The Hindu : Sport : Alonso holds off Schumacher to win at Imola

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 25, 2005

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Sport

Alonso holds off Schumacher to win at Imola

Ferrari makes a vast improvement on its performance in the first three races

IMOLA: Fernando Alonso held off Michael Schumacher in a fierce battle over the final laps on Sunday to win the San Marino Grand Prix. The victory was Alonso's third straight and meant Renault has won all four races this year, including Giancarlo Fisichella's triumph in the season-opening Australian GP.

Sunday's win allowed Alonso to increase his lead in the driver's standings to 36 points.

Schumacher finished second, immediately behind Alonso, for his best result this season and now has 10 points.

Alonso and Schumacher raced 1-2 for the final 12 laps. Schumacher moved his Ferrari around the track in passing attempts on several occasions. Each time, Alonso responded with a block.

Schumacher appeared to get half of his car alongside Alonso on the final lap but Alonso would not budge and closed again.

Alonso took the lead when pole sitter Kimi Raikkonen retired after just eight laps with an apparent mechanical problem.

Schumacher started 13th after running wide onto the dirt in qualifying on Sunday morning. He made up several positions early in the race by making a later first pit stop than other top drivers, then passed Jenson Button on the 47th lap to do battle with Alonso.

Button, in a BAR Honda, rounded out the podium in third for his first finish this season.

Alonso covered 62 laps around the Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit in 1 hour, 27 minutes, 41.921 seconds. Schumacher was just 0.215 of a second behind, while Button finished 10.481 back.

It was a fourth career victory for the 23-year-old Alonso, widely considered the next great Formula One driver after Schumacher.

Schumacher, the seven-time world champion, made a vast improvement on his first three races, in which he finished only once for the worst start of his career.

Throngs of Ferrari fans cheered wildly when Schumacher passed Button and watched in awe as the new and old stars of the sport went head-to-head.

When it was over, they stood and applauded Schumacher's return to form and Alonso's performance under pressure.

Alonso waved three fingers in front of his on-board TV camera to mark his third straight win, including the Malaysian and Bahrain GPs.

Fisichella crashed out on the sixth lap but Renault remained atop the constructor's standings with 46 points, followed by Toyota with 28 and McLaren-Mercedes at 24. Ferrari moved up from sixth to fourth with 18 points.

Alexander Wurz finished fourth in his first race since running with Benetton in 2000. Wurz was filling in for McLaren's injured Juan Pablo Montoya. BAR's Takuma Sato came fifth and Jacques Villeneuve of Sauber was sixth.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli crossed seventh and maintained second place in the driver standings behind Alonso with 18 points.

Fisichella, Schumacher and brother Ralf Schumacher of Toyota are tied for third with 10 points each. Ralf Schumacher was eighth on Sunday.

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello retired with electrical trouble after coming in for a pit stop on the 18th lap. Both Minardi drivers, Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher, also failed to finish.

Ferrari rushed its new F2005 models into action two races earlier than planned at Bahrain three weeks ago to mixed results. When he hit a bump going into a corner during qualifying Sunday — locking the car's steering — it appeared it could become another trying weekend for the Maranello outfit.

Yet the race showed the F2005's potential and confirmed to any doubters that Michael Schumacher has not lost his edge. After 28 laps, when all the top drivers had made their first pit stop, Michael Schumacher was third, 21.9 seconds behind Button, with Alonso in the lead 31.6 seconds in front.

With plenty of running room ahead of him, Michael Schumacher charged and made up an average of about two seconds per lap to pull Button within sight on the 40th lap. On the 47th lap, Michael Schumacher slipped by Button on the inside of a switchback turn, with the British driver possibly hindered by a lapped car in front of him. After a super-swift 6.1-second pit stop by Michael Schumacher on the 50th lap, the exciting finale with Alonso was set.

The German pushed his nose cone right up to Alonso's tail wing. Renault boss Flavio Briatore gritted his teeth in the pits while Ferrari director Jean Todt's gaze remained fixed on his TV monitor. — AP

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