Premium
This is an archive article published on September 12, 2005

Raikkonen wins to fight another day

McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen won the Belgian Grand Prix for the second year in a row on Sunday to keep Renault’s Fernando Alonso waiti...

.

McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen won the Belgian Grand Prix for the second year in a row on Sunday to keep Renault’s Fernando Alonso waiting for the Formula One title.

Spaniard Alonso, who needed to beat the Finn by four points to become the sport’s youngest champion at the age of 24, crossed the line second after McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya crashed three laps from the end.

“The conditions were pretty difficult for everyone today,” said Alonso. “With the position in the championship we didn’t need to risk. “Once again I had help from McLaren and was able to take two more points.”

Story continues below this ad

Alonso now heads for Brazil in two weeks’ time with every hope of being crowned there. He has a comfortable 25-point lead and three races remaining. The Spaniard has 111 points to Raikkonen’s 86 and a third place will be enough at Interlagos even if the Finn wins again. Both have won six times this year.

Until Montoya crashed, McLaren were heading for their first one-two finish in five years as well as the overall lead in the constructors’ championship. It was the second time in three races that Montoya had lost second place, and given Alonso points on a plate, while heading for a one-two.

“It was unfortunate what happened (to Montoya) near the end,” said Raikkonen. “We deserved to have both cars on the podium.” Renault are six points clear of McLaren in the constructors’ championship, the French team also failing to get both cars to the finish when Italian Giancarlo Fisichella crashed out on the 11th of 44 laps.

McLaren have now won four races in a row, however. With expected heavy rain holding off but the track still damp and treacherous, Montoya led from pole position and stayed ahead until the final pitstops when, as expected, Raikkonen took over in front.

Story continues below this ad

The Colombian had said before the start that he would help his team mate while McLaren had made their intentions quite clear. Briton Jenson Button was third for BAR, ahead of Australian Mark Webber in a Williams and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello for Ferrari.

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve was sixth in a Sauber, with Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher seventh after running close to Montoya in second place before a disastrous attempt to switch to dry tyres backfired. Portugal’s Tiago Monteiro took the final point for Jordan.

Ferrari’s seven-times champion Michael Schumacher, already out of contention after failing to score in the two previous races, completed a dismal hat-trick with another retirement after 14 laps.

The German, who struggled early on with dry tyres on a slippery surface, was rammed in the rear by BAR’s Takuma Sato after the safety car went in and was clearly furious with the erratic Japanese.

Story continues below this ad

“We’ve often experienced Hara-Kiri reactions from him in the past and that was another one today,” Schumacher fumed. “We’ve talked to him about it in the past. I don’t know what sort of therapy might help him.”

Sato said the conditions were very tricky: “I locked up the brakes and didn’t have the stopping distance.”

Sato will lose 10 places on the Brazilian Grand Prix starting grid as a punishment for the collison.

Race stewards heard from both drivers afterwards and ruled that the Japanese had caused the collision and should drop 10 places on the grid at his next race.

Narain finishes 11th

Story continues below this ad

Spa-Francorchamps: Narain Karthikeyan finished eleventh, just three places behind team mate Tiago Monteiro in an action packed Belgian Grand Prix here on Sunday.

The Jordan drivers stole the show in the race, thanks to some brilliant race strategy and sensible driving by Monteiro and Karthikeyan.Monteiro benefitted from a car that was quicker than his teammate’s but the 28-year old Indian made up for the difference in speed with some daredevil racing. Karthikeyan was pushed on to the grass after being blocked by former world champion Jacques Villeneuve when the Indian tried to pass him at a right hand turn from the outside.

But the Chennai lad showed great control as he refused to take the foot off the accelerator and still emerged ahead of Villeneuve.

Latest Comment
Post Comment
Read Comments
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement