French F1 GP: first French victory for a Renault car in 22 years.

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French F1 GP: first French victory for a Renault car in 22 years.

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That put Schumacher into third place, but a long way behind second placed Raikkonen. Having made his third stop on lap 51, he was closed on by Fisichella, but Raikkonen and both Renaults had pit stops to make.

Alonso came out of the pits on lap 58 with an 18s lead over Raikkonen, who in turn had 45s over Michael Schumacher in third and that was the way they took the chequered flag. Button was fourth and soon to be lapped but at least scored BAR's first points of the year, while Trulli was lucky to salvage fifth after Fisichella stalled at his final pit stop and dropped a place. Ralf Schumacher was seventh from Villeneuve in eighth. Poor Barrichello finished ninth .

The result simply opened up the World Championship gaps, Alonso now 24 points ahead of Raikkonen, who in turn is five ahead of Michael Schumacher. In the Constructors series, Ferrari dropped two points behind second placed McLaren, with Renault still ahead.

Driver and team quotes:

Fernando Alonso, Renault F1, Winner: “I am very proud to win here today, for the team, for Renault, for Michelin who have had a difficult time in the last two weeks, and for all the fans who came to support us. The race was quite easy: I pushed until the first stops, and then controlled the gap, only making small adjustments to the car. I am really pleased to win again, but this still does not change anything for the championship. I have quite a good gap to Kimi, but there is still a very long way to go. Anything can happen, and we know our rivals will be very quick in Silverstone next weekend. But for the moment, I am going to enjoy what we achieved today.”

Flavio Briatore, Renault F1, Managing Director: “The team gave a fantastic performance today, and Michelin did the same – after the events in Indianapolis, it was great to see them come back so strongly and dominate the weekend. Fernando drove a perfect race, but we are sorry for Fisico and the problems he had again, which were our fault. But even though he did not finish as high as he could have done, his points have made the difference this afternoon, and helped us build the lead to McLaren and Ferrari. Finally, we are delighted for the spectators, and our colleagues who came to the race today – we were proud to offer them this victory.”

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering, Renault F1: “Congratulations go to Fernando on a superb fifth win of the season. He dominated the weekend, and fully deserved this result. But as a team, we have to focus on why we lost what should have been a double podium finish, through three separate incidents for Giancarlo. The fact that he finished sixth in spite of these is an indication of quite how good a race he drove this afternoon.”

Kimi Raikkonen, West McLaren Mercedes, second place: "Considering where we started I'm pleased with today's result as I only suffered minimum damage in my World Championship battle. The car was working well, and if I could have started third, which is where my actual qualifying time would have put me, I could definitely have won the race. Our strategists got things right and it was an interesting race. I suffered a bit from traffic and lost too much time early on working my way through the field. When I had clear air it really was too late to make any significant impact on the gap to Alonso. Hopefully everything will work out well for us at Silverstone in a few days, and I can do what Alonso did today which is winning in front of lots of supporters."

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