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Grand Prix of Great Britain (Silverstone) :: 9-10 July 2005

Montoya takes victory in Britain

For all the drivers not in a Renault or McLaren at Silverstone it must have been a depressing race. Nobody else could get onto the pace of the two front-running teams – and the McLaren, Renault, McLaren, Renault finishing order was a measure of the growing gulf to rest of the chasing pack.

Jenson Button started the race with high hopes of managing to put his BAR into a strong position, a combination of a hot qualifying lap and Raikkonen’s penalty for an engine replacement putting the Brit second on the grid. His hopes barely lasted to the first corner, as Montoya made a brilliant start and streaked into the lead from a P3 grid spot, dropping Button to P3 and Alonso to P2.

Button’s gradual progress down the field helped illustrate the extraordinary pace of both McLaren and Renault. The BAR driver gradually dropped back from the leaders during the first stint, then emerged from the first round of pitstops behind Giancarlo Fisichella. Raikkonen, flying from his lowly 12th place start, then found his way past Button during the second round of pitstops – and managed to jump Fisichella as well. It was the second race in a row that Raikkonen has managed turn a ten-position grid penalty into a podium finish, and if his P2 qualifying performance had been allowed to stand there can be few doubts he’d have been well placed to take victory here.

There’s still no good news for Ferrari – although Michael Schumacher’s eventual fifth place finish looks relatively good by the standards of this season. The F2005 never looked happy at Silverstone and lacked pace throughout the weekend – strong strategy helping the World Champion improve on his ninth-place start. Rubens Barrichello had looked more competitive during the early stages of the race, but a three-stop strategy dropped him down the order and he finished behind team-mate Schumacher in P7.

Ralf Schumacher took the final World Championship points with another relatively uneventful drive to eighth – while team-mate Trulli (fourth on the grid) suffered from yet another disappointingly slow race to end up in ninth.

Williams will be disappointed with another race at which the team proved unable to find the pace necessary to run at the front of the pack – with Webber ending up in 11th and Heidfeld in 12th.

Montoya’s victory propels him into sixth in the driver’s championship, but Alonso’s second place sees his margin in the lead over Raikkonen increase to 26 points.

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