Home party for Fernando Alonso

For the first time in his career, Fernando Alonso managed to win his home GP in front of 130.000 Spaniards. Starting from pole, Alonso was never really under any threat as already from the start he quickly pulled away from his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella. The World Champion is joined on the podium by Michael Schumacher and his teammate.

Under a sunny sky at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, World Champion Fernando Alonso got a visit of King Juan Carlos of Spain before the start. All visits done, it was time to start racing. As the lights went out, everything went well. Kimi Raikkonen, who started from 9th position on the starting grid, made the best start as he was 5th after the first turn. Alonso maintained his first place but had to take the inside to defend his position ahead of a better started Fisico. The first four drivers however maintained their position. Further down the field, Scott Speed gained 3 places while 21st on the grid Coulthard gained 4 places in the first lap.

Fernando Alonso quickly pulled away from the competitors as he was around 0.6s faster than Fisichella. The latter was closely followed by both Ferrari men, while Raikkonen was unable to follow the Scuderia pace.

While Trulli gained a place to Ralf, the German was visibly faster than his teammate and tried to overtake his teammate at the end of the straight in lap 16. The manouvre was however too optimistic and Trulli rightly closed the door to Ralf, causing Ralf to lose his front wing. One lap later, Alonso came in to prove that he was lighter on fuel. Alonso put in a series of fastest laps until that moment and rejoined the track 11 seconds behind Schumacher after both Fisico and Massa also made their stops in respectively the 18th and 19th lap. Schumacher only made his stop the 23rd lap and came out just ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella.

Meanwhile, in lap 18 Juan Pablo Montoya spun off the track and got stuck onto a curbstone. It was the end of a frustrating weekend for the Columbian who already had a disappointing qualiying session on saturday.

In lap 29, Fisichella loses a bit of downforce behind the Midland cars and is out in the gravel trap in the third corner. Fisico is lucky to come back on the circuit without damaging his car. He lost 8 seconds to Schumacher but managed to again pull away from Massa who was only a few seconds behind anymore.

As expected after the second stint, Alonso was again the first to come in, already in lap 40. One lap later, Fisichella also came in while Massa put in the fastest lap of the race until that time. He was visibly running light as he quicly came into the pitlane after that too. Schumacher is therefore with only 22 laps to go the leader with 9.6 seconds ahead of the World Champion. Behind him, Raikkonen is third, just in front of Fisichella. Few laps later and earlier than expected, Schumacher also made his second pitstop and saw him 12 seconds down on Alonso when he came out again.

The race leader then started to manage his lead, while others were still pushing for the place. As a result, Scott Speed had to abandon the race with an engine problem. Second placed Schumacher knew he was beaten and also lowerd the engine stress. With two laps to go, the German was a bit more than 17 seconds behind Fernando. Alonso was masterful today and was already waving at his fans while being in the last lap.

The result is also good for Renault who again, after some not-that-good performances of Fisichella score a whole lot of points and increase their lead in the constructors championship. Immediately after Alonso came zigzagging over the finish line, Flavio Briatore was inerviewed by a mass of journalists to inform about Alonso's performance today.

The race results are as follows:
1 F. Alonso Renault 1:26:21.759
2 M. Schumacher Ferrari + 18.502
3 G. Fisichella Renault + 23.951
4 F. Massa Ferrari + 29.859
5 K. Räikkönen McLaren + 56.875
6 J. Button Honda + 58.347
7 R. Barrichello Honda + 1 laps
8 N. Heidfeld BMW + 1 laps
9 M. Webber Williams + 1 laps 10 J. Trulli Toyota + 1 laps 11 N. Rosberg Williams + 1 laps 12 J. Villeneuve BMW + 1 laps 13 C. Klien Red Bull + 1 laps 14 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 1 laps 15 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps 16 T. Monteiro Midland F1 + 3 laps 17 T. Sato Super Aguri + 4 laps Did not finish
18 C. Albers Midland F1 + 17 laps 19 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso + 19 laps 20 R. Schumacher Toyota + 35 laps 21 JP. Montoya McLaren + 48 laps 22 F. Montagny Super Aguri + 55 laps