Kimi reigns in Monaco
Kimi Raikkonen confirmed once again that he and his McLaren are in excellent condition to chase the 2005 World Championship. It was again a start-to-finish win in Monaco, finishing comfortably ahead of the BMW-Williams pair, Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber, after an incident filled race.
The Finn left plenty rubber on the track at the start of the warm-up lap, and this paid off handsomely as he managed to keep the very aggressive Alonso behind into Saint Devote. He thereafter was able to increase the gap to both Renaults closely following each other.
When Cristijan Albers spun his Minardi at Mirabeau on lap 24 he unwittingly changed the face of the race. David Coulthard arrived at the scene just in front of the un-sighted Michael Schumacher, who hit the back of the Scotsman's RB1 and removed his own front wing. The world champion came off with a pitstop to have a new nose fitted while Coulthard's race was finished because of a suspension arm that had broken with the hit.
While the safety car was out following the incidents, the two Renaults also pitted, queueing together, with the same scenario played out in the Williams pit. The Renaults would however take fuel for the complete race while both Williams cars would have to make another stop 15 laps before the end of the race. Raikkonen managed to avoid the incident entirely, as did Jarno Trulli, who found himself in second place in his Toyota.
Following the departure of the safety car it became clear that the Renault's rear tyres were wearing fast, and Alonso found himself under great pressure from Webber, who had team-mate Heidfeld tucked up behind him. Raikkonen quickly pulled away from the pack while both Renaults held up several cars behind each one of them.
The McLaren's pace was such that when Kimi stopped on lap 41 to take on fuel, he emerged still with a comfortable lead over his Spanish rival.
Behind Fisichella a train was forming, with Trulli, Montoya, Massa, Villeneuve, Ralf Schumacher and the two Ferrari's seemingly tied together, and before long Trulli's frustration got the better of him as he lauched the Toyota over the kerb at Loews. The move resulted in Fisichella losing five places after avoiding Trulli and the end of Trulli's race.
Just prior to this the train had lost two cars when Villeneuve attempted an over-ambitious move on team-mate Massa at San Devote. Both Saubers went straight on, JV hitting the wall and destroying the front of his car, Massa rejoining.
With less than ten laps to go, Alonso was still leading Heidfeld and Webber to second place. The Williams cars had by then already pitted again and had switched places beause of these stops. Heidfeld dived down the inside of Alonso into Nouvelle which was enough to stay in front of the struggling Spaniard. Webber followed his example a lap later but needed two attempts to stay in front.
The final move of the race came on the last lap, with Michael passing Rubens out of the tunnel and attacking his brother Ralf on the finish line, the Toyota driver just keeping sixth place.
The results are as follows:
1 K. Räikkönen McLaren 1:45:15.556
2 N. Heidfeld Williams + 13.877
3 M. Webber Williams + 18.484
4 F. Alonso Renault + 36.487
5 JP. Montoya McLaren + 36.647
6 R. Schumacher Toyota + 37.177
7 M. Schumacher Ferrari + 37.223
8 R. Barrichello Ferrari + 37.570
9 F. Massa Sauber + 1 laps
10 J. Trulli Toyota + 1 laps
11 J. Villeneuve Sauber + 1 laps
12 G. Fisichella Renault + 1 laps
13 T. Monteiro Jordan + 3 laps
14 C. Albers Minardi + 5 laps
Did not finish
15 V. Liuzzi Red Bull + 18 laps
16 P. Friesacher Minardi + 48 laps
17 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 54 laps
18 N. Karthikeyan Jordan + 59 laps
