home

September 4, 2005 Grand Prix of Italy (Monza)

Montoya's victory, Renault's gain
McLaren escape to victory as Alonso closes on title

It was McLaren’s race to win - yet Juan Pablo Montoya’s well-deserved victory in Monza came only at the end of a fraught contest where it looked on occasions that the team would be leaving Italy without a single Championship point.

For the luckless Kimi Raikkonen the race at Monza looked in danger of turning into a not particularly convincing soap opera. Even before he set out on his qualifying lap he knew that another engine replacement would cost him a 10-position grid penalty – meaning that what would have been a brilliant pole was transformed into 11th place by the time he started the race.

At least the Woking-based team had one car on the front of the grid – Juan Pablo Montoya – who started the race in fine style to build up a commanding margin over Championship leader Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard, well aware of the mathematics of Championship points, knew there was little point in risking disaster by taking on the Colombian wheel-to-wheel.

As the race progressed, Raikkonen must have felt he was on an emotional rollercoaster. His heavy fuel load saw him drop behind Jacques Villeneuve’s car on the run into the first corner – and he spent the first section of the race trying and failing to find a way past the French Canadian.

After the first wave of pitstops, Raikkonen’s undoubted pace came into play – he stayed out for longer on his heavier fuel load and briefly ran as high as second place, before dropping back down into fifth after his first pitstop. It could still have turned into the Finn’s afternoon – he left the pits fuelled to the finish and looked set to move through the order during the second round of stops. But laps later disaster struck as Raikkonen suffered from a partial failure of his rear left Michelin, limping back to the pits for a replacement and rejoining all the way down in 12th – right behind his nemesis Jacques Villeneuve again.

Things got even more exciting in the closing stages of the race. Raikkonen’s heavy fuel load allowed him to take places during his rivals’ second round of stops – he moved all the way back up to fourth and looked set to be right up with third-place Fisichella by the end of the race. But then a spin into the gravel trap at the exit of the second chicane lost him a position to Jarno Trulli and effectively put the Renaults out of reach. With some searing pace in the closing laps the Finn managed to find his way past Trulli again, but at the chequered flag he had to be happy with fourth place.

All of this was great news for Renault – Alonso and Fisichella enjoying relatively stress-free races to end up in second and third places respectively. And the French team almost fluked a win as, with just four laps of the race remaining, it became clear that Montoya’s leading McLaren was suffering from similar rear left tyre problems to those that had affected Raikkonen – delaminating according to the McLaren team. Montoya drove bravely and sensibly to nurse his car to the finish and a well-deserved win.

Many of the tens of thousands of Italian race fans who had come to the race would have left disappointed – this was another poor showing for Ferrari. Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello found themselves battling each other at various stages of the race – with Barrichello forced to make an unscheduled pit stop for a slow puncture. But neither Ferrari was on the pace, Schumacher and Barrichello finishing in 10th and 12th places respectively – this marking the moment where Schumacher’s prospects of retaining his Drivers’ Championship mathematically disappeared.

It was a good race for Toyota, with Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher ending up in fifth and sixth place respectively. Antonio Pizzonia will be delighted to have taken seventh with a not particularly fast-looking Williams after standing in as a last-minute substitute for the sick Nick Heidfeld - especially as team-mate Mark Webber finished all the way down in 14th after an extra pitstop to repair damage caused by a first lap collision. Jenson Button ended up in eighth place, taking the final Championship point.

One of the most remarkable things about the race was the fact that every single driver got to the finish – despite Monza’s well-deserved reputation as a car-breaker - the first race with no retirements since 1961.

** END **