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Raikkonen wins Belgian Grand-Prix

Sun 11-09 2005

Kimi "The Iceman" Raikkonen kept his head cool in tricky circumstances at the Belgian Spa-Francorchamps circuit. It looked like McLaren was on their way to score a double victory, which has not been seen for the team since Australia 2000. Unfortunatly, Juan Pablo Montoya, who was in second place with just three laps to go for the finish was again hit by backmarker, Antonio Pizzonia, which frustratingly pulled the hot-headed Columbian out the race. Fernando Alonso scooped the second place while Jenson Button drove a strong race and took the third spot.

Suprisingly after the first lap, on a wet track, the order remained the same, as Spa-Francorchamps regually is an action packed race around the first lap full of racing incidents. In the 11th lap however Giancarlo Fisichella went off in the Radillion, with a speed, which was far higher then 200km/h, the Italian went off and smashed sidewards into the barrier. The Italian was unhurt but depris was spread onto track and the safty car was deployed. Everybody on track, expect Ralf Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve, made a pitstop during the safty-car period.

Just after, Takuma Sato hit the back of Michael Schumacher's car in La Source, and Schumacher showed his emotions as both cars retired from the race."Every accident is unnecessary but this one seemed more unnecessary than usual", said Michael Schumacher. "Obviously I am not happy about it, I did not see anything and just felt a bump at the rear of the car. It was stupid to finish the race like this when we had hoped that the mixed conditions might help us. We decided to try the dry tyres but it was immediately obvious that it was like driving on ice. We tried to be competitive today and we got a bit closer to that goal, but not close enough."

Meanwhile Ralf Schumacher went in the pitlane again to switch to dry weather tyres. In his first lap on dry's the German went off track and he decided to switch back to intermediates for the remainder of the match.

Meanwhile Juan Pablo Montoya was still leading with Kimi Raikkonen pushing behind him, as both drivers were racing for victory. When Montoya came in for his pitstop, Raikkonen did a maximum attack and created a comfortable lead. When Raikkonen made his pitstop he returned back on track, just in front of teammate Montoya. Alonso was half a minute behind Montoya and then moved up to second, when he was hit from behind and retired from the race.

Raikkonen continued to cruise onto another victory while Alonso finishing second. Button passed Webber and Barrichello in later stages of the race and won a podium finish in third spot. While Webber took a strong fourth finish while BAR bound Barrichello finished fifth. Jacques Villeneuve claimed the sixth spot with a one stop strategy while Ralf Schumacher finished seventh in front of Jordan's Tiago Monteiro who rounded off the points.


"We did what we could today, and I'm thrilled to win here at Spa for the second time in a row", said Raikonen. "However Juan Pablo's retirement was a real shame and I feel sorry for him and the team as we could have left Spa with so much more as we really deserved a one-two. Everything went well during the race with no real dramas and the car was great. When the safety car came out we took the opportunity to come into the pits and as Ralf was quite a bit lighter at this stage he was able to be in front of me. However I didn't push to look after the Michelin tyres. Consequently when it dried out I was able to really push and caught up with a series' of fast laps. I claimed the lead after the second pitstop as I could stay out longer than Juan Pablo and that was it. However there are mixed emotions as we should have had a one-two today."

Belgian Grand-Prix
1. K. Räikkönen McLaren 1:30:01.295
2. F. Alonso Renault + 28.394
3. J. Button BAR + 32.077
4. M. Webber Williams + 1:09.100
5. R. Barrichello Ferrari + 1:18.100
6. J. Villeneuve Sauber + 1:27.400
7. R. Schumacher Toyota + 1:27.500
8. T. Monteiro Jordan + 1 lap
9. C. Klien Red Bull + 1 lap
10. F. Massa Sauber + 1 lap
11. N. Karthikeyan Jordan + 1 lap
12. C. Albers Minardi + 2 laps
13. R. Doornbos Minardi + 3 laps

Peter Gloudemans
DailyF1News.com

Categorieën: Jacques Villeneuve

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