Fernando Alonso strikes lucky and wins the European Grand Prix
The spectators at the Nuerburgring witnessed an eventful race with drama unfolding in the last 5 laps, climaxing with less than a lap left to go when Kimi Raikkonen's right front suspension of his McLaren collapsed in front of the main stand. Earlier in the race, as the Finn was under pressure from Alonso and William's driver Nick Heifeld, Kimi went deep into turn one and locked up his right front tire creating a huge flat spot on the tire.
Due to the ever changing regulations (some of them quite ridiculous) he could not change the tire as he refueled because at the time the tire could not be deemed 'to be of concerned for safety reasons’ (the only circumstance where the driver is allowed to change a tire)
So Kimi had to live with his error for flat-spotting the tire, (which creates a progressively worsening vibration); as the race was coming to an end, the tire was creating such vibration that around 5 laps from the end it was obvious Kimi was in trouble. Alonso at the time was some 4 seconds behind began his attack and reduced the gap to less than a second as they began the last lap.
Kimi made the logical choice (albeit not necessarily the one that would yield the best strategy), so he stayed on and went for all the marbles trying to keep the lead, nursing the tire was not an option as Alonso (and Heifeld) were too close for that.
As they began the last lap, it seemed the tire while vibrating strongly, it looked as thought it may hold the one last lap...
The tire did, but the front suspension had enough and collapsed as Kimi was getting ready to go into turn one. The assembly collapsed sending Kimi into a wild spin, which nearly took Jensen Button's BAR in the process, missing it by a thin hair....
The safety steel cord that holds the tire in place might have saved Kimi's life as it looked as though the tire was headed straight to his helmet...
Te McLaren came to an abrupt stop ending Kimi's race with a final classification in 11th spot, allowing Fernando Alonso to open an even wider gap in the championship with the seven round completed (about one third of the longest championship in history -19 races-)
Fernando took the spoils for Renault with pole man Nick Heidfeld getting a consecutive second place in his Williams, and Rubens Barrichello took the last podium for Ferrari
David Coulthard managed a very respectable 4th spot ahead of current champion Michael Schumacher, followed by un-lucky Fisichella whose Renault died in the first attempt to start the race, his race began from the pit lane on the re-start.
Juan Pablo Montoya came back from a first corner incident with Mark Webber as the Australian ended his race hitting the Colombian's front tire sending him on avoidance mode and losing the gain he had after a great initial start.... finally Jarno Trulli was penalized with a drive-through as his crew failed to clear the grid with less than 15 seconds to go in the initial start... in spite of the penalty, the Italian managed to come back and finish in 8th spot for the final point, keeping him in second spot -along with Raikkonen in the pursuit of the championship |
