French Grand Prix (Alonso wins)

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:22 pm

Michael Schumacher has a slow lap!

Button is 11 seconds behind

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:23 pm

Fisichella has rejoined in 6th!

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:23 pm

Lap 61 and Alonso leads Raikkonen by 18.2 seconds. Michael Schumacher is 47 seconds behind Raikkonen

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:25 pm

Top 8 after lap 62: Alonso, Raikkonen, M Schumacher, Button, Trulli, Fisichella, R Schumacher and Villeneuve.

Barrichello in 9th ahead of Coulthard and Sato

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:26 pm

Alonso has lapped everyone except Kimi and Michael!

Michael is 67 seconds behind Alonso!

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:28 pm

Retirements: Montoya, Albers, Friesacher, Massa and Klien

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:29 pm

Lap 66 and Alonso leads by 17.1 seconds

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:31 pm

Alonso is closing in to lap Michael

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:32 pm

2 laps to go and Alonso leads Raikkonen by 15.6 seconds

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:34 pm

Final Lap!!

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:35 pm

And Alonso wins his 5th race of the season ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher. Only those 3 were on the same lap!

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:37 pm

Jenson Button, Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve make the top 8.

Full results

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Jul 04, 2005 3:09 am

Fernando Alonso quote after the race

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

Kimi Raikkonen quote after the race

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

Michael Schumacher quote after the race

I think third was the best I could have done today. It is true that I lost a lot of time stuck behind Trulli for eighteen laps and that meant that Montoya got past me. So, I had some problems with traffic. Without that early delay, our strategy might have put me ahead of Kimi. In fact this race was all about different drivers on different strategies, but today we did not quite match the pace of the leaders. I had one moment when I ran wide at Turn 3 and then I also came under a bit of pressure from Fisichella, when he was running lighter than me, but he never got too close

Full team and driver quotes follwing the race now available here

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Jul 04, 2005 3:29 am

FIA Post Race Press Conference now available here with Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher