Spanish GP Formula 1 Round 5: Raikkonen/McLaren dominant, Schumacher/Ferrari retire, Alonso /Renault closer to title
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Spanish GP Formula 1 Round 5: Raikkonen/McLaren dominant, Schumacher/Ferrari retire, Alonso /Renault closer to title
Image Gallery ( 25 images )May 8, 2005 McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen dominated the Spanish Grand Prix today, ending Renault’s domination of the 2005 season and replacing Michael Schumacher as the man most likely to prevent Renault’s Fernando Alonso from taking the drivers’ title. Michael Schumacher retired from the event, effectively ending his chances of retaining the title and with both Schumacher and team-mate Rubens Barrichello out of the points at the Circuit de Catalunya, Ferrari is now also likely to lose its constructors title with McLaren looming as Renault’s biggest threat.
Raikkonen finished the 66 lap race, held in front of massive 115,000 crowd with a 27.6s advantage over nearest challenger Fernando Alonso, the darling of the crowd, with the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher in third and fourth.
Alonso’s second place extended his points lead to a whopping 18 points, the equivalent to a win and a second place, effectively meaning he has two DNFs up his sleeve in a very even season. Whatsmore, the bookmakers regard only two men capable of catching Alonso for the title and they are Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher who have just 17 points and 10 points respectively. With 10 points for a win, and eight points for second, Alonso’s lead is enormous considering he has finished all five races so far on the podium.
But it might so nearly have been different. Ferrari went into the race on a high following the impressive speed displayed by Schumacher at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in the previous race, the San Marino GP.
Prior to the race Schumacher and his new 2005 Ferrari were hot favourite to take pole position (2.5), an even hotter favourite to take the win (2.25) and although Alonso was odds-on favourite to take the title (1.6), Schumacher was still regarded by the bookies as a strong chance to overcome his early season adversity with odds of 2.5 on offer.
Despite an equally impressive display of speed in San Marino, Raikkonen was only given an outside chance of taking pole (5.5) or the win (6) and almost no chance of taking the championship (15) prior to the first qualifying session.
After the first qualifying session, six drivers were locked together at the top of the timesheets within a quarter of a second (Trulli, Alonso, Raikkonen, Ralf Shumacher and the Williams BMWs of Webber and Heidfeld) with Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari seventh a further four tenths behind the slowest of the group. Still the bookies believed the champion had something more to show, with his odds for a win held to 3.5 against the favourite alonso’s 3.0 and a fast-firming Raikkonen’s 3.25. Trulli was paid scant respect at 7.0 while Ralf (15), Webber (34) and Heidfeld (150) were not considered credible threats.
Sunday morning’s qualifying brought several surprises. The two qualifying session times are now added to give the starting positions and Raikkonen’s pole position time saw his odds shorten to 2.25 prior to the race, while alonso’s second row start saw him regarded as second favourite at 3.75 and Michael Schumacher ‘s ultimate eighth place on the grid still saw him regarded as third favourite at 4.5. A fantastic qualifying effort from Mark Webber in the Williams BMW that gave him a front row start did not impress the smart money and he started the race a 12/1 shot sharing the same odds a Trulli, who was on the third row with Fisichella (17.0) and only slightly better than Ralf Schumacher (15.0)on the second row.
In gloriously sunny conditions, Kimi Raikkonen shot into the lead at the start with Alonso slotting into second from Ralf Schumacher, who also got ahead of front row man Mark Webber. Trulli was next from Giancarlo Fisichella, then came Michael Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya (returning from injury) and David Coulthard.
