European F1: last lap heartbreak for Raikkonen

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May 29, 2005 West McLaren Mercedes’ Kimi Raikkonen looked set to take his third consecutive win of the season at the Nurburgring today, until a mechanical failure saw him crash out on the very last lap when in the lead. With the principal challenger eliminated and the win inherited by championship leader, Fernando Alonso of Renault, Alonso now holds a 32 point lead with one third of the season gone and the championship looks safely in his keeping. Williams’ Nick Heidfeld scored his second podium in a row and Ferrari returned to the podium with Rubens Barrichello third and Michael Schumacher fifth.

After a weekend of hot and sticky weather, things cooled down a bit for race day at the Nurburgring, with the odd cloud hanging over the Eifel mountains.

At the first start, Fisichella’s Renault was left stranded on the grid, so another formation lap was called for. The Renault seemed literally stuck to the road, as Race Starter Charlie Whiting signalled for the car to be pushed away, as the field came round again.

Second start and Raikkonen immediately shot into the lead, but it was chaos behind at the treacherous first corner, with Webber’s Williams out, R Schumacher’s Toyota off the track and several cars forced to take wide lines. At the end of the first lap, Sato pitted the BAR with accident damage.

The order was Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Trulli, Coulthard amazingly fourth from 12th, Alonso, Massa, Liuzzi, Button, Barrichello, Monteiro, up from 17, Karthikeyan, M Schumacher, also involved in the first corner tangle, Villeneuve, Friesacher, Fisichella, Albers and Sato.

After just 4 laps, the gaps at the front were already big: Raikkonen in the West McLaren Mercedes MP4-20 leading Heidfeld by 2 seconds, with the German a massive 7.3 ahead of Trulli’s Toyota.

Lap six saw a great side by side dice for sixth place between Button and Barrichello, while out in front Heidfeld, presumed to be running a lighter fuel load than those around him, was setting fastest race laps. Now it was Montoya’s turn to duel with Button, relieving the BAR of ninth spot.

Trulli in third, was given a drive-through penalty because his mechanics had not cleared off the grid quickly enough prior to the start.

By lap 7, having started from pit lane, renault’s Fisichella was up to 12th. Lap 8 and Barrichello got his Ferrari past Liuzzi’s Red Bull to go 7th. When Trulli came in, Coulthard was promoted to third, 13 seconds behind Heidfeld.

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