Raikkonen Storms to Monaco Win
By Will Gray Sunday, 22 May 2005 13:47
Kimi Raikkonen became the fifth different winner in five years at the Monaco Grand Prix, when he secured his second consecutive victory of the season with a controlled performance in the sunny principality on Sunday.
Raikkonen, who started from his third consecutive pole position, proved he is now the man in form, as his McLaren team executed the perfect one-stop strategy to pile the pressure on Championship leaders Renault.
An early-race incident looked set to turn the race on its head, but McLaren stuck with their plans as their rivals dived into the pits, and Raikkonen was able to ease to victory with a comfortable gap.
Nick Heidfeld secured a best ever finish of second place after getting the better of teammate Mark Webber in the final set of stops and passing Alonso late on, as the Renault driver struggled with tyre problems.
And finally Australian Webber, after 56 races of trying, made it onto the podium with a third place. Webber passed Alonso late in the race to secure his best finish since scoring fifth place on his debut - which he also equalled earlier this year.
Juan Pablo Montoya raced his way to fifth place for McLaren, despite starting from sixteenth after being punished for causing an accident in practice, while Ralf Schumacher managed to secure sixth for Toyota.
And the Ferrari duo of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello climbed up from their mid-grid starting positions to secure some points for the ailing Italian team as they finished seventh and eighth respectively.
Raikkonen got the clean start he needed to race ahead at the start, but locked his brakes as he went into Sainte Devote, as Alonso pressured him after moving to the outside, but they held station.
Webber, behind the front row pair, had a terrible start and dropped to fifth, suffering again for Williams' poor startline performance as he was overtaken by both Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella and Toyota's Jarno Trulli.
Sauber's Felipe Massa had a good start to move into ninth, pushing teammate Jacques Villeneuve down to tenth, as Montoya shot up from 16th to 12th place after finding his way past the Minardis, Tiago Monteiro's Jordan and Red Bull's Vitantonio Liuzzi.
Raikkonen set a fastest lap on each of the first five laps, as he grew the lead to 2.3 seconds, with Trulli dropping back from third-placed Fisichella with the rest of the lead field following behind.
Raikkonen had a lead over Alonso of 3.2 seconds by the end of lap 10 with Fisichella another 1.7 seconds behind, Trulli 4.8 seconds further back with Webber and Heidfeld in tow and David Coulthard holding up Michael Schumacher.
Narain Karthikeyan was in the pits twice with an apparent problem on his Jordan soon after, and by lap 15 Raikkonen was still holding a lead of 3.1 seconds over Alonso as the leaders passed the Indian backmarker to put him a lap down.
Karthikeyan pitted again on the leaders' 20th lap and stalled as he tried to exit the pits, but he finally pulled into the garage one lap later to post his second retirement of the season.
There was trouble on the leaders' 24th lap when Christijan Albers spun heading around at Mirabeau, blocking the way and forcing Coulthard to slow down, only to have his Red Bull Racing machine hit by Michael Schumacher's Ferrari.
Jacques Villeneuve was also involved in the incident, and the safety car was called out as the drivers manoeuvred their way around the stricken Minardi and some of the lead cars piled in the pits to take advantage.
Both Renaults of Alonso and Fisichella took the chance to pit, as did the two Williams of Webber and Heidfeld and seventh placed Massa but, crucially, Raikkonen and Trulli stayed out behind the safety car.
McLaren, however, tried to call Raikkonen into the pits during the Safety Car period but the Finn had already missed the pitlane entry and so had to stay out.
Schumacher pulled into the pits to repair his front wing, which had been knocked off in the incident, while Coulthard, tended to by a pitcrew dressed as stormtroopers to promote the Star Wars film, was forced to retire with a broken suspension.
The incident left the lead order with Raikkonen ahead of Trulli, with Alonso third, Webber fourth, Heidfeld fifth, Massa sixth, Villeneuve seventh and Fisichella eighth.
Raikkonen made the most of a clear track at the re-start on lap 29, to extend a 7.4-seconds lead over Trulli within two laps and a 9.4-second advantage over Alonso, who was the first lead car to have made a pitstop.
Minardi driver Patrick Friesacher then spun out and crashed when he lost control of his car heading out of the tunnel and glanced the barriers as he headed backwards into the chicane on lap 31.
Raikkonen began to reel out several more fastest laps as he pushed hard to build a lead, and Trulli pitted on lap 39 to leave the Finn with a 29.0-second advantage over Alonso.
Raikkonen pitted on lap 41 for his first and only stop of the race, and he came out comfortably in the lead with Alonso, who was more concerned by the attentions of Webber on his gearbox, still 15.4 seconds behind.
Ferrari were already well out of the picture, but Barrichello stalled on his pitstop on lap 45 and was then given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane on his way out, as Schumacher settled down in 12th place after his involvement in the earlier incident.
Raikkonen continued to hold his 15-second lead at the front as Alonso stayed just ahead of Webber with Heidfeld less than a second further behind and a chase for second place with 25 laps left to run.
Heidfeld peeled into the pits at the end of lap 57 for his second stop as Webber continued to pressure Alonso, and the Australian came in on the very next lap for a smooth final stop but came out behind Heidfeld, losing his third place.
Liuzzi was forced to stop on lap 61 when his rear tyre failed and the crew of stormtroopers were back out to attend to the problem, but the damage was too much for him to return to the track.
Fisichella, in fifth, was now holding a train of cars behind him with Trulli, Montoya, Massa and Villeneuve all close behind.
The two Saubers went into Sainte Devote side by side on lap 63, with Villeneuve coming off worse as he tried to take the inside line into the corner, but he hit the barriers and forced Massa up the escape lane.
Fisichella then bucked under the pressure of the train behind and lost four places as he went wide in the hairpin to allow Trulli up to fifth - but the Toyota driver damaged his car in the process, and the train of Montoya, Ralf Schumacher, Barrichello and Michael Schumacher overtook the Italian as well.
That left Raikkonen clear in the lead with Alonso second, Heidfeld and Webber third and fourth, Montoya fifth, Ralf Schumacher sixth and the Ferraris of Barrichello and Schumacher in the points in seventh and eighth.
Trulli pulled into the pits at the end of the lap but the team sent him out again, and Heidfeld finally got the better of Alonso, who was struggling with his tyre wear, to snatch second in the chicane on lap 71.
Webber made it past Alonso in the same place on lap 73, but both drivers cut the chicane - Alonso more than Webber - and the Renault driver held station for one more lap, when the Australian finally made it stick. |
