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BRAZIL: FERRARI FINISHES IN THE POINTS
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.
“First of all I want to congratulate Fernando and his team on winning the title,” said Michael Schumacher at the finish. “They have done a great job and from a personal point of view it is nice for me to see some of the guys I worked with at Benetton looking so happy. I look forward to fighting them again next season. We had a reasonable race today, certainly better than the last few. The Constructors’ championship is important to us and from that perspective this was a good result. Maybe this afternoon’s positive tendency can continue in the final two races.”
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 Williams 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. In the Constructors’ series, McLaren-Mercedes’ one-two gave them a two point lead in the series, with Ferrari now third, 17 points clear of Toyota with two races to go.
“Today, we did the best we could, getting the most out of the package at our disposal,” explain Jean Todt, Ferrari Team Director. “This result means we can consolidate our third place in the Constructors’ classification. Today, Fernando Alonso took over the Drivers’ title that Michael had won with Ferrari for the last five years. Fernando has put together a perfect season, supported by Renault, led by Patrick Faure and Flavio Briatore and Michelin. Congratulations to all of them. There are still two races to go. Along with Bridgestone, we face a lot of work to develop the tyres. We must do our utmost in these next two rounds, because they can produce precious data that can even be useful for next year. Today, our cars proved reliable, the team worked very well and the drivers gave their all.”
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