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Juan Pablo
Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen scored a dominant one-two for the
McLaren-Mercedes team in Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix but
Fernando Alonso’s third place was enough to secure him the
2005 Drivers’ championship. Michael Schumacher finished
fourth for Ferrari, and with teammate Rubens Barrichello in
sixth place, Ferrari consolidated their third place in the
Constructors’ championship, the lead of which was taken by
McLaren, now two points ahead of Renault with two races to
go.
The start of the
71 lap race threatened rain, but none came until after the
chequered flag. Alonso took off into the lead from Montoya
with Raikkonen moving ahead of Fisichella during the first
lap, as did Michael Schumacher. Jenson Button was sixth from
Christian Klien, then came Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher.
However, a midfield accident involving both Williamses and
David Coulthard caused a brief safety car interlude. At the
restart, Montoya overtook a cautious Alonso going down the
hill to turn four and Raikkonen nearly got through too.
In the first 20
laps, Montoya managed to draw out a four second lead, but it
was never much more than that. At first, Raikkonen
challenged the Renault but then he too began to drop away
with as much as a three seconds gap between them. Fisichella
got ahead of Michael Schumacher and began to pull away,
while Button came next, initially challenged by Klien and
Barrichello before he eased away.
The pit stops
began on lap 22. Alonso came in first, then Fisichella a lap
later with Barrichello. Michael came in on lap 26 and
emerged just ahead of Fisichella in fourth place, while
Button came in on the same lap. Montoya pitted on lap 28,
but Raikkonen didn’t come until virtually half distance, lap
31. When he rejoined, he was just 1.4s behind Montoya, but
even though he was 10s behind, Alonso was still in third
place which is where he needed to be to win the Drivers’
championship. Michael was another 14s back, still pushed by
Fisichella although the Italian would fall away in fifth
place. Once Takuma Sato had made his first stop, Button came
next, now with Barrichello on his tail. Montoya steadily
eased away to a four second lead before the final round of
stops, but the conservative Alonso was still in attendance
in third place and with a 16s margin over Michael, was
hardly threatened. Fisichella wasn’t far behind Michael, but
not threatening him, while there was a big gap to Button and
Barrichello, the Ferrari getting past to huge Brazilian
cheers on lap 44.
The next round
of stops began on lap 48 with the two Renaults, followed by
Barrichello on lap 50. Montoya and Michael came in on lap
54, but it wasn’t until lap 59 that Raikkonen came in. He
rejoined just behind teammate Montoya but Alonso was still
there in third place, 22s behind Raikkonen, 17s ahead of
Michael, so that nothing had changed among the front
runners. Fisichella remained fifth, with a large margin over
Barrichello who kept his lead over Button to the flag, the
BAR driver being lapped and only just ahead of Ralf
Schumacher at the end. Third place behind Montoya and
Raikkonen was enough to give Fernando Alonso the World
Championship, the youngest ever champion and the first from
Spain. Michael
Schumacher is now fourth in the championship, on equal
points with Juan Pablo Montoya while Barrichello is seventh,
equal with Ralf Schumacher.
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