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This is an archive article published on August 1, 2005

Raikkonen wins

Kimi Raikkonen won the Hungarian Grand Prix for McLaren on Sunday to revive his Formula One title hopes and claw 10 points back from Renault...

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Kimi Raikkonen won the Hungarian Grand Prix for McLaren on Sunday to revive his Formula One title hopes and claw 10 points back from Renault’s championship leader Fernando Alonso.

After the agony of retiring while leading last weekend’s German Grand Prix, won by Alonso who failed to score this time, the Finn celebrated his fourth victory of the year in the heat of the Hungaroring.

Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari finished 35.5 seconds behind, a huge margin, after starting on pole position and leading for much of the first half. Alonso was 11th on an afternoon of hard labour and no reward, his lead cut to a still comfortable 26 with six races remaining.

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McLaren trimmed Renault’s lead in the constructors’ championship to 12 points but their hopes of a one-two finish died when Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya retired while leading after 41 of the 70 laps. Alonso’s race was wrecked when he broke his car’s front wing in a coming together with Ralf Schumacher’s Toyota at the first corner. The 24-year-old pitted at the end of the opening lap and rejoined in 17th place at a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult.

The only consolation for Renault was McLaren’s continued reliability woes, with Montoya crawling back to the pits to retire. While Schumacher failed to hold off Raikkonen’s challenge he could take heart from an encouragingly competitive day for the champions.

Jenson Button, his BAR stripped of tobacco advertising before European legislation comes into force on Monday, finished fifth.

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