Alonso Holds Off Schumacher to Land Imola Win
Written by: Cassio Cortes
Imola, Italy – 4/24/2005
Fernando Alonso proved he does not need the absolute best car on track to win, when the Spaniard was able to hold off the relentless attacks from Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari on the closing stages of the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix. The Imola triumph marked the third straight win in a row for the Renault driver and the first podiums of the year for Schumacher and BAR’s Jenson Button, who finished third.
Starting on the outside pole, Alonso held on to his second position as polesitter Kimi Raikkonen took an early command at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. The top three were unaltered at the start, with Raikkonen leading Alonso and Button while Jarno Trulli’s Toyota was able to get past Mark Webber’s Williams for fourth place on the first lap.
Alonso again had early reasons to worry. Just like at the last race in Bahrain, his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella suffered a mechanical failure on the first handful of laps. An apparent suspension problem made the Italian shoot a corner straight and hit the tire barriers.
Consolation soon came the Spaniard’s way, however, as Raikkonen’s day also proved to be short-lived. The Finn’s McLaren slowed down dramatically on the eighth lap, with what was later defined by the team as a gearbox breakdown.
On lap 16, Sauber’s Felipe Massa kicked off the first round of pit stops, although the Brazilian’s decision was prompted by the necessity to replace a front wing, lost after tangling with David Coulthard’s Red Bull at one of Imola’s hairpins.
The following lap it was Rubens Barrichello’s turn to stop. The Brazilian returned to the track for only one additional lap, as his Ferrari was parked on lap 18 with electrical problems.
The first “proper” round of stops was triggered on lap 22, when Trulli and Webber – who had been dislodged of fourth place one lap earlier on a bold move by BAR’s Takuma Sato – pitted simultaneously. Alonso came in one lap later.
Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari, who had started 13th because of a mistake in Sunday qualifying, stayed on-track for an additional four laps. In typical Schumacher fashion, three of those four runs were each punctuated by a fastest lap of the race by then. Schuey’s gung-ho strategy meant he returned to the track on third place, behind Alonso and Button only. McLaren’s Alex Wurz equally benefited from a late stop to climb up to fourth.
With Schumacher at that moment 20.1 seconds behind Button, who lagged over 10 seconds behind Alonso, the top-three for the San Marino GP looked close to a settlement.
Button scored a crucial podium - BAR's first points of '05 - on Gil de Ferran's debut as Brackley's sporting director (LAT Photo)
Yet one of those three was named Michael Schumacher. In a comeback not recently seen in F1, Schuey began to lap almost two seconds faster than any of the other frontrunners, helped in part by his Bridgestone tires – before the race started, his teammate Barrichello had revealed he expected the Japanese rubber to be superior to its Michelin rivals once tire wear became a factor.
Lap after lap, Schuey shaved between 1.5 and two seconds off Button’s edge, becoming Imola’s main show – the cameras only left the German on lap 37, when Massa literally pushed Coulthard out of his way on the first Rivazza corner.
Alonso made his second stop on the 41st lap, but Schumacher and Button stayed on track, the German already glued to the Briton’s gearbox.
Six laps later, Schuey got tired of waiting for Jenson to pit. As the BAR driver hesitated to lap Mark Webber’s Williams, Schumacher dove into his inside at the Acqua Minerale chicane to gain the Briton’s position.
Two laps later, after the Ferrarti star made his second stop, the gap to Alonso’s Renault was of just 1.3 seconds.
For the next 13 laps to the checkered flag, speaking of numerical differences became pointless, as Schumacher’s superior Bridgestones allowed him to be all over Alonso, trying to find a breach through Imola’s tricky turns.
Alonso, however, made the best of the opportunity of showing his nerve under pressure. The Spaniard did not put a wheel wrong to edge Schumacher by just 0.2sec at the finish line. Button soldiered on to third, another 10.4 seconds further back, with Wurz scoring a fine fourth place on his first race since the 2000 season.
Takuma Sato completed the top five, and Jacques Villeneuve snatched a much-needed sixth-place finish for Sauber. The Toyota duo of Trulli and Ralf Schumacher completed the points-scorers.
The Renault ace now heads for his home GP at Barcelona in two weeks’s time with twice as many points as his closest chaser in the championship standings (36 vs. Trulli’s 18). But most importantly, Alonso has built a 26-point edge over Schumacher – an advantage he may fully need if Ferrari’s Imola pace carries on for the rest of the F1 season...
2005 San Marino Grand Prix - Final results:
1) Fernando Alonso, Renault, 62 laps
2) Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, +0.2sec
3) Jenson Button, BAR-Honda, +10.4
4) Alexander Wurz, McLaren-Mercedes, +27.5
5) Takuma Sato, BAR-Honda, +34.7
6) Jacques Villeneuve, Sauber-Petronas, +64.4
7) Jarno Trulli, Toyota, +70.2
8) Ralf Schumacher, Toyota, +70.8
9) Nick Heidfeld, Williams-BMW, +71.2
10) Mark Webber, Williams-BMW, +83.2
11) Vitantonio Liuzzi, Red Bull Racing, +83.7
12) Felipe Massa, Sauber-Petronas, +1 Lap
13) David Coulthard, Red Bull Racing, +1 Lap
14) Narain Karthikeyan, Jordan-Toyota, +1 Lap
15) Tiago Monteiro, Jordan-Toyota, +2 Laps
16) Christijan Albers, Minardi-Cosworth, 20 Laps
17) Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari, 18 Laps
18) Kimi Räikkönen, McLaren-Mercedes, 9 Laps
19) Patrick Friesacher, Minardi-Cosworth, 8 Laps
20) Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault, 5 Laps
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Ralf may be in trouble...Toyota 7th & 8th at San Marino
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