alonso made a clean start from pole position and ran in isolation for lap after lap as Trulli, holding on to second place from the front row, held up the rest of the field.

With 15 laps gone, the Spaniard was 21 seconds clear and with a big enough buffer to pit comfortably five laps later and rejoin in the lead.

The McLarens had by then been unleashed, with Trulli pitting with Schumacher at the end of lap 18 and the German coming out ahead of the Italian.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya closed to within eight seconds of Alonso before pitting and allowing team mate Raikkonen, who had started 13th with a heavier fuel load, to take over in second place.

Montoya eventually retired after 48 of the 70 laps with a suspected hydraulic problem.

Alonso, who had not scored points in the last two races after crashing in Canada and then being unable to compete in Indianapolis due to the Michelin tyre crisis that sidelined seven of the 10 teams, was not to be threatened.

With Renault’s new President Carlos Ghosn attending his first Grand Prix, he took the chequered flag 11.8 seconds clear of Raikkonen.

It was the first time Renault had won a French Grand Prix asa constructor at Magny-Cours. Their last win, in the turbo era, was at the Le Castellet circuit with four Times champion Alain Prost in 1983. (Reuters)

Narain last amongst the finishers at French GP

Magny-Cours: Narain Karthikeyan brought up the rear as he finished 15th in the French Grand Prix here today. The Indian rookie racing for Jordan, who went into the race trying to make use of his track familiarity, finished last, four laps behind winner Fernando Alonso of Renault at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours. Narain, who qualified as the best among the four rookie drivers yesterday, ended two places behind teammate Tiago Monteiro of Portugal.

Results: 1. Fernando Alonso (Esp) Renault 1h31:22.233, 2. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 11.805, 3. Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:21.914, 4. Jenson Buttkn (GBr) Bar 1, 5. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1, 6. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1, 7. Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1, 8. Jacques Villeneuve (Can) a 1, 9. Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 1, 10. David Coulthard (GBr) Red Bull 1, 11. Takuma Sato (Jpn) Bar 1, 12. Mark Webber (Aus) Williams 2, 13. Tiago Monteiro (Por) Jordan 3, 14. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Williams 4, 15. Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan 4.